I have to admit, I had no positive opinion about Texas before I visited it. My wife's two sisters live there around San Antonio, and so our first visit was to San Antonio. I was truly impressed by the River Walk, The Alamo, history of Teddy Roosevelt Rough Riders, the local museums. Later we toured several cities and towns around Hill Country, incl. Fredericksburg, where Chester Nimitz grew up. I saw the incredible Museum of the Pacific Conflict. Of course a few visits do not do justice to such huge territory. These are merely private impressions from what we have seen there.

Among others we have visited all but one Spanish Missions along the Unesco Heritage San Antonio Mission Trail. The most famous and important for the American national identity is the Alamo Mission, founded as the Mission San Antonio de Valero, now a national monument. Compared to the numerous California Missions, the Spaniards faced a completely different challenge, posed by the formidable nations of the American plains: The Apache and the Comanche. Missions had to be defensive and severely fortified.