Christmas lights and The Riverwalk Boat Parade

We hope today will be a special day as we are planning to go into San Antonio in the evening to see the Boat Parade and the Lighting up ceremony for the Riverwalk lights.

But first, I needed to go and visit with Clint and Joan to make sure that they were happy with their new mobile broadband and to finish giving them campground details.

They surprised us by inviting us to have lunch with them at the local Mall. So we set out to see for ourselves the other Thanksgiving tradition that has frown in the U.S.A. –‘Black Friday’ not, as you would think, an evil day! (though some would think that) but the first day of the Christmas Celebrations – Thanksgiving is over, out come the Christmas lights, the canned music and –Christmas Shopping. The shops have sales and everyone is out looking for bargains. We needed to see this first hand (we have always been at the Thanksgiving Bluegrass Festival before), so we set out at about 11.00 to join the traffic jams and the general throng at the Mall. It was busy, but did not seem unusually so, still it was good fun to just get those last bits of Christmas shopping. At 1.00 we met Clint and Joan for lunch at a cafeteria called Luby’s. The food is cheap and was surprisingly good, even that nemisis of American restaurants – the vegetables, we cooked properly (not done to death). After a pleasant lunch we returned to the trailer to get ourselves organised for the evenings entertainment, because the weather forecast had let us know that the temperature was going to plummet down to freezing, so it was two pairs of socks, two pairs of trousers, T-shirt, shirt, sweatshirt and fleece for me, carrying a blanket and a cushion (those folding seats can get very cold). Sally was similarly prepared, just as well because although it was not down to freezing while we were there it was jolly cold and frost appeared on the car the next morning.

The parade would pass where our allotted seats were at about 7.15, so we were advised to get there early – by 5.00!, so being overprepared we decided to get there for 4.30, of course we found a parking space very easily and then had a couple of hours to wander round and look at what was happening. Sally wondered if anything might be happening at the Alamo (a stones throw away form the Riverwalk), as we approached we could hear music, the all lady Mariachi band was playing, there was a massive tree erected in front of the Alamo’ distinctive front wall and crowds of people were standing listening. San Antonions were celebrating the lighting of their City Christmas Tree.

We stood and watched the spectacle as the band played and Santa arrived in front of The Alamo in a white carriage, lit with fairy lights (Not Santa Anna this time) and flags were trooped and the national anthem sung and then the switch was thrown and the Christmas Tree and the whole area was lit up with little lights (which we had been assured were energy friendly LED’s). Oh what fun.

This was the appetizer, we now wandered our way, along with the whole of San Antonio, through the streets and down the elevator to the Riverwalk level and to our allotted seats for the Boat Parade. There we sat by the riverside, across the river the restaurants were serving to those people who were making a night of dining on the Riverwalk (and paying up to $100 a head to do it). At about 7.15 the Riverwalk was suddenly lit up as the lights came on, lots of twinkling coloured lights set in the trees all along the banks, which added to the restaurant and house decorations made a very pretty sight. As we sat the decorated boats came along with lots of music, some of it live, some of it canned. Lots of Santa’s, fairies, elves, a Ronald Macdonald, waved madly at us all, it was another great American Spectacle.

We made friends with a lovely family sat next to us (as well as about a dozen passers by, the volunteer steward, his wife and a security guard), who had come down from Fort Worth for the weekend. So ended another great day as we drove wearily home.

A Mission to A Mission

Tuesday. We have now moved our trailer to a new campsite as we are going to stay in San Antonio until Saturday.
This campground is called Travellers World and though quite expensive is very pleasant and only 10 minutes from the city centre. The sites are well sized though a little too close to each other. It has good facilities, pool, laundry, hall, library. Lots of long term snowbirds, many of whom are Canadians. Apart from the price of $37 p.n. I would recommend this campground.
Moving was hot work as the temperature climbed again to 80, so we cooled down for a bit, had some lunch and then set out to have a look at one of the other local missions. The closest one to us is San Jose Mission, just about half a mile down the road. It is a 7 acre enclosure which was started in 1720 and finished by about 1780, though it has had lots of changes to it in it's past. The mission was placed there to provide an outpost for the Spanish, as a way of converting the local Indians and giving the Indians a chance to improve their lives.
It seemed to work, but when the Spanish left in 1810's the Mexicans secularised the mission and it became a village, then a fort to keep out the Apache and Comanche Indians. Over the years it fell into disrepair but was restored in the 1930's as part of Roosevelt's WPA plan

Return to the Riverwalk

On Monday we decided to return to the Riverwalk, partly because we had enjoyed the boat trip, but partly because coming up this Friday is the Annual Lighting of the Riverwalk and Boat Parade!!! We had delayed our departure from San Antonio to go to this and ordered tickets on line, but wanted to pick them up in person to make sure that they understood Sally would be in a wheelchair.

