Thursday, October 23 - The next few posts will be a bit dated, but when Carrie is around, it is go, go, go. Carrie arrived early this morning. We packed in as much as we could on day one. She is only here for the weekend and wants to experience everything we have done in five years in three days. This should just about kill us for sure.
After picking her up at the airport, we visited Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle National Shrine. Our first visit here was in 2010. It is just such a gorgeous Basilica. For centuries Christians have made pilgrimages with a spiritual purpose to holy places.The history of this Marian Shrine begins in 1920, when the Reverend Alfonso Jalbert, O.M.I., built a small wooden chapel in San Juan, Texas as a mission church of St. Margaret Mary Church in Pharr, Texas. The National Conference of Catholic Bishops designated Our Lady of San Juan del Valle a national Shrine on March 24, 1998, and the following year on June 12,1999, Pope John Paul II designated it as a minor Basilica. If you are in the area, be sure to put this on your must see list. You won’t be disappointed.
There is a gorgeous walking tour of about a mile. It commemorates 14 key events on day of Christ's death. The majority of them concern His final walk through the streets of Jerusalem carrying the Cross. The fourteen stations of the Cross are depicted by life-size statues crafted in bronze and resin. There are 30 life-size bronze figures in all. Absolutely gorgeous…according to Marsha.
Our next stop was the famous Los Ebanos Ferry Crossing. This is a must see, must do for people who have been there, done that. It's the last hand-operated ferry operating on either border. It is a 3-car barge crossing the Rio Grande River from the U.S. to Mexico. At the crossing there is custom/border patrol. You can park and walk onto the ferry, or you can drive your car on the ferry. Most U.S. citizens that cross over into Mexico here go to buy liquor or cigarettes. They must be desperate. We wouldn’t cross here, that’s for sure!
If that wasn’t enough for one day, we had a social and game night at the clubhouse. There about 20 of us playing horse racing and Farkle. Wonderful time with dear friends.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!
Well, you made me tired.
ReplyDeletehave always loved viewing the "stations of the cross" paintings in various cathedrals we have visited. . .will definitely need to tour this Basilica, and see them in 3D. . .
ReplyDeletetime with the kiddos is always great. . .but all that energy. . .goodness! I'll bet she slept good her first night home. . .LOL!
You must have been busy Getting years of adventures into days. What Math equation did you use to accomplish that? LOL!
ReplyDeleteBe Safe and Enjoy!
It's about time.
Love the Basilica! Is that the altar with that gorgeous circular design behind it?
ReplyDeleteWhat a cool ferry! Too bad it is to Mexico. Do the patrons help pull themselves across. Seems to be many at the rope.
So glad Carrie came for a visit if only for a weekend. I am sure she loved game night!
Have added the Shrine to our list.
ReplyDeleteYou will be run ragged, and enjoy every minute of it.
ReplyDeleteYou know how it goes when you are young and still part of the workforce ... you have little time and want to see it all in the time you have ;-) Now that we are 'still young' and not part of the workforce, we try to take our time, unless we're on vacation somewhere and our time there is limited ... then the old habits of go-go-go pop up ;-)
ReplyDeleteI would love to visit there. Maybe some day we can just that. Not so sure I would be interested in that ferry either. We've just heard too much about crossing over that border and not interested in running into the wrong people.
ReplyDeleteBet you enjoyed every minute.
ReplyDeleteWe'd try that ferry just for the experience. We always mean to visit the Rio Grande Valley but maybe next year.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful looking Basilica!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tour, great pics and the history lessons.
Always nice to have one of the kids visit, but it is usually exhausting. :)
ReplyDeleteits always so crazy busy while visiting with family- especially the kids! Our daughter wanted to take us out to see her favorite band. We would have left to get there at 11:30 pm. um, no thanks.
ReplyDeleteNo, Janice....I think Paul and Marsha slept good Carrie's first night with them! LOL What a fun weekend!
ReplyDeleteWe love to visit churches wherever we stop and this basilica looks to be very special. That ferry would not be my choice of how to traverse the Rio Grande.
ReplyDeleteHopefully by now you both have recuperated from Carrie's fast-paced visit. :)
Guess what, I sure will visit the Basilica in February. Thank you for this great post and I believe you when you say I won't be disappointed.
ReplyDeleteAbout the ferry, we rode on a similar one crossing the Green River at Mammoth Cave.