Join us in San Anto­nio, Texas for the 2014 Strong Fam­ily Reunion, August 1 to 3, 2014

 

Accom­mo­da­tions at the His­toric Crock­ett Hotel, Pro­vid­ing Texas Hos­pi­tal­ity since 1909.  

Located at 320 Bon­ham, San Anto­nio, Texas 78205, Reser­va­tion line 800–992-2694

 

For true Texan cul­tures, few loca­tions are bet­ter than being across the street from the Alamo and near other great San Anto­nio area attrac­tions. The gate­way to the River­Walk is just down and across the street, along with an upscale shop­ping mall. The prop­erty was built in 1909 by the I.O.O.F. fra­ter­nal orga­ni­za­tion as a lodge and hotel, and care­fully ren­o­vated in 1982, earn­ing it a place on the National Reg­is­ter of His­toric Struc­tures. In 2007 it was made to sparkle again with a multi-million-dollar com­plete ren­o­va­tion.

Room pric­ing at the Crock­ett Hotel, for this event, is being offered at a spe­cial group gue­stroom rate $99.99 per room, dou­ble occu­pancy. 35 rooms are avail­able at this rate. The group rate for triple or quad per room is $109. These room rates include a com­pli­men­tary hot buf­fet break­fast, and free Wi-Fi. All rooms are sub­ject to local occu­pancy taxes, cur­rently 16.75%, and daily park­ing rates are $20, plus 8.25% for valet, which includes overnight and in and out priv­i­leges. Park­ing fees are sub­ject to change.  If you chose to fly to the event, typ­i­cal cab fare from the San Anto­nio Air­port would be about $30. This is a NON SMOKING hotel, but pet friendly, and up to two small pets are allowed for a $60 non refund­able fee. There is an out­door pool. Guests are also allowed to use the pool and fit­ness cen­ter at the neigh­bor­ing Menger Hotel, a sis­ter to the Crock­ett.  Check in time 3 pm, check out time at Noon. Call 800–992-2694 or 210–225-6500 for your reser­va­tions ON OR PRIOR TO TUESDAY, JULY 1, 2014 for these spe­cial rates.  Reser­va­tions after that date will be accepted only on the basis of avail­abil­ity. It is agreed that the atten­dees will be respon­si­ble for pro­vid­ing pre­pay­ment or Credit Card Guar­an­tees for their first night of arrival.  There is a $75 charge for early departures. 

 

Reg­is­tra­tion 

Cov­ers hos­pi­tal­ity room, speaker’s fees and entertainment

# of adults _____ at $20/each   =  ___________

Mem­ber Name: ____________________________________________________

Address:  __________________________________________________________

City, State, Zip:  ____________________________________________________

Phone:____________________________ Email: __________________

*Fam­ily mem­bers attend­ing with you: ______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

*Names as they should appear to name badges 

 

Send your reg­is­tra­tion form and checks to: Tom Strong, 311 North­ridge Drive, San Anto­nio, TX 78209. Ques­tions? Call or email at 210–821-5891 or stxstrong@gmail.com

 

Sched­ule of events

 

Fri­day, August 1

3 to 5 pm, Check in and Meet and Greet in the Alamo Room

5 to 7 pm, Board meet­ing in the Hotel Board

Din­ner, on your own. The Crock­ett is con­ve­nient to the broad spec­trum of Down­town San Anto­nio restau­rants, on and off the River­Walk. Please feel free to email hosts Tom and Melinda Strong at stxstrong@gmail.com for sug­ges­tions, or if you would like to arrange a small group “meet-up.”

 

Sat­ur­day, August 2

Morn­ing

We will tour the Mis­sion San Anto­nio de Valero, a 4.2 acre com­plex known world­wide as “The Alamo.” For over 300 years, the Alamo has been a cross­roads for Texas his­tory.  Here the Span­ish col­o­niza­tion first took hold, Mex­ico armed for its own inde­pen­dence, and even the Con­fed­er­acy stood its ground.  Yet most come to see the place where a small band of Tex­ans held out for thir­teen days against Gen­eral Anto­nio López de Santa Anna. You might enjoy read­ing the superbly researched work of his­tor­i­cal fic­tion, about the siege and fall, “The Gates of the Alamo” by Stephen Har­ri­gan, before you come. Avail­able on Amazon. 

 

Admis­sion to the Alamo is free. Oper­a­tion of the Alamo and its edu­ca­tional pro­gram­ming are funded by pri­vate dona­tions and sales at the Alamo Gift Shop. Of note, The Alamo has a monthly his­tory event on every first Sat­ur­day of the month — An inter­ac­tive day full of Texas Liv­ing His­tory that is designed to give vis­i­tors a glimpse of life in early Texas.  Full of Texas Liv­ing His­tory, Fir­ing Demon­stra­tions and much more. Sched­uled times are usu­ally between 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.  More detail on our spe­cific group time will be announced in future newslet­ters, or in your reg­is­tra­tion packet. 

