Well, the gaps are getting larger between posts; generally because we seem to be having too much of a good time and I'm also starting to spend a lot of time trying to organise our European travels.
So since we last wrote we spent a week in San Antonio and are now in Houston with a flight to Costa Rica tomorrow.
San Antonio?....where's that and why go there?? Well do you remember watching Westerns as a kid including David Crockett or the Alamo? I do, but never connected these TV shows to a real city called San Antonio in Texas. This quaint, albeit touristy, city is about 4 hours west of Houston.
Our Australian friends, Tony and Melissa, with their two children, in Canada suggested it as a place to meet up during their spring break. We as always, said, 'why not? We’ve not been there before!' And booked the flights and accommodation too spend a week in a place we had no idea about.
San Antonio is a gorgeous, clean city famous for the 'Alamo's last stand’. An important piece of American history and used as an example to define the price of freedom against oppressors.
Our arrival coincided with school holidays for half of the US and it felt like most of them were there. The stunning river walk around ‘La Villita’ was very crowded but as most Americans do not appear to walk anywhere we quickly lost them after 10 minutes outside of the main thoroughfare! In fact our walking took the kids to new endurance levels. A mix of getting lost, having the kids run around for an hour in a park and unable to find a cab home meant that one day the kids did at least 15k walking. It was only through finding a very dodgy petrol station that sold ice creams did we just stop a full revolt.
San Antonio is a tourist destination and at the end I’ve given a quick run down should you be interested in visiting.
For us the highlight was spending a week with friends in a very family friendly hotel. What is not to like about a huge free buffet breakfast and two hours free bar every night? Our friends children, identical ages to our own and similar in temperament meant the week was a breeze. The accommodation was again ‘The Embassy suites’. Centrally located downtown, on the river walk and with a pool ideal for chucking the kids in after a day on the feet it was great find. A huge foyer with restaurant became a playground for the kids who conjured up games of make believe (great to know they still do this at 12 years old) as well as a dance studio for Erin and Harper who practiced their choreography morning noon and night to the song ‘Stressed out’.
Steve and Kyran were in basketball heaven with three Spurs games to watch. I amazed even myself as to how much two women are able to discuss and, watched our daughters, relative strangers, do the same! Tony and Steve, thrown together by the whim of their wives, did very well in finding lots in common (Sport and Australia!). I wish I’d stopped drinking at close of the free bar but with so much to be said and Steve praying I say it all before it’s just the two of us again, positively encouraged us to go out and ‘drink some more and have fun’. As I write this in detox I suspect I’ve done irreversible damage to my liver and have aged 10 years in the process but I have great memories of a fun week!
So what to do in San Antonio?
Alamo is number one on the list. It’s free to get in (need to check your guns at the door people!) and the huge queues can be avoided by going in a side entrance. This piece of information is not advertised and it’s not until you get inside that you realise this. Apart from the actual Alamo story there is a lot of history relevant to America’s independence and the subsequent revolutions in central and South America. I love history I found it riveting – the kids really enjoyed it too.
Ripleys or Not
I hate these and we did not go in but you can’t avoid them as they fill the strip opposite the Alamo.
Local Bikes
Like London, Paris, Santa Monica and Melbourne; San Antonio has bikes parked everywhere that you can use for about $10 a day. How we wished that Erin and Harper were 5 cm taller when we were half way through our day. We could have saved ourselves a lot of walking! There are no bikes for children – we tried!
River walk
Fantastic. It goes for miles up and down stream. You can follow it to the museum of art (about an hours walk from downtown) which is worth a visit. The kids can borrow a sketch book for free and pretend to be artists while mum and dads lay on the floor and catch 10 minute naps.
Museum of art
See River walk
Historic District
If you follow the river in the opposite direction for 20 minutes you get to all the beautiful houses. Not for bored kids but if you like architecture and are nosy to see how the other half live it’s fantastic.
Brackenridge Park
A long walk from downtown!! Quicker by bike if your children are tall enough! Home to the zoo (We didn’t go but I’m told it’s amazing). Also, home to Witte Texas museum. Opposite is the children’s museum (for the <12 age group).
Kids loved the Japanese gardens. So did the parents who sat for an hour in the shade and had a lovely lunch while the children ran up and down the waterfall and gardens. Then when the children were knackered we made them walk for another 1 ½ hours home.
Hire a car and drive outside of the city.
We hit two towns: Boerne and San Marcos.
Boerne a quaint country town with every store selling antiques. We had a look around. Bought a coffee and wandered down by the river.
San Marcos is a university city home to the Texas university. Steve thought he’d died and stepped back into bachelor heaven as we walked past 30 bars in 4 minutes. Famed here is to grab a big tire and ‘tube’ it down the river. The day we went the temperature was dropping fast and we gave it a miss. Had a fantastic meal in 'Root Cellar' followed by the worlds wierdest ice creams (Mango and Chilli anyone?) from Rhea's ice creams down the road.
Between the two is Canyon Lake and Guadalupe river. There are several caves to visit, which we didn’t bother (we’ve seen a lot of caves and are about to canyon raft in Costa Rica) but we did have yet another bush walk. Kids kept an eye out for rattle-snakes and scorpions and were sad that we saw neither!
Houston next
