Hell's Half Acre in Fort Worth

This is right in front of the Fort Worth Water Gardens.  Glad they put this little plaque up or noone would have this great tidbit of Fort Worth History!  Fort Worth has three great walking tour maps, would love to do the Stockyard one some day.

Fort Worth Water Gardens

My hotel overlooked the Water Gardens in Fort Worth.

Took til Thursday before I realized what was outside my window and attached to the convention center.  So....Friday morning dawns, overcast but beautiful.  Grabbed my Starbucks and headed to find a meditation spot in the gardens.

Not many people here this morning, suppose it's the overcast....my benefit!  Aeration Garden below.

Final pics I got were of the Active Garden.  Yes....they are right there in the water basically!

West, Texas

On Wednesday, April 17 at approximately 8 pm, there was an explosion in the town of West, Texas.  Almost exactly a week later, I was on my way to the Texas Library Association state convention in Fort Worth.  When traveling to the Fort Worth/Dallas area, my habit is to stop in West at the Czech Stop and use the bathroom, get a drink and kolaches.  Despite the explosion, I was still able to do just that.  

Although the typically very long line for kolaches wasn't near the length I'm used to, I was thrilled to see people were there and the bakery was operating.  Wandering to the back, I was warned by an employee that there was no electricity in the back where the bathrooms were.  My response?  My handy dandy iPhone has a flashlight app!  So....I proceeded to use the facilities by flashlight and gave a few other women the comfort of light in the room.  Small price to pay for the yummiest kolaches besides those baked by family...

After grabbing kolaches I decided to do a little tour of the town, which I've never done before.  I didn't want to be in the way at all, nor to be a gawker, but thought, hey, I never do this, gonna check it out.  I think I need to do a kolache tour.....don't even want to guess how many kolache bakeries are in this tiny town of about 2800 residents.  BUT  I do know their awesome Czech ancestry shines!  

 As I drove around, I didn't want to wander and be an obvious "lookie-loo" so I simply circled the main area of town and the stores were very similar to the food mart pictured.....boards covering all or some of the windows and doors.  Sad but a very real result of what happened.

What honestly surprised me the most is that news crews were still all over the place.  This picture was taken outside the police department on the main town square and all along the side street you can see all the news vans parked.  Must have been 10 - 15 of them and this is one week after the event!  It wasn't like the World Series earthquake where they were unearthing remains for days/weeks.  So I was surprised.  

San Antonio Riverwalk

Took my daughter with me on a whirlwind 24 hour trip to San Antonio to get a "Stacy-fix".  We ended up parking, walking and exploring.  It happened to be the first weekend of FIESTA and we strolled along the Riverwalk  to get to Market Square.   You've got to read the Fiesta website to get an idea what this is, but even then, I think it eludes you.  Probably takes living her and experiencing it a bit to understand.

Anyway as I understand it's hispanic culture, a bit tongue in cheek humor, fun.  Think Mardi Gras hispanic style.  Bright colors everywhere, party city!  There are events for 10 days and MANY all over town.  Parades (plural), music galore.....I've only hit the tip of the iceberg.  Fiesta de los Reyes is what we experienced at Market Square.  CROWDS.  And with Stacy's shoulder/collarbone situation that made me nervous.

10 days of wild celebration.  I missed the river parade but apparently it was televised so I'll be looking for it on the interwebz.  So much to see and do in San Antonio.....much more to come.