Abilene/Anson
I imagine that this isn’t going to be that great but I will do my best to recall everything. I promise that future places will be a much better read. I guess that I will go ahead and add in Abilene/Anson to this since that is where we went before getting to Dallas. We really didn’t do anything there; my grandparents live in Anson so we stayed a night in Abilene and just visited with them. When we arrived the boys played in the house while my grandma cooked dinner.
We then ate, visited a little more, and then went to the hotel. We stayed at the Courtyard Abilene and it was fine. I unfortunately did not take any picture to jog my memory on how exactly the hotel looked or anything. I did however take a picture of the boys in the hallway. They love rolling their suitcases.
I went ahead and looked up the hotel on the website and vaguely remember it a little better. I do remember passing by the pool on the way to the elevators and it was an indoor pool. I also remember that the hotel was by the Mall of Abilene. That’s really all I can say about the Courtyard Abilene but if you’d like you can take a look at it here.
We went back up to Anson and visited with my grandparents a little more in the morning before leaving for Dallas. We picked up donuts once we left the hotel from a place that was close by, I believe it was Jack N Jill Donut Shop, and then headed to Anson. After visiting, on the way back towards Abilene, we did stop at the little Town Square and the boys took a picture with the statue of Anson Jones that it is in front of the Courthouse. Connor was mad because he wanted to sit next to his brother but I didn’t want him to block the name.
From here we left to Dallas. There is also an Anson Jones museum that we would have gone to had it been open. It was a Friday and the museum is only open Saturdays and Sundays. There are also some places in Abilene that I would have liked to go to but we have yet to get to them. The places I think would be interesting are Frontier Texas!, the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature, and the Abilene Zoo. Apparently there is also an Abilene Round Up Pass that can be purchased and gives you admission into those 3 attractions I mentioned plus 3 more. Information on purchasing this can be found on the Abilene CVB website here. So, hopefully the next time maybe we will make it to some of these.
This was actually the second time the boys have stopped in Abilene/Anson. The first time was last year, 2010, on the way home from a trip. Basically though it was almost the same; we arrived in Anson and my grandma made dinner and then after dinner we went to Dairy Queen and got ice cream. Then we went to find a hotel, this was a problem and I hadn’t expected it to be. Why I didn’t book a hotel beforehand I have no idea but I never thought we would have a problem finding one. We ended up staying at one of the Sleep Inn & Suites in Abilene and I was surprised it was pretty nice. If I remember correctly the décor was all in black and white and we got one of only 2 rooms that were still available. There was also someone else there looking for a room at the same time so they took the other room.
In the morning we just went to the Mall of Abilene and other than taking a picture with the Easter Bunny, I don’t remember what we did there. The Easter Bunny gave out bunny ears.
After leaving the mall we ate lunch at Taco Bell I think. I’m looking at a map and it was on the other side of the highway from the mall so I’m pretty sure that was it. When we were done we headed home to San Antonio.
Now to leave you with a couple of facts on the area, I like to learn a little about the places we visit:
• Anson and Abilene are in the Panhandle Plain region of Texas.
• Both Anson and Abilene were founded in 1881.
• Anson was founded as Jones City but changed to Anson in 1882.
• Anson Jones was the last president of the Republic of Texas.
• Anson was founded because the Texas and Pacific Railroad was supposed to go through the town but ended up going through Abilene instead.
• Abilene was named after Abilene, Kansas and means grassy plain.
We will definitely be going back to this area so hopefully the next time we go I will actually have more interesting things to write about. So, I started this off to be about Dallas but since it wasn’t look for my next blog to be for sure about Connor & JT in Dallas.
Thanks for visiting,
Links:
Abilene CVB: http://www.abilenevisitors.com/
Abilene Zoo: http://www.abilenezoo.org/
Courtyard Abilene: http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/abicy-courtyard-abilene/
Frontier Texas!: http://www.frontiertexas.com/
Travel Tex: http://traveltex.com/
Mall of Abilene: http://www.mallofabilene.com/
National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature: http://www.nccil.org/
Sleep Inn & Suites: http://www.sleepinn.com/hotel-abilene-texas-TXB13
Texas Escapes- Anson, Texas: http://texasescapes.com/TexasPanhandleTowns/AnsonTexas/AnsonTexas.htm