Later we drove down by San Jacinto monument. Its all been closed up while they renovated but yesterday they announced the reopening of it.
For the first time in two years, visitors to the San Jacinto Monument can reach the observation deck at the top of the 567-foot-tall Texas limestone obelisk, the tallest masonry column in the world.
The monument marks the site where 170 years ago Texans led by Gen. Sam Houston defeated the Mexican army to win independence.
Each year, some 250,000 people visit the structure topped by a 220-ton star, including about 40,000 school children.
From the top, visitors
can look out the windows and get a panoramic view primarily of the Houston Ship
Channel and the miles of refineries that make up one of the world's largest
petrochemical complexes. On the horizon is the skyline of Houston.
The more immediate view includes the 1,200-acre Battlegrounds State Park. Work
there has been continuing in recent years to restore the landscape to more what
Sam Houston and his 910 Texans found when they routed the 1,200-man army of
Mexican Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna in an 18-minute battle on April 21,
1836.
This was in the online paper.