Friday, March 9, 2012

Texas Day 1: San Antonio

We're on our way home from Texas now and have a little (over two hours) time on our hands so I thought I'd get a jump start on blogging about our trip. We only took about 200 pictures so the content may be a little weak. ha.

We arrived last Thursday afternoon and had no plans but to find Mark and Alli's house and do whatever they were doing. So upon arrival, we left to pick up Blaise and Ethan from school. We spent a relaxing lovely evening being entertained by the kids. More pictures of them to come later.

When we woke up on Friday, we were rearing to get our exploration on in San Antonio

The Alamo, one of the Missions from the 1700s.


Sorry about the crazy hair. In side the borders of the Alamo were these crazy giant cacti, that are apparently the main vegetation in Texas, well that and rocks.


Here's Kyler standing in front of the church at the Alamo. Each mission was opened by the Spaniards in the late 1700s. In exchange for providing food, housing, and protection to the local natives, the overall "mission" of each site was to convert the natives to Christianity.


In the heart of downtown San Antonio, this mission was by far the busiest with tourists and local school children.

Not too far was the famous Riverwalk. Anyone who had visited San Antonio mentioned the Riverwalk, and we had no idea what to expect or why it was such a big deal. Here is the San Antonio River, lined for miles with sidewalks, shops, restaurants, and historic sites.


A guy I work with told me to take the Riverwalk Boat Tour to figure out which parts of the city I wanted to see. So we did. And it was probably the highlight of my trip. One of the highlights at least.

Waiting for the boat to leave.


We took this corner while I serenaded Kyler with "Just Around the River Bend" from Pocohantas.


Five bells hanging above a stage along the river. One bell for each of the five missions in San Antonio. The audience sits on the other side of the river. How fun!


This sign shows La Villita. Before I left, I read online that La Villita was filled with lots of shops of homemade items.  It was a little disappointing in real life.


Riding the boat under a bridge.


These creepy faces were put on the side of this very expensive building to ward off bad luck.


But don't go putting these guys on the sides of your buildings. Just after finishing construction, the Great Depression hit, and the builders lost their building.


This is the county courthouse. All I remember from the tour guide is it's the longest standing building that has had the same function it's entire life. I just like the color :)


A tree growing out of a building. Apparently there was a seedling in the river when the water level rose and the seedling got lodged in the building's crevice.


Weird looking statue.


This building is an optical illusion. It's shaped like a triangle so when you're facing one side, it looks like it's a free standing wall o' bricks.


Love this guy!


All along the Riverwalk, there were cool little decorations like these waterfalls.


We could see the Tower of the Americas (I kept calling it the Space Needle) from the Riverwalk.


We passed this theatre with a pretty cool mosaic at the top.


San Antonio. St. Anthony. The patron saint of lost items of little children. Very specific, no?


I don't remember what this building was. It has a pretty cross on top, and I loved the blue sky. Also, I didn't expect Texas to have any palm trees. It was like Hawaii but without the 10 hour flight. And coral.


After our boat ride, we stopped at this little Mexican restaurant along the water. It was great food, and we had loads of entertainment from the ducks swimming beside us.


There's the type of boat we rode on.


To finish off our day in San Antonio, we took a walk to Hemisfair Park, which was built for the World's Fair in 1968.


The park was filled with beautiful fountains.


Doesn't this look like Hawaii a little?


I told you, tons of waterfalling.


And this is the only picture we have together from our trip. Did I mention the weather was wonderful! It was almost 80 the day we spent in the city.


One last look at the tower. So cool.


Another interesting building downtown. More to come about our Texas Adventure!

4 comments:

  1. Looks like you had a great time!

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  2. Great photos! I wanna go!!! :) Love you!

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  3. As a long-time Texan, you did San Antonio proud with your photos and captions. :) San Antonio is one of our favorite getaway spots; we also went there on our honeymoon 31 years ago.

    You may not remember, but one of your photos from the riverwalk cruise is where parts of Miss Congeniality were filmed (most of it was filmed in SA), where the contestants are introduced. I don't remember everything about the scene, but once you watch the film again, you'll recognize San Antonio. I think the scene is on YouTube, as well.

    Safe travels!

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    1. Hi Dayle! Thanks for the visit. We spent just 6 days there and had an absolute blast. Come back for more photos and tales of our travels!

      -kara

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