We started out the morning at the San Angelo visitor's center. It was a beautiful building, overlooking the riverwalk and surrounding gardens. The staff were really nice and gave us lots of brochures and maps about local sights. The statue is of St. Angela Meruci, the Catholic saint for which the city was named.
I was most excited about the "Guide to San Angelo's Spectacular Sheep!" Some cities have cows, some have horses ... San Angelo has sheep! They all have names, so this is me with Welcoming "Ewe."
After the Visitor's Center, we headed to the Railway Museum. Although the museum itself was closed on Tuesdays, I wanted to make sure that I got pictures with trains to send to my nephew.
San Angelo also has tons of painted murals around downtown. This one was across the street from the Railway Museum.
Our next destination was Fort Concho. The fort was active from 1867-1889 and you can still see some of the original buildings (which is amazing!) Although we could have had a guide take us around, we decided to do the "self-guided" tour. My husband and I both prefer to go at our own pace!
I was very excited to see that there were "Living History Stables!"
Until I realized that the horses were not there that day. (So disappointed!) However, apparently there were evil and dangerous mules that resided at Fort Concho year-round. My husband kept telling me NOT TO GET CLOSE TO THE MULES, but I wanted a picture anyway. So, we compromised and I stood several feet away from the pens.
On top of all of everything else, I was delighted to also find that one of the buildings housed the "E.H. Danner Museum of Telephony." These were a couple of my favorites (I'm sure the phone/typewriter/rolodex was pretty high-tech in its day!):
Also, it's great how you start seeing faces in everything. These phones aren't judging you. I promise!
(Judging, judging, judging)
After Fort Concho, we drove a bit further out to go "The Old Chicken Farm Art Center." The Old Chicken Farm was founded in 1971 as a place artists could live and create (we actually got to meet Roger Allen, the man who created it). The biggest studio was The Starkeeper Gallery, which was filled with beautiful, colorful pottery. As we walked around, I kept my eye on a mug with the "Big Ass Dancer" pattern on it and a plate with the Texas flag. Everyone was very chatty and helpful and we were invited into the back part of the studio to see one of the artists throwing bowls on the potter's wheel. Amazing!
We were told, if a door is open, go on in! Unfortunately, there weren't a lot of open studios that day, so we spent more time walking around the grounds. The Old Chicken Farm has a big "share the art spirit" on the 1st Saturday of every month, as well as other shows and open houses during the year. I would love to go back when all the artists are there! There's even a restaurant/B&B on the property as well!
After deciding that the mug and plate HAD to come home with me, our next stop was the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts. The building itself is a work of art!
I loved two of their current exhibits: Mexican Baroque Masterpieces and West Texas Wunderkammer. The Baroque Masterpieces featured huge newly restored canvases from both Antonio de Torres and Cristobal de Villalpando. Reading how these artworks had survived natural disasters, vandalism, and decay was quite impressive. The West Texas Wunderkammer was a fascinating hodgepodge of art, natural artifacts, and textiles, "recreating the atmosphere of a 17th century Collector's Cabinet."
Since we were so close to the riverwalk, we made a detour to see the Pearl of the Conchos mermaid statue. I got out and walked around a bit. I love being next to the water!
It was getting close to lunch, but we needed to head downtown to be close to our 2:00 tour destination. We chose Concho's Downtown more for location than anything, but we ended up having really good burgers!
After lunch we passed both Custom Made B"ewe"ts and Merino Antoinette!
Ms. Antoinette was right next to our next stop: Miss Hattie's Bordello Museum.
The young woman giving the tour led us up a steep flight of stairs to what had been a bordello up until 1952, when it was closed by the Texas Rangers. It was boarded up for years until it re-opened in the 1970s as a museum. (Apparently the woman who bought the property didn't know it was a bordello at the time) While little of the furniture was original to the bordello, it was all period for the time.
The tour was really fascinating. They know a little about the women who worked there (some even visited after the museum opened), although some of the stories had a bit of a "tall-tale" feel about them. In the bathroom, our guide pointed out the peephole that looked into one of the rooms where clients were entertained ... or, someone could use it to look into the bathroom where the shower was positioned.
I know that the entire idea of a bordello has its own issues, but the thing that creeped me out (besides how young the girls were), was that none of the rooms had actual doors, but screen doors instead. Apparently, the men could go up & down the hall, looking in on the rooms to see which girl they wanted to select.
After Miss Hattie's, we decided to poke round the downtown for a little bit. There were a lot of neat stores, including D'Vine Wine (where we bought a few local bottles), Eggermeyer's General Store, and Leddy's Custom Boots.
It started raining on us, so we drove over to the Cactus Hotel to look around. Built in the 1920s, the Cactus Hotel is the tallest building in San Angelo and can easily been seen from a distance. You can no longer stay there, but the hotel is still used for events.
It was beautiful! I could imagine that many brides-to-be in San Angelo select this venue for their wedding receptions!
After all of this walking around, we decided pie and coffee sounded like a plan! So we headed to Stango's. It was a kitchy little place, with great vintage decor.
On the way back to the car, we saw a bit of public art (maybe the face of Marlon Brando?) and my husband got his picture taken with Lucky Ewe (he was thrilled!)
I had one more sheep I wanted to track down, so we drove over by the college to find Gold Rush.
We found a Hastings nearby (which I miss dearly) and neither of us could really pass up a bookstore. After wandering around the store for a while, we were ready to head back and rest a bit before dinner. I used the time to plan out our route for the next day. We had a lot of miles to cover and I wanted to get into Alpine in the early afternoon. We got out around 8:00 for a late dinner at Zentner's Daughter Steakhouse. I was a bit worried because we were some of the only people in the restaurant, but maybe it was just the late hour because our steaks were very tasty! Afterwards, we headed back to our hotel to pack and get ready for our early morning departure time. I was very pleased with all we had seen in San Angelo! What a great way to spend the day!
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