San Antonio
Missions, Markets, and Spurs
We left early Friday morning, but not extremely so. I got an hour of cycling in and took a shower. By the time we got everything and everyone in the car, it was well after 8:00. I drove the familiar path through Spur toward Abilene. Surprisingly, the girls stayed awake until we were nearly to Abilene. Paula likes musicals. I played a mix of songs from musicals, with a heavy dose of Disney and Pixar to keep them all interested. It worked, and we sang together for most of the first few hours. We took a quick break just outside of Abilene, and Stacy found some of her favorite bacon jerky. I drove down the back side of Dyess Air Force Base and showed them the B-1s I used to be a crew member on. This didn’t seem all that interesting to anyone except Caleb, Stephanie, and I, so we just drove by and continued Southward.
We had a late lunch of sandwiches on the tailgate in Fredericksburg, then spent a few hours wandering around the shops offering sweets and souvenirs along the old town square. Stacy likes markets in Asia, so I thought that might be somewhat related. Other than finding some strawberry flavored sour tape candy, no one other than Stephanie and Kimberly seemed all that interested in anything in Fredericksburg. Kimberly found a necklace she liked. Fredericksburg has a spectacular Pacific War Museum, located there since that place was the home town of Admiral Chester Nimitz. Caleb and I had been to it before, though, so we bypassed it in order to get to San Antonio at a reasonable hour.
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I had reserved a room at a La Quinta in Northeast San Antonio. In the 80s and 90s, La Quintas could be counted on to have a nice, above average room with a breakfast. They still have breakfast, but the quality of the rooms and the breakfast are a lot more hit-or-miss than they used to be. I booked this motel because it was one of relatively few available that would accept a reservation for six people. The room was decent, though dated, and the breakfast was limited and often not serviced well enough to keep the limited food offerings supplied after about 7:30. We all had a place to sleep, though, which was all I really planned to do there, and we did have Texas shaped waffles and cold cereal available to eat every morning. After we got checked in, we headed over to try a Jamaican restaurant. They were out of quite a few things, but the brown, gravy covered fish I had was good. Stephanie liked her food as well, but I think the exchange students were less than impressed.
Without really having good access to a long bike route from our La Quinta, I decided to run for exercise. I ran a 5k Saturday morning, came back for breakfast, and then we headed out to see some San Antonio sights. We visited three of the four seventeenth century missions that make up San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, interspersed with a tailgate sandwich lunch. We then headed to the Alamo, and spent about an hour or so there. It seems like any foreign visitor to Texas ought to be taken to the Alamo. One of the nice things about visiting the Alamo is that it is located right in downtown San Antonio near the Riverwalk. We hiked the Riverwalk after our brief Alamo tour. The girls particularly enjoyed seeing a man dressed up like a potted bush jumping up to startle people as they walked along. Stephanie was in the mood for Tex-Mex, so we ate at Casa Rio, right there on the Riverwalk. I had a chile relleno, since that was on the menu. Stephanie got a combination plate of different enchilada flavors, which she also approved of. We capped the evening off by watching a 25 minute laser light show in a downtown square that sported live music and a night market. An artistic rendering of the history and cultures of Texas is displayed on the front facia of the San Fernando Cathedral. It was an enjoyable show, marred only by the fact that a breezy cold front blew in that evening. It was cool, but tolerable – a far sight better than the 36 degree windstorm blowing across our farm that evening.
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With the wind blowing and the temperature in the low 40s, I elected not to run Sunday morning. We headed to worship at the Schertz Church of Christ, where we worshipped when I was a student at the Electronic Warfare School at Randolph AFB. We didn’t recognize many people still there but 25 years had passed, and that congregation has a lot of turnover due to the military presence. A man who had done mission work in Taiwan spoke some Mandarin to Stacy, and impressed Paula by mistaking her for an American student based on the quality of her English. She was very proud of that.
Stephanie wanted to eat Chinese at a restaurant we used to frequent in Seguin, and to drive by the house we had owned when I instructed at the EWO school. The food was as good as we remembered, but I don’t know if any of the kids were all that enthralled about driving to Seguin. It only took half an hour, though. We also stopped in to see our old neighbor, Mrs. Bloodworth, who had since been widowed. She is mostly home-bound in her late 80s, but otherwise seems to be getting along fine. Again, I’m not sure any of the kids were super excited about the stop. We cut the visit at about half an hour. Mrs. Bloodworth may have enjoyed a longer visit, but our teenagers had had enough.
