SABAL PALM SANCTUARY, Texas 2013

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.  A few days before Christmas we took a drive to Brownsville.  We went to the Palo Alto Battlefield and the Sabal Palm Sanctuary.  The first battle of the US-Mexican war started on May 8, 1846 at the Palo Alto Battlefield on the edge of Brownville.  The National Park there has a very nice facility and tells all about the situation leading up to the battle and the circumstances afterward.  Dale found it interesting that this took place a little over 100 years before he was born (May 17, 1946).  After checking out the battlefield we drove over to Sabal Palm Sanctuary.  The vistor center there is in a 2 story Victorian home that was recently renovated and just opened.  They have some wonderful walking trails there.  We really enjoyed our walk there.  There use to be over 50,000 acres of Sabal Palms along the Rio Grand.  Now all that remains is approximately 500 acres there at the sanctuary.  We have a few at Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge but less then 20 trees, I'd say.  Sabal Palms are native to Texas, withstanding the occasional cold weather we get here.  It takes them 100 years to reach their full height of 50-60 feet.