San Antonio, Texas!!

Hey ya'll, we just got back from two weeks in Texas!! 

(Their ya'lls rubbed off on me. Sorry.)

I was kinda wondering if I should post pics, cuz I don't want to sound all braggy, like, "Ooh, guess who went on an awesome vacation??" 

However I happen to have friends and family who would kill me if I didn't post pictures so ... yeah.

And so, to make it better for you internet-only friends, you can just pretend that I'm taking you for virtual vacation! And sometimes, virtual vacations aren't such a bad deal. You can enjoy the scenery without having to sit in the car for 27 hrs within two days (ONE WAY!!). Mmmm-hmmm ...

Anyways. So we're all happy now, right? ;)

So let's just skip the car ride and get right to San Antonio!

Getting out of the car in Texas was amazing. It had the heavy feel of summer, and there were birds everywhere. In October, for crying out loud! It's supposed to be sweatshirt weather, and there we were in shorts. Niiice. :)

Anyways, one of the best parts of San Antonio was the river walk. Part of the walk is pretty quiet, and landscaped oh-so beautifully! 

I almost died when I first walked down there.

OK, so I'm pretty sure these are Tillandsia air plants ... in the wild. Oh, yes! I was pumped. 

(You can see an old post I did on air plants here.)

As you walk down, you start getting deeper into the city, and there are more sky scrapers and restaurants around.

Random pigeon chillin' in a pipe. :)

Policemen in boats. Who knew?

There were so many little alcoves and cool things on the river walk. Random benches and stairs, amazing architecture. And at one place there was a hidden waterfall! You would walk up to a brick archway, and then all of a sudden there was a waterfall behind it! It was awesome.

Me and my sis being adorable. As usual. :)

This is a really good view of the river walk. Tall buildings mixed with nature and water taxis and people. Love!

When we walked down farther, suddenly the river walk was lined with restaurants, and sooo crowded! 

 We stopped for lunch at an open air Tex Mex restaurant. It was right on the river, and there were tons of ducks and pigeons walking around in the restaurant. It was awesome. :)

More of the walk. Oh, and just to verify, this river walk is huuuge. We spent hours down there for quite a few days in a row!

One of my favorite things was when we stopped for supper after dark. It was outdoors again, and we had fancy burgers. There were two guys playing slow jazz, and there were strings of lightbulbs hung through the shadowy trees above us. River taxis were going by, and people were quietly jabbering. It was magical.

But we couldn't get a pic of it, cuz it was dark. :-/

Also in San Antonio there were these "trolley cars", which were actually just decked out buses. But it was still pretty sweet. :)

River walk again:

One day just me, my mom and bro went out for lunch on the walk. We sat RIGHT next to the river. Like, I would look down and there were fish and ducks swimming a few inches away.
I made the acquaintance of a duck named Dora (she told me so herself.) Dora was a total PRO at begging. I didn't know ducks had such expressive eyes! She would cock her head, and stretch out her neck. It was begging perfection. So of course, I gave her some of my lunch. I couldn't resist. And I found out something interesting. Ducks like tortillas. But they don't like rice or lettuce. However, the rice and lettuce they pass up, the fish greatly enjoy. Strange, right?

 

(Later I also made the acquaintance of a duck named Waldo, and one named Henly Tucket. But I didn't get pics of them.)

There were birds everywhere. And when the waiters don't clear the food fast enough, this is what happens. :)

We also went to the Alamo! I really didn't know much about the Alamo before we went, so it was great to learn about it on site. :)

Papayas growing outside the Alamo:

And then we crashed a hotel. Hey, we were just walking around and a certain someone (me*coughcough*) had to go ... so we just stepped into this hotel. And it was soooo fancy! And SO vintage. There were wooden phone-booths, and old time music was playing. There were black and white photos on the walls, and goodness, it even *smelled* like how I would imagine it smelled back then. I think it was the wood-varnish that did it.

 And then ... it was time to leave San Antonio.
We took a few pictures of the hotel we stayed at, just as we were leaving. One of my favorite parts of our hotel decor; red, yellow and green painted "booths" with matching phones. :)

So, that's about it for San Antonio!
I'll be back later for the second half of our vacation.
*Whispers* think beach.
:)