Next, I drove to the GIGANTIC Cabela’s store between Buda and Kyle, Texas. Of course, Cabela’s is just a big hunting and outdoor store. The one just North of San Antonio, however, is so large that it has a sort of taxidermy museum inside. There is a safari room, and a room dedicated to North American game with dozens of monster white tail and mule deer mounts, as well as many other species. There are elk, mountain sheep, and many other exotic species all along the upper walls. The store even has a giant fresh water aquarium. Upstairs behind the canoes and kayaks, there is a large shooting gallery game. Caleb and Kimberly enjoyed playing at this, but the exchange students didn’t seem all that impressed.
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We went to Barnes and Noble for Kimberly’s birthday on the way home, which all of the girls liked. We also stopped at Ross, and made a grocery run. We were back at the room fairly early, and ate dinner. I offered to take the exchange students to play tennis, as both are on the tennis team, but nobody wanted to do this, so we just had a relatively early night.
I ran again Monday morning. Most of our Monday was structured around the highlight of the San Antonio part of the stay, a trip to see the Spurs play the Dallas Mavericks. Once we were started that morning, we headed to Brackenridge park to visit the Japanese Tea Gardens. Stacy and Caleb especially like tea, so I thought this might be fun. Brackenridge Park had been a Confederate tannery during the Civil War. Now it houses the zoo and a few other attractions like the tea garden. A Japanese immigrant named Jingu converted an abandoned rock quarry into this beautiful park back near the turn of the century. His family was later rented a nearby rock house by the city, and he tended the park.
Mr. Jingu passed away during the ‘30s, and Japanese culture lost much of its luster when that country attacked the United States in December of 1941. Tragically, the remaining members of the Jingu family were evicted, and the gardens renamed “Sunken Chinese Gardens.” Eventually, after American sentiments cooled, the name of the garden was restored, and the tea selling restaurant co-located at the park was named in Mr. Jingu’s honor. We enjoyed his beautiful creation and took some lovely pictures there. Much to everyone’s horror, I fished a 2 peso coin out of one of the pools. Afterward we grabbed some tea, then headed out to our next stop.
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San Antonio has a historic central market, complete with many Mexican food street vendors, and more souvenirs than anyone could buy. The exchange students went off on their own, and we walked along checking out the kitsch. Paula, Stacy, and Caleb all took a turn at a mechanical bull. We listened to some live music that was being offered during Spring Break. My only purchase was a plate of mini-tacos. I got half asada and half pastor. They were all delicious. Again, the exchange students demurred. That left more for me. The tacos were great. Stacy and Paula did get a San Antonio Spurs logo painted on their cheeks.
Since we were done early in the afternoon, I headed out to look at the fourth mission – the one we had skipped on Saturday. I am glad we stopped. Mission Concepcion was the only one in the group that had some intact painted art from the 17-18 centuries. Paula seemed to appreciate this. They all acceded to photos. We walked the grounds after everyone had their sandwiches. We hunted for some Spurs shirts, bought a few supermarket items, and searched in vain for a Mah Jongg set.
After a brief repose at the motel, we made our way to the Frost Bank center to watch the Spurs take on the Mavericks. Sadly, on the very day I bought our tickets, the Spurs announced that Victor Wembayanma would miss the remaineder of the season with blood clots in his leg. The Spurs had not been all that competitive anyway, but without Wemby or coach Popovich (out with a stroke) they were certainly less of a draw. Stacy was enthusiastic about watching Klay Thompson, the former “splash brother,” now playing for the Mavs. I don’t think she realized that Harrison Barnes, now playing for the Spurs, had been on the same championship Golden State Warriors team. The Spurs also had Chris Paul, but he seems way past his prime. The Spurs stayed in the game, thanks to a solid Vassell effort, but in the end lost by a few points. Thus ended our stay in San Antonio. One Tuesday morning, we would set off for Corpus Christi.
