San Antonio

We took a quick trip after Christmas to San Antonio.  We hadn't been since 2004 (it was our first trip together).   It was great to get away for a little bit and to not have to do any cooking or cleaning after having my whole family over for Christmas - going from 2 people to 7 is crazy!  fun, but crazy!

We made a good choice in going somewhere we could drive to, no worries about what time we had to be anywhere, we just left when we were ready.   I was teasing K that his truck was trying to go north since the only place it (and he) have been recently is Huntsville.   It was a quick drive west and we got settled into our hotel.  We checked into our wonderful hotel, The Menger, and had a perfect location, literally next door to the Alamo!   Thanks Delena for the recommendation!

We hadn't realized that our trip coincided with the Alamo Bowl game.   For our entire trip the city was filled with lots of fans from Baylor and Washington.  We were surprised how many Washington fans we saw!  We expected to see Baylor fans since Waco isn't too far away but both teams had a huge presence.   It made the whole city very festive.    On one of our trips down to the Rivewalk we stumbled on a river parade -- we were wondering what eververyone was looking at, and then saw some members of Baylor's band in one of the tour boats getting ready to play.  They started playing and the boat floated on and we saw several boats with the BU banner and who we assumed to be the team!  K is pretty sure he saw the Heisman trophy winner, we googled him afterwards and yep we saw RGIII.


Since we were located downtown we could walk nearly everywhere we wanted to go, and we did - we walked to the Riverwalk and to and around the Alamo.  We even found a pizza place near the cathedral and walked there.  The only time we got in the car was to go to see the Mission San Jose, and it was worth the trip!   Neither of us had ever seen any of the missions except the Alamo, and enjoyed exploring it and I love that the church is still in use today.

We had some great good food and drinks and did a good job (I think) of not eating at chain restaurants (always a goal when we travel).   The first night we ate at an Italian place called Paesano's, and the second night we each had some delicious seafood at boudro's.  It worked to our advantage to be a party of two, as there were waits at both places, and I think everywhere with so many people in town for the game.

The Riverwalk and the plaza near the Alamo were still lit up for Christmas, and our hotel was still decorated too.   It was beautiful.  I think we'll have to go somewhere at Christmas more often so we can see the decorations, I love seeing the lights!!