Llano Grande Scenes

Our Last Visit to Mexico as a Winter Texan

Shopping plaza in Nuevo Progreso, which appeared to at one time to have been quite the place. Now most of the store fronts are empty.

All the vendors on the street are very friendly and willing to sell you almost anything...though they didn't seem very willing to bargain.

All the latest movies from the USA are sold on the street.  They even have a DVD player and TV setup so you can view some of the movie and see that the copy is good.

The streets are very clean. You see street cleaners pushing trash can carts and using brooms to pick up litter.

We all had delicious meals at the restaurant above the Canadian store....topped off with "Bananas Foster" for dessert!

Another view from the restaurant window........

Girls' Day Out in Old McAllen, TX

McAllen Heritage Center in Historic McAllen, TX...this Museum is in the heart of Historic McAllen.
The museum is located inside the historic old McAllen Post Office building now known as “La Placita” directly across from JC Penney in downtown McAllen. This area of McAllen makes for an interesting afternoon...visit the Heritage Center(free admission), then walk around the redeveloped business district, which is full of interesting shops.  This area has the feel of being in a Mexican border town & the shops have a little bite of everything...flowers, beads, perfume, housewares all at very reasonable prices.

Judy, Peggy, Char and Barb...all Birthday girls in the next few weeks. We all enjoyed a girls' afternoon out or an unofficial meeting of the "Rio Grande Valley Winter Texan Beading Society".  Exploring Historic McAllen uncovered many beading treasures and the day was topped off with good burgers at Fuddruckers.  Happy Birthday All!

New Bass Pro in Harlingen, TX

156,000 sq feet of super store!!!!

Everything your heart desires and things you never even thought about.....

      Indoor saltwater aquarium and learning center......

South Padre Island, TX

Port Isabel, TX

Took a day trip to see the lighthouse at Port Isabel on the Gulf of Mexico.

Harlingen Arts & Heritage Museum

The Harlingen Arts and Heritage Museum located close to the Valley International Airport in Harlingen is well worth the stop.  The historical displays are excellent and the day we were there the traveling exhibit "Blending the Old and the New Quilts" by Paul D Pilgrim was on display.  All this at no charge....

As you enter the museum there a nice display showing the highlights of Lon C Hill's contributions to Harlingen.  It had been named "Rattlesnake Junction" and "6-Shooter Junction", but Hill named it "Harlingen" in honor of his friend and railroad builder Uriah Lott, was from Harlingen, Holland.

 

Lon C Hill was a larger than life figure...he was a lawyer, store keeper, hotel owner, farmer, sugar mill owner, developer, builder, brick kiln owner, canal builder, statesman, pioneer and visionary. He began his home construction in 1904.  Here Hill raised 8 children after the deaths of his wife Eustacia and a son of typhoid fever. The home was moved to the museum complex in 1989.

In 1923 Ida Gilbert and Marie Yeager(a nurse from Chicago) opened the first hospital in Harlingen. It included 7 patient rooms, a surgery room, reception and storage rooms. The building was moved to the museum complex in 1978.

The Paso Real Stagecoach Inn was built in the 1850's on the north bank of the Arroyo Colorado near Rio Hondo. It served as the way station for the stagecoach from Alice to Brownsville. Rooms were 35-50 cents a night. Meals consisted of jerked beef, beans, tortillas & milk. The Inn served as a receiving point for mail for Harlingen until 1904, when the arrival of the railroad made the station obsolete. In 1976 students from TSTC constructed this replica of the Inn in the courtyard of the museum, using salvaged wood from the original Inn.

Original Iwo Jima Memorial Statue

Memorial is located  at the Marine Military Academy in Harlingen, TX.

The memorial was given to the Academy in 1981 by Felix de Weldon.  It is the original working model prepared by him for the casting of the bronze in Washington DC. There were factors involved in this site being selected by deWeldon..the fairly constant temperature and humidity are ideal for the preservation of the molded plaster figures.  The figures are repainted every 5 years.

Memorial is a depiction of the Pulitzer Prize winning photograph by Joe Rosenthal of the Marines raising the flag on  Mount Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima.

Robert Burns Birthday Celebration in Llano Grande

Bagpiper, haggis, and people dressed in kilts and caps join the celebration of Scottish poet Robert Burns' Birthday.