I returned to San Antonio today for the first time since my trip there for a romance conference last year...and it's probably possible that I have no need to go back there again, although I enjoyed today well enough. But it's so fucking hot in Texas that I can't survive here longterm, and it wasn't even that hot today compared to how it was in July last year. Luckily, at the end of the week I will return to the fog of San Francisco, so if I can survive until then without my face melting off, it will all be good.
The day started somewhat lateish with breakfast around 9:30 at the hotel restaurant. Then, the six of us (my parents, [censored], Uncle Mark, and Drewbaby) loaded up and drove to San Antonio. Our first stop was the Alamo; I hadn't actually gone there when I was in town last year, even though my hotel was a block away, and I didn't really miss much. The gift shop is approximately as large as the shrine itself, which feels a little icky, but the grounds are landscaped nicely enough, and it was worth seeing (if the alternative was sticking around the hotel, which would not have been worth seeing).
Post-Alamo, we went to the Riverwalk, where Herman gave us a boat tour of the main Riverwalk area. I had walked up and down various parts of the Riverwalk last year and really liked it, but I hadn't taken any of the boats, so it was fun to see more of the Riverwalk from the comfort of a boat rather than schlepping through the heat (although in a total amateur move, I got a bit of a sunburn on my shoulders - I made it through all of Bora Bora without a burn, and then burned myself in an hour in Texas. Stupid.). After we'd seen several of the restaurants where I ate last year and several landmarks that we would never revisit (including a v. large mosaic mural, some random statues, an amphitheatre, etc....you've lost interest by now, I can tell :( ), we had a late lunch at Casa Rio. It's a bit touristy, the service was somewhat slow (although if I had to carry banquet trays in this heat, I would be dead instead of merely slow, so whatever), and the children near us kept feeding chips to the pigeons and then wondering why they were covered in birds. But the Tex-Mex was pretty good, and since I'll happily eat enchiladas until I die, it was perfectly lovely.
What wasn't perfectly lovely was the drive back, accomplished in brutal heat from which the truck's air conditioner never quite rescued us (as my stomach regretted the last half of the lunch I'd eaten and my eyes regretted the loss of my usual afternoon nap). But we made it back to Kerrville, and we rested when we got here (including some lovely discussion with Drewbaby and [censored] about [censored], which resulted in the hilarious substitution of the word "[censored]" for "[censored]"). I also spent some quality time talking to my mom by the pool, and we decided to walk back to our rooms just in time - in the fifteen seconds we were in the covered corridor between the pool and our side of the hotel, a total downpour started. It turns out we were lucky that we left San Antonio when we did, since they got four inches of rain and a lot of flooding as soon as we left. Crazytown.
Even though none of us were particularly hungry, we eventually went out for dinner (somewhat for lack of anything better to do). The food at dinner was surprisingly, uniformly excellent - we went to Billy Gene's (no apparent relation to the song, given the spelling and some other obvious clues), which had a cool deck overlooking the Guadalupe River, and a good time was had by all (except for my stomach, which is crying - I need to slow my roll tomorrow). Then we came back to the hotel, where Drewbaby and I listened to my dad regale us with stories of his misspent youth (including one I'd never heard, which involved a lot of blood, which is actually less common in his stories than I may have led you to believe).
And now, alas, I must sleep; no writing has happened here, which isn't exactly a surprise, but I at least want to be well-rested for tomorrow's activities. Goodnight!
The day started somewhat lateish with breakfast around 9:30 at the hotel restaurant. Then, the six of us (my parents, [censored], Uncle Mark, and Drewbaby) loaded up and drove to San Antonio. Our first stop was the Alamo; I hadn't actually gone there when I was in town last year, even though my hotel was a block away, and I didn't really miss much. The gift shop is approximately as large as the shrine itself, which feels a little icky, but the grounds are landscaped nicely enough, and it was worth seeing (if the alternative was sticking around the hotel, which would not have been worth seeing).
Post-Alamo, we went to the Riverwalk, where Herman gave us a boat tour of the main Riverwalk area. I had walked up and down various parts of the Riverwalk last year and really liked it, but I hadn't taken any of the boats, so it was fun to see more of the Riverwalk from the comfort of a boat rather than schlepping through the heat (although in a total amateur move, I got a bit of a sunburn on my shoulders - I made it through all of Bora Bora without a burn, and then burned myself in an hour in Texas. Stupid.). After we'd seen several of the restaurants where I ate last year and several landmarks that we would never revisit (including a v. large mosaic mural, some random statues, an amphitheatre, etc....you've lost interest by now, I can tell :( ), we had a late lunch at Casa Rio. It's a bit touristy, the service was somewhat slow (although if I had to carry banquet trays in this heat, I would be dead instead of merely slow, so whatever), and the children near us kept feeding chips to the pigeons and then wondering why they were covered in birds. But the Tex-Mex was pretty good, and since I'll happily eat enchiladas until I die, it was perfectly lovely.
What wasn't perfectly lovely was the drive back, accomplished in brutal heat from which the truck's air conditioner never quite rescued us (as my stomach regretted the last half of the lunch I'd eaten and my eyes regretted the loss of my usual afternoon nap). But we made it back to Kerrville, and we rested when we got here (including some lovely discussion with Drewbaby and [censored] about [censored], which resulted in the hilarious substitution of the word "[censored]" for "[censored]"). I also spent some quality time talking to my mom by the pool, and we decided to walk back to our rooms just in time - in the fifteen seconds we were in the covered corridor between the pool and our side of the hotel, a total downpour started. It turns out we were lucky that we left San Antonio when we did, since they got four inches of rain and a lot of flooding as soon as we left. Crazytown.
Even though none of us were particularly hungry, we eventually went out for dinner (somewhat for lack of anything better to do). The food at dinner was surprisingly, uniformly excellent - we went to Billy Gene's (no apparent relation to the song, given the spelling and some other obvious clues), which had a cool deck overlooking the Guadalupe River, and a good time was had by all (except for my stomach, which is crying - I need to slow my roll tomorrow). Then we came back to the hotel, where Drewbaby and I listened to my dad regale us with stories of his misspent youth (including one I'd never heard, which involved a lot of blood, which is actually less common in his stories than I may have led you to believe).
And now, alas, I must sleep; no writing has happened here, which isn't exactly a surprise, but I at least want to be well-rested for tomorrow's activities. Goodnight!
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