We took our kids out a couple of weekends ago to take some pictures of them sitting amongst the Bluebonnets. It’s kind of a right of Spring around here. The Texas Department of Transportation spreads wildflower seed along the medians of the rural highways, and sometime in March they begin to bloom. What I realized though, is that the Bluebonnet may be our state flower but I’m a sucker for the Indian Paintbrush, have been since I was a kid. For me, these red and blue swatches along the road represent the red and blue of our state flag, with the bright white cottony clouds of our coastal Spring standing in for the white. I could go on and on – I just can’t get enough of the Texas countryside in the Spring. Everything goes green, a thousand different shades and vibrances of it. Then the wildflowers come out and the farms and ranches and towns down the winding country roads are awash in color. It is something spectacular and fleeting, with the long summer months waiting close ahead to wash clean the landscape with its own relentless ideas about Texas.

The Riverwalk in San Antonio is more a tourist trap and restaurant row these days than anything else. Tour boats and colored umbrellas and thousands of people with their eyes on everything but what’s in front of them. I think that all sounds too negative. I love the Riverwalk. I love the cobbled walkways and stone foot bridges. There are even a couple of places I like the Mexican food. But to me it is an older place with steel bridges spanning the river and old hotels from the art deco ’30s. That’s what I see, anyway. That’s what I take pictures of. Anybody can take a picture of a girl in a bikini top drinking a 3-foot tall frozen margarita, but that’s just what the place has become. Not what it is.

Beautiful, hand-crafted, bridging worlds. The details of these places of worship and war on the San Antonio Mission Trail reveal the life and aspirations of those that lived there. The simple carpentry of the communion table, the color and intricacy of a plaster wall, a Virgin that speaks to the native tribes. From across the seas these explorers brought their world with them and adapted it to their new world. It is a testament to the human spirit.