Lost - San Antonio style

And how could I be on a trip without getting lost? Doug headed off to a conference, and I headed back to the River Walk, armed with my camera, many, many maps, and my compass. First, I passed these really cute statues, and then headed down the steps to the river. Near our hotel, the river was a little branch off of the main route, and fairly desolate, even in early afternoon.

Here was one of several guys, relaxing, and this one called out to me to take his picture, so I did, thinking he was just being friendly to the tourist with all the junk in her hands. And then some street sense started to kick in, especially as he started to say things that weren't quite intelligible, and I realized that he actually wasn't looking particularly friendly. And I quickly decided to move further down the river and wait for the river taxi some place else.



I walked and walked and walked, and it is definitely a LOT hotter in San Antonio than Grand Forks (like 86 degrees above compared to 30 degrees below that week). At least I started to pass other tourists looking a bit lost and anxious about how and where to catch the River Taxi. The tour boats continued to pass, but the real implications of 25 tour boats on the river to only 2 taxis started to sink in, and I kept on walking. The maps only helped somewhat; it turns out that they are not completely up-to-date about the routes of the River Taxi. I took wrong turns (still along a branch of the river, but off the path of the taxi) and continued to ask directions, only half of which were accurate. Some of the wrong paths involved walking up stairs, crossing a street, and then back down the stairs, and it was definitely disconcerting to see people sitting on the sidewalk--one woman all bruised and explaining something to the police officer that she was "only arrested once prior because the cocaine was mixed with rat poison". About then, I decided it was a much better idea to stow my camera in my purse.

***HINT ***If you're ever in San Antonio, and use the River Taxi, there's actually a phone number printed directly on the all-day pass. Find a table, order a drink, and call the taxi to find out when it's going to pass your spot and just wait for it, unless you really, really want to walk and walk and walk. . . .

After an hour more of walking, I finally got back to the River Center Mall area, exited and headed to the Alamo. The guide books suggested going to the IMAX and watching their video on the Alamo first. Unfortunately, it was already 4:01 pm. . . and they would not seat anyone for the 4:00 pm showing. Another HINT: It's less expensive to just rent the audio tour from the Discovery Channel kiosk in front of the Alamo, unless you really need to sit in the air conditioned IMAX for awhile.



These last two are photos of the Alamo. The history of the Alamo is quite moving and very worth spending much more time at than I allocated. But I had to find my way back to the hotel, and was not confident in the River Taxi at this point.

And rightly not, because once again, I never saw another taxi come by, and settled down to walk and walk and walk. . .



And the strangest thing was that by some fluke, or luck, I came upon a bend in the river that was clearly much, much closer to the hotel than I expected it to be, even though I'd walked past many shops that had looked not at all familiar. I seem to have taken the northern path back, rather than the southern much more-traveled path. And I was back in about 20 minutes instead of the earlier hour to 1 and 1/2 hour journey. Time for a mojito! That evening, a group of us took another journey on the river taxi under the magical night glow of the lights. Ha! I was the navigator! (And I didn't think anyone needed to know about what it took for me to earlier work out the kinks of this voyage!)

Next up, we board Amtrak and head for Fort Worth.

Mi Tierra, Market Square, San Antonio

OK, it's worth going to Texas for no other reason than to go to this restaurant! And look! It never closes!

This is where we had lunch, in Market Square, in San Antonio.

I was practically drooling and hyperventilating in the entry alone, there was so much I wanted to photograph!

We were really, really hungry, and Doug managed more patience than anyone has a right to ask of Hungry Spouse, and I shot away, not getting the best settings or compositions in the world, but enough to play with.

Hot already (especially for us Northerners), the interior of this restaurant must be entirely heated by millions of little lights. I kept wondering about what the cost would be to replace them all with those new LED Christmas lights.

Who's that crazy woman with the camera hiding by the plants by the bathroom, photographing the restaurant. I try to keep photography in a restaurant to a minimum, but this place just begs to be photographed!



Here we made a Terrible Mistake. After the delicious, inexpensive, meal, we passed up dessert! What were we thinking? This place is well-known for its Mexican pastries, and we could have easily carried some back with us to our hotel. Oh, woeful day!

These guys came over and serenaded us by our tables.



And after this, we headed back to our hotel, where I rested for about 20 minutes, and then headed back to the River Walk without Doug, with my little River Taxi pass in one hand, camera in another, and multiple maps in the other.