 

After­noon

1 pm to 5 pm:  The Alamo Room of the Crock­ett will be open for hos­pi­tal­ity, our Gen­eral Meet­ing and Fam­ily Pho­tos (exact time of meet­ing and pho­tos to be determined)

 

Evening:

Ban­quet site is to be deter­mined. Please look for ban­quet loca­tion and costs in upcom­ing SFAA newslet­ters. The Keynote speaker of the 2014 ban­quet will be Texas His­to­rian Kameron Searle, Esq.  Mr. Searle is mar­ried and a father of four, a sev­enth gen­er­a­tion Texan,  and a prac­tic­ing attor­ney in Hous­ton, Texas.  His ances­tor, Mar­tin Parmer signed the Texas Dec­la­ra­tion of Inde­pen­dence from Mex­ico. He is pres­i­dent of the Texas Her­itage Soci­ety, as well as edi­tor of the Texas His­tory Page blog. He serves as the His­to­rian for the Anson Jones Texas State His­tor­i­cal Marker in the Glen­wood Ceme­tery in Hous­ton, and Anson Jones will be his topic of dis­cus­sion.  Anson Jones, was a doc­tor (serv­ing as sur­geon to the Texas Army dur­ing the Texas Rev­o­lu­tion), busi­ness­man, and fourth and last Pres­i­dent of the Repub­lic of Texas. He is also a descen­dant of Elder John Strong (see Dwight’s HISTORY OF THE STRONG FAMILY, Vol. 1, Page 159).  Kameron likely shares ances­tors with many of our reunion atten­dees, as his Searle and Pomeroy fam­i­lies were also early set­tlers in Wind­sor, Con­necti­cut, and Northamp­ton and Southamp­ton, Massachusetts. 

 

Sun­day, August 3

A list of Down­town Churches and ser­vice will be avail­able in the hos­pi­tal­ity room, includ­ing the Cathe­dral of San Fer­nando, the old­est cathe­dral in the United States

 

Remem­ber that Check Out time is Noon. 

 

Other San Anto­nio attractions

 

Although the Alamo is the best-known of San Antonio’s Span­ish mis­sions, it is just one of five built along the San Anto­nio River from 1718 to 1749. The other four – Mis­sion Con­cep­cion, Mis­sion San Jose, Mis­sion San Juan and Mis­sion Espada – make up the San Anto­nio Mis­sions National Park. You can drive, hike or bike among them, or take a pub­lic bus. Mis­sion San Jose houses a vis­i­tors’ cen­ter, and all four offer cell phone tours in Eng­lish and in Span­ish. In addi­tion, all four are active Catholic parishes that hold church services.

 

Back down­town, the San Fer­nando Cathe­dral, right off the Main Plaza, is an active church and a his­toric site. A mar­ble cof­fin near the door holds the remains of the defend­ers of the Alamo, includ­ing Davy Crock­ett and Jim Bowie. The Span­ish Governor’s Palace is a few blocks away. The struc­ture had its begin­nings as a one-room captain’s home in 1722. Befit­ting the times, the door­ways are low, although the ceil­ings are high. Admis­sion is $4.

 

La Vil­lita, the city’s first neigh­bor­hood, is nearby on the south bank of the San Anto­nio River. Most of the neighborhood’s his­toric homes now hold shops and art gal­leries. The River Art Group, oper­ated by a coop­er­a­tive, dis­played sev­eral small, inex­pen­sive paint­ings of San Anto­nio that would make good souvenirs.

 

The Museum Branch of the River includes The San Anto­nio Museum of Art (SAMA) which houses five mil­len­nia of art in a com­plex of build­ings that was once the Lone Star Brew­ery. The museum is renowned for its col­lec­tions of Latin Amer­i­can, Asian, and Ancient Mediter­ranean Art, as well as a grow­ing and notable con­tem­po­rary col­lec­tion, includ­ing Texas and regional art. SAMA is on the Museum Reach of the River Walk, an enjoy­able 30-minute walk from cen­tral down­town hotels with pub­lic art along the way.

 

Also set among restored 19th cen­tury build­ings, once part of the Pearl Brew­ery, the CIA San Anto­nio cam­pus is as diverse as the culi­nary world itself. — The CIA, as the Culi­nary Insti­tute is known, con­ducts free pub­lic tours on Thurs­day after­noons. The cam­pus is small and my tour lasted only 15 min­utes; those who’d like to spend more time can take one-day cook­ing classes or mul­ti­day cook­ing boot camps. Those who’d like to sam­ple the fare of CIA grads have their pick of sev­eral restau­rant. This includes La Glo­ria, a Mex­i­can restau­rant, with food that is deli­cious, hearty and inex­pen­sive. Pro­fes­sional bak­ers work at night in the school’s pas­try kitchen, the CIA Bak­ery Cafe, turn­ing out mas­ter­ful cre­ations. Other restau­rants and shops abound. 

 

For even more shop­ping and din­ing expe­ri­ences, check out Mar­ket Square, also called El Mer­cado. Shops and ven­dors offer any knick­knack you might be look­ing for – and a few you never knew existed.