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!
