San Antonio

Meris had never been to San Antonio before and I loved the city from my one previous visit (when I came through Texas during my Trek in 2009, I met Melissa there before we went to Austin), so we headed down south for a day. The day dawned quite foggy in Austin but by the time we arrived in San Antonio, the fog had lifted.

The Alamo

Our first stop was the Alamo. It’s so hard to fathom what it once was, especially giving the city that has risen up around it but there are some neat dioramas on display that show the land and structures that comprised the Alamo to help you get a better idea.

Outside the Alamo

From the Alamo we headed down to the Riverwalk and strolled up to Hemisfair Park because I wanted to find that awesome wooden playground that Melissa and I had stumbled upon before. While on the search for it, we got sidetracked taking pictures of the Tower of the Americas which was built as the theme structure of the 1968 World's Fair.

Tower of the Americas

It is open to go up in and view San Antonio from 750ft above so we paid the admission and climbed in the elevator. It was a nice view but San Antonio isn’t really a skyline city with huge skyscrapers so it was more the vast landscape down below that made up the view.

View from atop San Antonio

After descending back to ground level I found signs for the playground and we skipped over to play around. Growing up, my elementary school had a great wooden playground and I loved that thing so whenever I come across these rare wooden playgrounds I have to stop and play around.

We joined back up on the Riverwalk and decided to hop on a boat and take a tour since we were tired of walking. I had always wondered if the Riverwalk was natural at all because it just looks so perfect. I learned the Riverwalk is partially natural and the guide pointed out which sections were the real river and which weren’t. I was kind of disappointed in the tour because it just seemed to be a shill for the many hotels and restaurants that line the Riverwalk. Most of those establishments had really beautiful architecture though and fascinating histories so I guess it made sense.

Octagonal building

On the Riverboat

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Gorgeous Riverwalk

We also passed by a mural that is covered by 1 inch tiles that are all naturally colored (with the exception of the blue ones that were painted).

Beautiful mural

After all this touring we were starving so we alighted the boat and headed to a delicious Italian restaurant for sustenance. It was getting pretty late I the day but we still wanted to check out the San Antonio Missions (run by the National Park Service) so we headed over to Mission San Jose.

Mission San Jose

 We were the only ones there and the rangers were going around closing things up but we didn’t feel rushed and got some nice pictures. I really love the arches of this one and could spend hours taking different pictures.

Mission San Jose

Beneath the arches

Right down the road is Mission Concepcion which is a bit smaller but just as beautiful especially because we arrived just as the sun was setting.

Mission Concepcion

Mission Concepcion

Our tour boat guide had told us to come back to the Riverwalk at night to enjoy all the lights and we were so in love with San Antonio that we did just that!

The nice thing was that we had paid $10 for parking and it was good all day so we headed back downtown and even got our same spot back! We strolled the same route but now The Alamo, the Tower of the Americas, the Riverwalk and all of San Antonio were lit up. We decided to savor the beautiful night and return to the Italian restaurant we went to earlier for some dessert.

 

 I really love San Antonio. It's such a relaxed and beautiful city and because we were there on a Wednesday there really wasn't a lot of people anywhere we went which made it even better.