Travels to Munich, by way of Texas

 

We have been in San Antonio for three days and boy howdy has it been fun!  While I claim Oregon as as my home, I was actually born about 50 miles from San Antonio, at Bergstrom AFB in Austin.  I left for Germany with my mom at age 6-weeks on the SS UNITED STATES.  (My dad was stationed at Hahn AFB.). For more on this interesting ship, see my blog post from November 2022 or send me an email for a full article about the ship.

I have been attending the GSMD* annual conference, attended by descendants of the 50 Mayflower passengers who survived the winter of 1620-21 in Plymouth, Mass.  On Friday we took a tour of the WWII Museum of Wars of the Pacific in Fredericksburg, TX. As both a military brat and a Navy mom, I found it fascinating.  Admiral Nimitz, head of the Pacific fleet in WWII grew up in Fredericksburg and we enjoyed touring the museum honoring him, as well as exhibits of PT boats, part of a Japanese submarine, and other equipment used by the Pacific Fleet. 

Friday dinner was excellent.  We ate at SiloPrime, in the Fairmount Hotel on Alamo Street.  The history of this hotel is fascinating -  it was put on wheels and moved six blocks thru downtown in 1985.  There are numerous YouTube videos showing the move as it happened, and here’s a link that tells the story:

https://memoriesofsanantonio.com/2025/03/30/the-fairmount-hotel-it-was-a-moving-experience/

Saturday was a full day of business meetings, followed by a dinner with keynote speaker Blaine Bettinger, DNA guru.  He is one of my favorite teachers, and his presentation did not disappoint!

It’s now Sunday and we are at O’Hare airport waiting for our flight to Munich. Updates to come!

Have a lovely weekend, dear readers. 

*GSMD = General Society of Mayflower Descendants