San Antonio- Japanese Tea Garden

In winter...I took this last week. It's very peaceful in the early mornings. Sometimes I'm the only one there and have this whole place to myself!

It's like a step into another time of the year. Eerie for me, as snow falls again out my window.

And what a lovely place to have all to yourself. :hi:

When we would visit, and the kids were little. Is it still there?

Then, we would take the little train around the park. It was kind of cheesy, but my sister was into that.

I was scanning old family photos for a slideshow I was making for a family wedding and up popped a picture my sister took of a bunch of us in the Brackenridge park train. LOL, that even made the slideshow!! It brought back a lot of memories-- my sister wanted to take the train, and a lot of us were kind of over it. We kept taking votes until she won (her son finally felt sorry for her).

Nice zoo there too............

Oh, this used to be called the Sunken Gardens, just because the Japanese were our enemies, you know? That was the alternative to plowing them under! Sheesh! Some things never change.

As they say, words matter.

In 1999, the Sky Ride’s life came to an end after 35 years. It would cost millions of dollars to restore the ride and the city declined the expenditure, based on the view that the Sky Ride did not benefit the San Antonio Zoo’s educational purposes (Pieces 1B). Three years later, in 2002, the zoo spent $30,000 to remove the Sky Ride. When dealing with the ride’s gondolas, managers decided to put them up for sale for $1000 each (A Few Buyers 1B). Buyers stood in line for hours in order to get their hands on a part of San Antonio’s culture and when the zoo brought out the gondolas to sell, every gondola found a new home within an hour.

- Tony Irizarry

Never was really attached to the sky ride anyway.

So interesting that the name is now "Japanese Gardens" again, instead of "Sunken Gardens". Hey one of my three daughters is married to a Japanese guy and they are living in Tokyo so I totally applaud this.

I may get back there soon. Interestingly, there is a connection between Brackenridge Park and Memphis, where I live now.

Rodriguez--concrete artist

http://www.oldhouseonline.com/garden-faux-bois-trabajo-rustico/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Park_Cemetery_%28Memphis,_Tennessee%29

There are some bridges in Brackenridge Park that may be in disrepair, and there at least used to be a bus stop in Alamo Heights in the middle of the street that was rather amazing. Not sure if it is still there. He was commissioned to do some work at a cemetery in Memphis, and fortunately that work is pretty much okay. It isn't that far from me and I need to get better photos of it. This is just a snapshot from ages ago.