Market Square, San Antonio

Have I worn you out yet on this trip? Here, we're heading into Market Square and soon we get to be rewarded with Mia Tierra for lunch! On these photos, I used a few actions: Dirt Bag, Lady Ren's Booster Baby and Vanilla Cream, and EZ Action Vivid Color. Can you guess which ones got which?







Take a look at my weather pixie! As I type this, she's basking in 39 degree weather. . . and in Grand Forks, that can only mean one thing: flood watch! We're all listening to the NWS frequent flood forecast updates, and some reinforcing of the dikes are going on, but we're not too concerned at this point.

More of San Antonio, Texas

Today, I'm going to be photo heavy and post more of the River Walk photos. The River Walk is like a combination garden . . .

. . . jungle . . .


. . . . .typical shopping mall . . .

. . . .and museum! This is a statue of St. Anthony. . .

. . . . old missions. . . and of course, wonderful places to eat. All of this is still from Thursday morning along the river.


Just before noon, Doug and I headed west, away from the river, toward Market Square. Along the way, we stopped at the Spanish Governors Palace, built before 1752, and at one time the seat of the Texas government.



It's a little museum, with this absolutely gorgeous little garden/courtyard behind it, where people sometimes wander in and eat their lunch.



Next, we wandered toward the San Fernando Cathdral. Mexican General Santa Anna is said to have flown the flag of no mercy from the rooftop of this French Gothic cathedral at the beginning of the seige of the Alamo. Remains of some of the defenders of the Alamo are buried here.





♦Next, Doug and I headed off to Market Square and had lunch at Mia Tierra. I can't wait to show you the photos!

Just a sneak preview for coming days: there will be photos of the afternoon in San Antonio, including the Alamo, more of the River Walk, and our trip on Amtrak from San Antonio up to Fort Worth. Doug and I met my brother Robert and sister-in-law Barb in Fort Worth, and Barb had lots of ideas for wandering and photography. Barb also got a Nikon D40 recently, partly appropriated by my brother, so we are all enabling each other in photography now! Two of my sisters (MaryAnn and Rina) are also venturing into this, so it just leaves Lee & Maria, Ron & Linda, and Laurie & Jim to See the Light, and yield to the DSLR magnetic pull. You can see some of Barb's photos from our trip here: Journal Jots

Back to the preview. . . And last, but not least, I'll be bringing you another book endoresement by the Beautiful Miss Bonnie. She's quite excited about this one, as you'll see. . .

Architecture: Gargoyles and Optical Illusions

The River Walk has everything! One minute you're in a tropical paradise, and around the next bend is this extraordinary panorama of architecture. This first is a very usually shaped hospital. It's somewhat pie-shaped.

As you continue down the river, the hospital then begins to look like it is a fake, thin, front, and as you look up at it, it gives the appearance that it's going to topple over on you! I'm not sure if the photos do justice to the illusion. . .

And this looks like something out of a Stephen King novel or GhostBusters . . .

. . . with the dragon gargoyles . . .

. . . and odd faces to ward off evil spirits.

Cruising the San Antonio

On Thursday morning in San Antonio, we walked a couple of blocks from our hotel to have breakfast at this little cafe, SIP . . . considerably less expensive than having breakfast in the hotel! It was a good place to grab some coffee, a croissant or yogurt and granola. The River Walk area must be "convention headquarters." All along the River Walk are high rise hotels, but they're slightly set back, so you don't really notice them while you're on the river. But it's very creative planning how many hotels have a section along the river and access to it. The River Walk area is one flight down from street level, so the river and walk itself seems to be in a world all its own. If you want access to a regular downtown city, you just walk up one of the flights of stairs at the street/intersection of your choice. The River Walk reminded me of a combination Venice, Mardi Gras and Deliverance (especially at night, along some of the off-the-beaten-track areas.)



Doug and I decided to grab a River taxi to get to the starting point for the River Walk tour/cruise. The River taxi runs throughout a loop around the downtown area, along the river, and we bought an all-day ticket for $10 each. As Jason, our guide said, to flag down the taxi, you have to wave your ticket around or do something emphatic to get the operator's attention; just a "wave" won't do, because people wave to him all day long, just to wave. It's kind of like flagging a taxi, but it operates more like a bus. Only later did I recognize this as a problem.

