San Antonio

Wow! What an amazing weekend! We started early with dinner on Thursday night at this great little restaurant in Dallas called Bread Winners Cafe. It's a casual environment with outstanding food that one would expect in a fine dining restaurant. On Thursday nights they have live jazz music, so we got a real treat. Our friend Lesli took us there, and we all had a great time together. After dinner we went to the Cheesecake Factory - did I mention that we don't adhere to the SB diet on vacation weekends?! Delicious!

Friday, we headed down to San Antonio, fighting traffic the whole way, but we had fun listening to the radio. While we were driving the Dukes of Hazzard theme song came on, which was oh so appropriate since we were driving a 2007 Dodge Charger. (No, we didn't get a new car, it's a rental which is a whole other story...) We finally arrived around 6:30. Joe had made reservations at the Riverwalk Vista as a special get-away for our anniversary. It was absolutely amazing, and I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting San Antonio. Here's a picture of the front of the building.

It's a renovated warehouse building turned into an inn. The owners have done a marvelous job at keeping the integrity of the building, and yet making it classically luxurious. There's always 1930s and 40s music floating through the hallways, and it just takes you back in time. The interior of the building still has the brick walls, original wooden floors, and a large wide staircase. There are groupings of leather furniture in various corners begging you to sit and enjoy the view out the large 8 foot windows. The walls are decorated with antique quilts, and hooked rugs. There's a large common area on the third floor where they serve a hot breakfast in the morning, warm cookies in the afternoon, and wine in the evening.

Our room was so relaxing, with a great view of the riverwalk. The bathroom had a beautiful slate shower, and the most wonderful towels. (I know, towels... but they were so awesome!) We couldn't decide if we wanted to just stay in the room all weekend, or go out and see what the city had to offer.

Friday night we walked down the Riverwalk area, to a great little restaurant Joseph had picked out called Jim Cullum's Landing. (that man of mine sure did his research) This "little" place had a marvelous jazz band, and it turns out they have a national radio show, which has been broadcasting since 1989. While we were there, three members of the band were playing piano, saxophone, and drums. And not one of the band members was under 55. It was great! They were playing all the old classics. We had a light dinner, and the most delicious cocktail, called a Yank Lawson. I'm not normally one to rave about cocktails, but this drink was outstanding. It's Tito's Vodka, Cointreau, and fresh lime juice, served in a chilled brandy snifter. It's so light and refreshing, and the aroma is just heavenly.

Saturday we headed over to the Alamo. This was my first time to the Alamo, and the funny thing about it is that it's located right in the middle of downtown. I always kinda figured from watching movies/TV that it's outside of town somewhere. The chapel itself is about what I expected for a historic landmark. The part that really impressed me was the gardens surrounding the Alamo. They're such a beautiful example of southwest gardening, with lots of shade-giving live oak trees. It reminded me of Angel Oak in South Carolina (see picture at bottom of page). There was a beautiful old fountain in one of the courtyards underneath the large oak tree.

We spent the rest of the day walking around the downtown area exploring various shops. Joe found a black felt cowboy hat so he's almost completely Texan now... just waiting on the belt buckle! He surprised me even further on Saturday afternoon by giving me a beautiful silver bracelet with an interlocking heart clasp from James Avery for our 2nd wedding anniversary. He's such a great husband, and keeps taking my breath away.

We left on Sunday morning to head back to Lubbock, but stopped in Fredericksburg on the way for lunch. I think it's kinda funny that there's a Fredericksburg, TX after growing up in Amish country. However, Fredericksburg, TX is definitely a classier place to visit. In fact, it would really be a nice place to live too. It's a German settlement, in case you couldn't tell by the name, and has tons of great little German restaurants and antique shops, as well as lots of little bed and breakfasts. They even boast "authentic, old-order Amish furniture". Guess there's no escaping it...

The drive home was beautiful, and we passed miles of country side covered in wildflowers. I'm not sure yet what the names of all of them are, but I recognized lavender, prickly pear cactus, and bluebonnets. There was also some really interesting red flowers, and scores of a bright yellow flowers. I had my doubts about this Texas landscape when we left Ohio, but I'm finding that it has a real beauty to it, and I'm beginning to understand why people love living here so much. It's a really amazing feeling to drive across miles of land that is still undeveloped and wild, with sweeping views of the horizon uninterrupted by a progressive society. It really confirms that feeling of being on the greatest adventure of my life. I'm loving every minute of it.