San Antonio

January 4, 2015 by California Globetrotter 8 Comments

While visiting my mama in Texas, we got up bright and early and drove 5 hours to get to San Antonio. I refused to leave without seeing San Antonio and the River Walk decorated for Christmas. When I Pinterested San Antonio for things to do, that was the first thing I saw and I was hooked. It looked so magical and it was everything I thought it would be.

The Riverwalk is one story below downtown San Antonio and is lined for 2.5 miles with shops, restaurants and bars. You can even take a little boat ride down the riverwalk for about 30 minutes. Unfortunately, we waited too long and the lines got ridiculously long come sundown and the Christmas lights came on. Nonetheless, it was still incredibly romantic to stroll hand in hand around the entire Riverwalk, checking out the restaurants, cafes and shops while enjoying the Christmas ambience of the twinkling lights and music flowing in the atmosphere.

 

One of the other most important pieces of American history to visit while in San Antonio is the Alamo which was a very important part of the Texas Revolution in 1836 between Texians and Mexicans. The Texians bravely fought three attacks against the Mexicans using the Alamo as a defensive barrier, but they couldn’t hold off a third attack. The Alamo was originally a Spanish mission which had later been abandoned prior to the battle.

Today there isn’t much left of the Alamo, mostly the front façade of the building while the rest has been turned into lush gardens.

In the evening, as we made our way back to the parking lot behind the Alamo where we parked, we discovered the beauty of the Alamo lit up at night, with a stunning pastel colored Christmas tree lighting up the night. There were even Chinderella-like horse carriages lit up with white lights trotting along for tourists to pay a hefty price for a ride around the block.

We spent the day walking all around San Antonio, which one would think was a fast and easy walk…unless you had a slow ass dog who thought she was a princess walking as slow as molasses. But we checked out the Old Courthouse which is nicknamed “Big Red” which was completed in 1896. It sits caddy corner from the Cathedral of San Fernando. This cathedral is one of the oldest cathedrals in the United States with the oldest part of the walls forming the sanctuary which was built between 1738-1750. As you walk inside the cathedral there is a tomb on the left which holds the bones of 3 Texas Revolutionaries from the Battle at the Alamo.

This is my favorite picture from walking around San Antonio – an international hotel which I took advantage of by having a quick photo shoot!

Then we headed over to the Tower of the Americas which is a 750 foot observation tower that was constructed for the World Fair in 1968. I have also come to a conclusion that any time there is something massively large anywhere, I immediately say, “This was definitely built for the World Fair” – Eiffel Tower, the Atomium, The Space Needle …need I say more??

The Tower of the Americas is lined with the beautiful cascading Fountains of the Tower of the Americas. We took some family pictures and then I had my Titanic moment!

We then headed back towards the Riverwalk to find somewhere to eat. Considering that the river walk is lined with restaurants, shops and cafes, it wasn’t hard to find somewhere to eat. Although, because its such a touristy area, it was a tad more expensive than we wanted to spend. But the portions equaled the price I guess. We decided to order a huge rack of BBQ pork ribs and share them between the four of us plus some appetizers. That was definitely plenty! This was Hans’ first time eating American style pork ribs like this, so naturally we had to take a picture of his shock!

San Antonio was an amazing city and I’m glad we decided to go! But overall, in all the cities we visited none of them really struck me as “Texas” “country”. Its all modern buildings now that look exactly the same pretty much even in California. I guess next time I will have to go out to the Boondocks to see/feel more country.

 

 

On the way home, we decided to search for the world’s largest pair of cowboy boots which are located at the North Star Mall in San Antonio. They symbolize the universal interest in all things cowboy. They say everything in Texas is bigger, and these were BIG! They stand a whopping 40-feet tall, 30-feet long, eight–feet wide and weigh in at 10,000 pounds!! They are easily seen from the freeway, especially at night time when they are lit up.

Address: 7400 San Pedro Ave, North Star Mall, San Antonio, TX 78216, United States

 

 

Be sure to check out other posts related to Texas!

 Dallas 

Old Town Forth Worth

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