Although this should have been a pretty straightforward task, the use of the wrong address on the internet meant that we criss-crossed the Riverwalk district a couple of times to find the ticket office. However, that meant we were able to explore the streets at ground level, above the Riverwalk, because from above you would hardly notice the almost secret world of the Riverwalk. When we collected the tickets we actually talked to the director of the event on Friday night and he was able to reassure us that our tickets were OK for Sally, but suggested that we should arrive by 5.00, for the show at 7.00, as there would be a lot of people and parking may be difficult. They expect 150,000 people to come and watch, each with a reserved seat! We also found out that the event is televised on national US TV (don’t know which channel). So we are looking forward to this event, which is Friday, the day after Thanksgiving – Official start to Christmas!!!!.

After this little adventure we felt in need of a drink, we found a Starbucks which had a terrace overlooking the Riverwalk and relaxed for a while. Following this we descended to the Riverwalk in one of the elevators and strolled round one section of the Riverwalk, just relaxing and nosing, it was great fun.

Gosh then it was time for lunch, so we chose the Saltgrass Steakhouse in the basement of Landry’s Hotel, where we had a balcony table, again overlooking the Riverwalk, where we could people watch, boat watch and Mariachi watch.

Mariachi are wandering Mexican musicians who cluster round tables with their instruments and play traditional Mexican music while you eat, until you pay for them to go away. It adds a very nice background atmosphere to dining on the Riverwalk. We had a great lunch, in fact one of the best we have had this trip. Sally went for a steak and shrimp combo, while I had baby back ribs, very nice. We then wandered home feeling very full and ready for a good stretch out. In the evening we had a wander round the campground and sat and talked to a couple from Colorado Springs and a chap called Clint from Canada. Yes it was warm enough to sit out and there were no mosquitoes, an experience that has been all too rare this trip.

The San Antonio Riverwalk

Sunday, though tired, we visited San Antonio's second biggest attraction, the Riverwalk. Rather than walking, we took a boat trip, which on reflection was a very good idea. The Riverwalk is a small section of SanAntonio which has a small river flowing through (about 20ft wide). In 1928 some architect, called Hugman, had the bright idea of using the river as a nice spot to have a town walk and a place for restaurants, so he drew up a plan for creating a small loop in the river, putting walkways either side, and since it was below street level, lots of stairways and elevators to create easy access. America’s Corps of Engineers put in a weir and later flood control so that the water stays at a constant level. The effect is a delightful walk through a narrow river valley, with buildings on either side, but plenty of trees, tropical shrubs, cool shade and spaces with many places to stop and have a meal or drink, it is quite delightful.

It sometimes has a feel of Venice about it (although I have never been there), a narrow waterway with tall buildings on either side, also it reminded me of the Pirates of the Caribbean, as the architecture has a very Spanish feel and the whole environment is controlled with the gently meandering waterway, with its unexpected turns, narrow arched bridges and tour boats. The boat trip is very good value at $6.00 (senior rate!)and takes you at a very gentle pace round the whole of the Riverwalk, with lots of useless information about special bits of it. We loved it.

Remember the Alamo

We arrived in San Antonio on Friday after a difficult journey.

On Saturday we decided to take it very easy, so we decided to drive into San Antonio (we are only about 5 minutes from the centre) and found a vacant Parking Meter to park at. (Sally's disabled parking badge means no payment needed )

Then we set out to see that most famous of all historical Cliche's - The Alamo.
We had a great time as we took the audio tour and found out about how they built the Mission.

The Mission is a fascinating place. It is really old, by any standards, dating back to the 1700’s when it was built as a Spanish Mission. Because of hostile Indians, the Missions were often fortified. It is most know for the Battle of The Alamo which took place in 1835 as part of Mexico’s civil war, which in turn brought about Texas independence from Mexico in 1836. I am still not clear why Americans such as Senator Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, Travis and John Wayne were mixed up in a foreign war, but they were. The story of the Alamo can be read in a number of places, most accessible being Wikipedia. However it remains one of the central stories of American history and the site is treated as hallowed ground by all who visit it. For us it (a) filled out a bit of America’s history, that everything West of the Louisiana Purchase was Spanish, then Mexican, for about 300 years, (b) started to place into context the relationship between U.S.A. and Mexico. It is hardly surprising that the border is so flexible as many people of Mexican origin lived in Texas from when it was part of Mexico, indeed it often appears to be more Mexico than U.S.A.

We listened to the Daughters of The Texas Revolution tour guides tell us all about the battle at The Alamo, and about the fascinating history of Mexico, then we went to see the John Wayne Collection of memorabilia from the film The Alamo.

The battle of the Alamo was about claiming equal rights with other areas of Mexico and did not solve much at all, indeed the battle was lost by the Texans. However it galvanised the area into declaring its independence from Mexico and after a couple more reversals Texas was allowed to become a separate and independent country, which it remained for some ten years before entering into the United States in 1846.

While on the tour we listened to a couple of excellent expositions from the staff at the Alamo.

After our visit there we decided to eat out, so stopped at a local steak house The Red Barn and had a very mediocre steak - still you can’t win them all.