March 6, 2015: A Visit to the Dallas Arboretum
	December 29, 2014 - January 13, 2015: Our Winter Trip to Florida
	Return to the Index for 2015

We made our first trip of the year down to San Antonio just two weeks after we returned from Florida. There was no particular reason for the visit, but we hadn't see Prudence or Guy in a while and thought it was about time.

Getting to the Ruckmans' House in San Antonio

You have probably seen an album page where we visit San Antonio, but in case you haven't, I want to show you the route to San Antonio from Dallas and where Prudence and Ron and Guy are located.

On the maps below, you can see the route to the Ruckmans' house. It is an easy matter to simply hop on I-35E from the Tollway in Dallas and take that highway all the way south through Austin to San Antonio. This 280-mile trip routinely takes about 4.5 hours. In San Antonio, we continue to follow I-35 into the city, eventually exiting onto San Pedro Avenue. We take that north about two miles, and either hang a left on Ashby and a right on Breeden or just a left on French to get to the Ruckmans' house on the northeast corner of Breeden and French.

In case you have not seen them, I have put below first an aerial view of the Ruckmans' house (it is the house on the corner and the garage/apartment building north of it where Guy lives) and a front view of the house (taken in 2010).

Visiting the San Antonio Botanical Garden with Guy

One afternoon, Guy, Fred and I took a ride over to the San Antonio Botanical Garden, a place Guy likes to go frequently to walk around.

Prior to 1877, the eastern end of Mahncke Park was a limestone quarry that at one time became part of a reservoir system for San Antonio. When the city began using wells instead of surface water, the owner deeded the land to the city (1899). The idea of a Botanical Garden for San Antonio dates to the 1940s. A group of supporters developed and presented a master plan for a public botanical garden in the late 1960s, and the old quarry site was chosen. In 1970, voters approved $265,000 in bonds for the Garden. This money, along with a grant awarded five years later by the Ewing Halsell Foundation, other contributions from organizations and individuals, and a significant grant from the Economic Development Administration helped pay for the project. Groundbreaking ceremonies were held on July 21, 1976. The official opening of the San Antonio Botanical Garden was May 3, 1980.

One of the first things Guy did when he moved to San Antonio in July was to get a membership at the Botanical Garden so he can come here frequently and walk. Apparently, he does this at least a couple of times a week. If I lived nearer to the Dallas Arboretum, I'd probably go more frequently as well.

Fred and I have been to the Botanical Garden before, and we found out some time ago that our memberships to the Dallas Arboretum would get us free admission to the San Antonio gardens (as well as fifty other gardens around the country) on a reciprocal arrangement among botanical gardens and arboretums.

Getting to the gardens is just a fifteen-minute trip from Ruckman Haus, and I knew the way quite well. I didn't put a distance scale on the map at right, but the whole trip is a little less than three miles.

I think there are a number of reasons why Guy comes to the gardens frequently. They, like the Dallas Arboretum, are not only a delight to the eyes, but provide rest for the soul as well. That rest is something Guy treasures, and something we should all get more of.

We were actually here as recently as last December; today we just came to stroll through the gardens, not following any particular route. There was no exhibit going on (like the LEGO creations last time), so we just took the occasional candid photograph. I had neglected to bring my camera, but did have my phone, but I took only a couple of pictures. Most of Fred's pictures were of some of the flowers and plants that were blooming, although he did take a few of me as we wandered around.

On the aerial view at left, I've marked some of the stops we made, so you can place the pictures that we took within the gardens. We began in the Japanese Garden, quite near the&nbep;entry building. Below are clickable thumbnails for some of the pictures from the Japanese Garden:

From the Japanese Garden, we walked along a familiar route over to one of the Botanical Gardens' signature elements- the huge glass greenhouses. It is always a pleasure to walk through them.

Here are clickable thumbnails for some of the pictures we took in and around the greenhouses:

The rest of the pictures that we (well, Fred) took this afternoon were of the plants and flowers that were in bloom. Many of his pictures were quite good.

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

Fred took lots of good pictures of the plants and flowers here in the Botanical Garden, and I have put a large selection of these into a slideshow.

To view the slideshow, just click on the image at left and I will open the slideshow in a new window. In the slideshow, you can use the little arrows in the lower corners of each image to move from one to the next, and the index numbers in the upper left of each image will tell you where you are in the series. When you are finished looking at the pictures, just close the popup window.

We had a nice visit to the Botanical Garden and we had a very pleasant visit with Ron and Prudence (and Karl and Nancy whose visit to San Antonio overlapped ours). We thank Prudence once again for her and Ron's hospitality!

When we arrived back in Dallas in the late afternoon, Fred took some pictures of the city skyline as we came in from the south on I-35E, and two of the best of these are below:

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	March 6, 2015: A Visit to the Dallas Arboretum
	December 29, 2014 - January 13, 2015: Our Winter Trip to Florida
	Return to the Index for 2015