In theory, the taxi will pick you up anywhere along the river. One problem is that there are very few taxis operating and lots of tour boats operating. The only way to tell the difference is by the checked black and yellow flag on the back of the taxi. There's about 2 taxis operating on the river and 25 tours at any given time.



Could Doug look any more blissed out? (Well, yes he could, but that's private.)
We took the taxi to the Rivercenter Mall, where we could catch the tour boat. This tour cost about $13.50 for both of us, and was a 40 minute narrated tour all along the river. It was a nice way to learn some of the details of the River Walk area, and to get more photos from the river. The guide told us that during the day, he's seen many children fall into the river, and at night, it tends to be drunk tourists who topple into the river. Fortunately, it's only 3 feet deep, so most people simply stand up.

This set of umbrellas is supposed to be one of the most photographed stretches along the river. The San Antonio overran its banks in 1921 and Robert Hugman challenged the plan to cement it over through a 1930's WPA project. In the 1960s it was refurbished for the HemisFair and became very popular as a tourist attraction. It's certainly popular with me right now!

San Antonio, Texas--How To Get Lost Less

How to Get Lost Less:

Step 1: Get new glasses the week before your trip so you can actually read the maps and street signs. Surprisingly, this helps a lot.

Step 2: Print out lots of maps to carry in your purse. And carry a guide book with you just in case.

Step 3: Add a compass to your purse.

Step 4: Go to a city that has these guys posted all over (Not Doug, just the guy on the right):

They have GUIDES along the Riverwalk!!!! How cool is that? Now, they weren't always exactly accurate in what they told me, but they were about 80% of the time, which helped a lot!

Step 5: Go to a city that even puts these signs up along the poles on many streets:

We weren't in San Antonio very long, just one evening (Wednesday, and then another full day and night - Thursday). But I tried to prepare for the trip by reading through two guide books, the skinny little DK Eyewitness Travel Top 10 San Antonio & Austin. . . which has a little fold-out map in the back. . . and Frommer's San Antonio & Austin. I also made a list of the places I wanted to photograph, because I knew that I was going to try and pack a lot into roughly 36 hours.

Frommer's suggested Acenar for dinner, and their recommendations was excellent! We ordered quesadillas for an appetizer. . . and then I decided that between that, the chips and salsa, and the margarita, I really didn't need to order dinner as well! Doug has this instinctive voodoo built-in radar for food, and ordered the tacos filled with crabmeat tinga (a mix of onions, tomatoes and chiles with avocado), which turned out to be one of the recommendations in the guidebook. This was a moderately priced restaurant.

It was right across the river from the Aztec theatre, a refurbished 1926 movie theatre. In the lobby, there's a special effects show with a pagan feathered-serpent god rising up through the floor. This is free, happens every 90 minutes and lasts about 5 minutes. Unfortunately, we didn't know about this until I read about it later. Bummer.



As it becomes evening along the river, the atmosphere changes dramatically. It takes on a colorful, ethereal dimension, and the pace definitely picks up with a more festive, slightly alcohol-infused tempo. There's about 35 footbridges along the 3 miles of the river, all different, and I really liked how the lights were reflected in the water.



Tomorrow, I'll start with our barge tour.

RiverWalk, San Antonio, Texas

Call me dramatic, but I'm beginning to think that there are huge swaths of our country that are not. . . well. . . . frozen! This is San Antonio, Texas, and Doug and I had the wonderful good fortune to get to go to a conference there this past week.

The RiverWalk is listed in 1000 Places to See Before You Die. But you could almost die of bliss, just being there in March! This first photo is of one of the RiverWalk tour boats that motors along for about 40 minutes along the walk.


Doug and I got back to Grand Forks last night, and we're still bracing for the blizzard that should be moving into our area tonight. When I got off work tonight, I scraped about 6" of snow off my car.

Blizzard Warning

Well, it IS March, after all. We got back to Grand Forks last night, and this morning's forecast for tomorrow, Tuesday, is "No travel advised. The northern side of a "Colorado low" is expected to bring 6 to 12 inches of snow and strong winds and wind chills getting down as low as 42 degrees below zero across much of eastern North Dakota by early Wenesday. Travel may become nearly impossible and will be dangerous, and Tuesday is expected to "white out" at times." *sigh* Can't wait.

And this is what we just left. 86 degrees. Warmth. Sunshine. Green things. Non-frozen water.



Can you guess which location is more likely to be featured in my photos over the next few days? The white place, or the green place?