USS Texas & San Jacinto Monument

We took our first visit over to the other side of Houston

 to visit the USS Texas and the San Jacinto Monument.

Construction of the USS Texas started in 1911 and she was launched in 1912.  She was commissioned in 1914 and is an amazing piece of engineering.

She served in both WW1 and WW11

The boys had a great time checking out the guns.

Hard to imagine that kids not much older than them 

would have been manning those guns during the war.  

We took the obligatory family photos.  It was a tad windy.

We checked out the galley and the exhibitions then went below deck for a mooch.

we saw the wardroom, the sick bay, the engine room and where the poor everyday sailor lived.

Sailors had mugs.  Officers had silver ware!!  Obviously :0}

Needs no explanation.

John's arty farty engine room shots

The San Jacinto Monument is 567.31 ft high and is built on the 

site of the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836

I would write about it all but there is a lot to it so feel free to check out the above sites

for a little history lesson.  

Lets just say it was key in gaining Texas' independence from Mexico.

It's well worth a trip and would be somewhere I would go again with visitors.  I just have to remember to spray to keep those little biting buggers off.  

They do like to munch when you're not looking!!