San Antonio, Texas

First of all, greetings to everyone coming to Austin for South by Southwest! I hope you enjoy the city and I hope you enjoy the transvestites that Austin is so famous for! I’m not sure who’s coming, but if anyone wants to get together for a drink let me know.

That said, Spring Break is upon us. Austin’s spring break always occurs during sxsw. Because duh. J and I decided to spend the first few days going on an adventure to our neighboring city, San Antonio! Now, I’ve been to San Antonio a few times to visit a friend and for a Dragonforce concert, but I’ve never done any of the touristy things, like the Alamo and the Riverwalk. J’s done a few things but he barely remembers it and we both were just itching to get out of town for a couple days.

The first thing we did was head to Six Flags: Fiesta Texas. It was a ton of fun. We were promised chilly and rain, and although the morning was a bit dreary it ended up being 70 and sunny, so it all worked out. It was also really crowded, but we were able to ride two roller coasters, the carousel (on my insistence - we were the only adults without kids on it but it was way fun!), and the swinging ship. We also spent a lot of time walking around, we watched some people line dancing (much to my Northern amazement - how did half the audience know the steps to the dance?), and we bought a funnel cake and didn’t finish it. It was a ton of fun after it warmed up. We also decided to buy season passes so we can go back another few times, preferably on a weekday during 100 degree heat to avoid the crowds.

At about six on Saturday we left Six Flags and checked into the hotel. It was nice and we were absolutely exhausted. We unpacked our bags and turned on the TV just in time to watch the Discovery launch! It was incredible, if anyone caught it. Then we were off again downtown to grab some food.

Here’s the weird thing about San Antonio. Not only is it confusing as anything to drive there, but there’s also two restaurants. Two. We must have driven the entire city because we were so lost and we didn’t see a single other restaurant. Austin, on the other hand, has a restaurant or a bar or a cafe every other building. It was very weird to have to actively search to find a restaurant, because in Austin you can’t go two feet without tripping over one. And, as a consequence, the wait for one of the restaurants was an hour and a half, and the wait for the other one was thirty-five minutes. We went with the second one.

The food was pretty good. The place was called La Margarita. I’d go again if I’m in the area in the future. Not that I have much choice. Being downtown late at night was really fun, because I feel like I got a real taste for Hispanic culture. People wore traditional outfits and played and sang songs, religious icons were everywhere, and the atmosphere was really friendly and fun. I had a really good time, and so did J, even though were so exhausted.

When we got back to the hotel, some guy next door was yelling at his kids, who were screaming as if they were being beaten. Yeah, it was interesting. I’m sure they were just screaming for whatever reason - I’m sure the guy wasn’t a child abuser. I hope. But man, he really was yelling.

No pictures from the first day - Six Flags is not a good place to take a camera, and I was so tired in the evening I just forgot.

But! This morning we woke up with plenty more adventures on our minds. We checked out of the hotel and headed downtown again, to go to the Riverwalk! The Riverwalk is a really famous walk along the San Antonio River, with shops and food and beautiful scenery. You can even get on a boat and ride down the river on a tour. We didn’t do that, though. We just walked. It was really beautiful, filled with trees and flowers and the sky was so blue way up above us. It was chilly in the morning but got to maybe 80 degrees, and it was perfectly sunny - we couldn’t have picked a better day. We walked along the river and eventually stopped at Cafe Ole, where we had lunch.

After a couple hours at the Riverwalk we headed for the San Antonio Zoo! It was SO much fun. If you’ve ever been to a zoo, you’ll know how fun it is. Seeing the animals in captivity was a little sad, but seeing animals at all was a lot of fun. The zoo was very crowded, with small children running around almost aimlessly, and adults slamming their strollers into us, and really huge people blocking the walkways. We started off by looking at the bears, which was fun, but I realized the entire zoo was going to be ridiculously crowded if we started at the front and worked our way to the back, so J and I decided to immediately head for the back. It worked - the zoo was less crowded in the back because everyone was in the front.

The zoo was great. They had tons of birds, from ostriches to parrots to flamingos to teeny tiny little green birds that were the most adorable thing ever. We looked at lions and rhinos and hippos and giraffes and tons of kinds of monkeys and giant anacondas. We also saw tigers and kangaroos and they had a really nice aquarium with sharks and jellyfish and crabs and stingrays. They also had a reptile house, which I liked a lot, with every single kind of snake you can imagine. And then we went to the butterfly observatory where a butterfly actually tried to eat me. It landed on my hand and kept sticking its proboscis on me as if it were trying to drink me. It felt really weird.

I posted a lot of pictures up on my flickr if anyone’s interested in seeing the animals. Most of them were taken by J because he’s honestly the better photographer than me. Oh, and add me as a contact, too!

So, we just got back a few hours ago. We’re really, really tired. But all in all it was a really good trip. Coming home to Austin was so wonderful - I fell in love with it all over again. A short vacation was completely what we needed. And the best part is now I get to enjoy the rest of spring break!

March 16, 2009 @ 9:19 pm . Comments (3)

Adventure — Tags: travel