After a wonderful time in Fredericksburg, we pulled up camp and moved on down to San Antonio where we again played “Tourista” and spent our time on the River Walk and toured the Alamo. We started this leg of our adventure at the IMAX theater where we watched a 42 minute movie depicting the historical events of the 13 day siege of the Alamo. Had I stayed awake in history class we could have skipped the $11.50 per person admission fee and saved ourselves the agony of watching a badly directed with even worse acting rendition of the Alamo. I’m not even sure I would call it a “B” movie but none the less, I learned something before touring the Alamo.
I suppose the actual grounds of the Alamo is not exactly what I had pictured before arriving. I was somewhat disappointed to find most of the property which the actual fort sat has now been handed over to commercial buildings. Even though there was a small scale mock-up of the Alamo, it was hard to imagine just how large the fort was back in 1836 compared to what’s left today. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed touring the Alamo and walking through it’s beautifully manicured grounds but I think visiting the Alamo is something you only want to do once. Brian and I were also surprised to learn that most of the defenders of the Alamo weren’t actually Texans at all but men who were from the Northern and Southern states. Kind of makes one wonder why they even bothered to defend the Alamo at all.
After touring the Alamo we wandered over to the River Walk for bit. My cousin lives in San Antonio so we were able to meet her and her husband for dinner. My cousin’s husband, Paul, hates going anywhere near the downtown area so meeting us at the River Walk was a bit of a stretch for him. It was decided we would eat at a local Mexican restaurant so we hopped the city bus, paid our $1.10 fare and rode the 10 blocks or so to his favorite eatery. Even though Brian & I would have preferred to eat somewhere on the River Walk, we really enjoyed Paul’s pick. La Margarita is well known for it’s fajita’s and they definitely lived up to their reputation. The fajita’s were served on a sizzling hot cast iron skillet which both heavy smoke and smell would follow the waiter all the way from the kitchen to your table “en fuego.” The waiter talked me in to trying the Passion Fruit margarita which I’ll have to say is my new, favorite margarita.
After dinner we bid our farewells to Paul and Kay and we walked back down to the River Walk where we hopped a boat for the river tour. Our navigator and tour guide was quite comical and very interesting with all his knowledge of River Walk trivia (I wonder if the tour guides have a River Walk school they attend with a River Walk graduation and a River Walk diploma.) We learned the River Walk is a 2 ½ mile stretch of beautifully landscaped waterfront that features various businesses. In the beginning, Spanish Explorers used the waterway to supply water to their missions. The last flood which was seen at the River Walk was back in 1921 when over 50 people were killed. Since then, various gates and an upstream dam have been constructed and there has been no flooding of the river since the tragic 1921 episode.With all that being said, San Antonio was a wonderful experience, however spring or fall would be the ideal time to visit. We’re on our way to Austin, TX… blog ya soon!
