Before the bad weather struck Texas last week, the girls and I decided to do a local history day and visited a few gems in Gonzales, Texas. There is a lot of rich history in South Texas. We are less than 2 hours from the Alamo, which I am eagerly anticipating visiting. We have done a "fly by" experience of San Antonio few years ago, before life in the trailer. We did nothing more than eat at a few vegan restaurants, one which I ignorantly made a clueless remark about freeing the orcas at SeaWorld and the very passionate staff did not appreciate it ( BTW If you haven't watched blackfish on Netflix you are missing out). Thankfully the comment was made after our meal. Then we explored the river walk and did a tour by boat of the city as well. It was August and very hot and humid. I am hoping we get time with Tyler to go traverse around the city during this short period of cooler weather. Such a thing doesn't last long around here.
So here, in Gonzales is where the famous "Come and Take it" canon fired the first shot that set off the Texas Revolution. Texas was establishing its independence from Mexico during this revolution. This canon had been hidden from the Mexican militia several times. The canon itself was originally a gift from Mexico, at one time it had a pin inside the firing mechanism to prevent it from firing. Well, Texans being Texans altered the weapon and got it functional again, then used it to defend their God given freedom. The famous canon that when most people fly the flag have a bad ass mentality. True patriots or a mess with me and find out kind of vibe, I pictured this huge canon that's going to blast someone into next week. Now I am sure this thing can blow some limbs off, don't get me wrong...I was just expecting something a little....more. Nevertheless, the meaning behind this and what events took place after the canon are the facts that count.
We also got to visit an old jail house that had been preserved. There I had to further explain to the girls what gallows were. While explaining this I realized how barbaric it must all sound in their young minds. Still, just because the facts are harsh and makes us humans as a whole look bad, doesn't mean I need to sugar coat the world and its history for our children. In one of the pictures, I tried to capture the names carved on the walls as well as multiple gunshot holes. Our guide told us that birds would get into the jail and start pecking at the plaster and the sheriff would simply walk in and start blasting the birds with his pistol. Yikes, stepping back in time to stuff like this gives me a sense of wholesome gratitude for the time period we are living in now.
I wanted to also leave a link to our family YouTube channel. We are NOT trying to be influencers or make any profit from it. It's simply an easier way for family to see our videos at a higher quality than sending them via text messages. Graczkowski Family - YouTube .Feel free to subscribe so that every time we post a video you get a notification. We have some of our animal encounters as well as videos from our fun summer we had last year. We love you guys so so much and love that you are here reading about our life and all the things we love to do.