San Antonio

We spent the greater part of the last two days in and around San Antonio....and is it ever fun!
Monday morning rain gave way to....dark clouds and cold. It was clear that going to the River Walk was not in the cards for Monday. We hit up a few errands and eventually made our way to the Quarry, which is actually an old quarry, now a varied and really cute "outdoor" mall. Our destination was a boot/leather shop in the mall. It did have the softest, cutest cowboy boots I have ever seen but since $600 boots are not in my price range, we just had a look and then headed OUT THE DOOR!

Our next stop was a local brewery called Freetail. We walked in the door (it was about 2 p.m.) and were told they did not open until 4. But the employee who intercepted us was very nice and gave us directions to his "favorite local pub" that was nearby, and then made us promise to come back at 4. So that's what we did...spent a pleasurable hour and a half at the Hills and Dales Pub that had an assortment of literally hundreds of bottled beers and about 30 on tap.

Authentic Texas Pub!

We kept our promise and returned to Freetail for a small batch porter and a bite to eat. The food was not outstanding but the beer and the ambiance was. We had a great time.

Tuesdays weather was just slightly better. It was not clear, but not raining either. Highs were expected to be in the 50's so we hit downtown and the River Walk. First stop was The Alamo, which is right downtown, and as Jeff had promised, there wasn't really too much to see but I did enjoy learning some about this old mission/fort where the infamous fall of the Texas freedom fighters (including Daniel Boone) occurred.

After The Alamo we went to the Buckhorn Saloon and Museum, which is actually 2 museums in one. The original proprietor collected animal horns, taxidermy and "oddities" from around the world for his personal collection museum. They also had a Texas Rangers museum, which was really interesting historically.

Yes, that's an actual "Manboon"



We also had lunch at The Buckhorn and had a  hilarious bartender who had story after story about the famous people he has met working there as well as some of the most idiotic things he has had people ask him. Like "Are all the animals on the wall dead?" and "Why did they build the Alamo right downtown?"  Peter was awesome and we enjoyed a rather long lunch break with him and the hundreds of (maybe) dead animals on the walls!

After experiencing all the Buckhorn had to offer (food, museums and entertaining staff) we walked to La Villita, which is an old market square for local artists and what we actually found was pretty much a bunch of over-priced import crap. On to the Riverwalk, of course, San Antonio's most famous draw.

 And it was every bit as beautiful as I had imagined. Of course, in the spring, the flowers would be an added bonus and in the summer sitting "riverside" with a cold drink would be lovely too but what we got was incredible...the trees along the river swathed in Christmas lights.

There were a ton of people walking along, and it actually got kind of congested. I had the bright idea that we should catch one of the river barge tours and see the entire length of the Riverwalk via boat. We made our way to one of the two areas for embarking and there was a line of people at least three city blocks long who obviously had the same brainiac idea. I am not a fan of waiting in lines so we settled on walking around the river and, later, dinner "riverside" at an Irish pub called Durty Nelly's. Jeff was looking a little tired by then and we had shuttled into downtown from a Park-n-Ride, so we pulled ourselves away from The Riverwalk and made our way home.
Despite our desire to see Austin, it just didn't seem like it was worth the 2+ hour round trip to spend the day there (I think the nightlife is more of the Austin draw than the "daylife"). We also wanted to get BB's oil changed so today, Jeff tended to the oil and I tended to walking around New Braunfels downtown while it was being done. Not much to see there but it was fun people watching! I think the rest of today is for cleaning and some R+R before heading south in the morning. Weather today remains cool and gray. Reports for Aransas Pass is just slightly warmer and just slightly greater chance of seeing the sun. Keeping my fingers crossed.