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.
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