Family Road Trip to Texas (Day Two)

Today is day 2 of my family road trip to Texas, and it has been a pretty great day.  We started off this morning with a short walk to the Alamo.  (Tip We got there at about 10 a.m. and there was no line, but when we left around 11:20-ish, there was a 30 person line! So go early).  The Alamo is a must-see in San Antonio- not only because it’s part of what San Antonio is famous for, but also because it’s a big part of American history, and it’s free!  So that’s great for people traveling on a budget!  It’s a really awesome building.  It was first used for a mission house for missionaries and their Native American converts, but it was turned into a military station starting in the early 1800’s.   The building is beautiful with some exhibits inside: however you cannot touch the walls or take pictures.  Then you walk into this courtyard where there is this huge, amazing, beautiful tree next to a well. Then more important there is a museum inside of the fortress walls with exhibits of weapons, uniforms, Davy Crockett memorabilia, and other historical artifacts and information, as well as a room with a 15 minute video produced by The History Channel, and it’s worth watching.  Then on around behind the actual mission there’s another courtyard with cacti and other plants.

After the Alamo we hopped on the tram (which we bought an all-day tram ticket for $4 a piece), and we headed to Market Square.  We went through all the little kiosks and shops, where I bought 9 tiles.  Then we ate at “Mi Tierra: Restaurant and Bakery”.  It was so yummy!  We ordered about a few different meals and we all really enjoyed them.  I got the “Chicken Enchiladas Verdes con Pollo”- YUM!  We also had some pretty awesome margaritas!  I would highly recommend this restaurant to anyone in San Antonio.  We also got some tasty treats for later from the bakery- which were also fantastic!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went back to our hotel room, rested, and changed clothes (it’s hot out here); then went back out to the Riverwalk Center.  It’s a huge mall, and the river walk comes out from underneath it.  We had dinner at the food court, and then went on the Riverwalk Boat Tour.  It was so much fun, and we had a really good tour guide.  I would recommend these tours (even though it’s touristy), but I’d even more highly recommend the dinner ones.  Although I didn’t do it personally, we passed some and they lasted longer, and they weren’t as cram packed.  If I had been here with my boyfriend instead, I would’ve done that forsure.  We saw a lot of really awesome sites, but I’ll just tell you about a few of my favorites:

-There was a statue of Saint Anthony of Padua who’s the patron saint of lost or stolen things, as well as San Antonio.  My mom and I were excited about this statue because we saw the Basilica of Saint Anthony in Padua.  (Which you can read about here).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-I also enjoyed Saint Joseph’s Church, it’s a German church and every fourth Sunday they do a service in German!  Wish I could be here for that!

-My favorite, though, was the mural on the front of the Lila Cockrell Theatre.  It’s a work of art by Juan O’Gorman called “Confluence of Civilizations in the Americas” and it was given to San Antonio by Mexico for the World’s Fair in 1968.  It’s so beautiful!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-Lastly, there was the Nix Professional Building, which used to be a paper-doll factory, and it was built in such a way that it’s an optical illusion that looks like a single wall standing, and could fall in the water at any moment.  It’s pretty darn cool.

After the tour we walked around the riverwalk and looked at the lights and the water reflections!  It is so beautiful and romantic!  We stopped and grabbed some sangria margaritas, and then made our way back.  It was a GREAT day in San Antonio!