On this Spring Break my daughter Natalie Garcia McIntire, and her three boys ages 10, 8, and 5, boarded a passenger train in Fort Worth all the way to San Marcos.
Then they were picked up by their father John and came all the way to Brownsville. This was the children’s first ride on a passenger train, it was quite an exciting event for them all.
Moreover, next afternoon Grandpa Celso, and Grandma, yours truly, took them all for an outing to Sabal Palms Sanctuary, and to visit the Historical Rabb Plantation House.
This house has a very special history because a pioneer lady Petra Vela Kenedy’s great grand daughter,Maria Vicenta Stark owned this house with the help of their of grand mother Petra, and her husband Mifflin Kenedy, at the end of the 19th century, who were part of the elite entrepreneurs of South Texas.
This Sabal Palm Sanctuary and this historical Victorian architecture house is at South banks of the Rio Grande River in Cameron County. Our grandkids from north Texas loved visiting this site especially the plantation two story house, and then the curvy green trails covered with colorful wild native plants with a lot of resacas, make shift bridges,and wild birds look outs.
The highlight was when I told them their uncle, Celso Alfredo Garcia had helped as a volunteer in building the longest make shift bridge there, with a group of other students from the Mercedes Science Academy.
Without glorifying, but proud I mentioned that this great lady Petra Vela Kenedy came from the same Ramirez family as yours truly, and that by attending a book presentation on “Petra’s Legacy” by two female authors, I had learned that there was a family connection.
At the end of our trip, the kids noticed a huge telescope focused to a tree right in front of the house and to their surprise, they saw a cute baby owl sitting on a branch looking at all of us.
Last but not least these three lovely grand kids from North Texas got to see the famous Border Wall.
I just told them this wall is to stop people from South of the Rio Grande River to climb over.
All in all it was an exciting Spring Break for them.
Sincerely, Natalia Ramirez Garcia Brownsville
