Our Visit to San Antonio

Hola! Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. Last night was Haley's bachelorette party, so I am spending the rest of the afternoon recovering today. :) Since this blog has been mostly about travel stuff lately, I am most definitely due for some home decor and improvement updates (and maybe some wedding stuff, too!), so after my posts on San Antonio, Corpus Christi, and Houston, I will try to bring back the regularly scheduled posts around here. 

Continuing on with my Texas Vacation posts though (you've seen Austin here), let's take it back to San Antonio. This was one of our favorite spots we visited in Texas, because it was just a lot of fun and lots of cool things to do and see. Like, for instance, these giant cowboy boots at the North Star Mall:

Definitely a photo op requirement! But probably the coolest part of San Antonio is the River walk:

The river goes right through the city, and so many of the restaurants, bars, even some shopping, are right on the river. Our hotel (the Holiday Inn) was also on the river walk, so we literally walked EVERYWHERE. We just parked the car in our hotel garage and left it there the entire time we were in the city. Everything we did was in walking distance, and it really did make for an awesome couple of days in San Antonio.

Here is a panoramic view from our hotel balcony:

With all of the foilage and greenery it almost seemed like a tropical rainforest outside our balcony. It was super pretty.

Our first night in San Antonio, we checked into our hotel and got ready to go to the Tower of Americas.

It is one of the tallest towers in the United States, supposedly taller than the Space Needle in Seattle. See that elevator on the outside of the tower in the picture below? That was one of, I think 2 or 3 elevators in the tower, and it was actually was stuck in the middle with people inside. Not sure how long it was stuck for, but it was at least a half-hour that we knew of. Luckily there was still a functional elevator that we could ride to the top!

The grounds that the tower is on are gorgeous. There were tons of fountains and little waterfalls. We explored it more later that night after our trip to the top of the tower.

Trent got down on the ground to get this pic:

We were able to get an elevator up to the top of the tower, and checked out the Observation deck which was pretty cool. It went all the way around the tower, so you could walk around and see a 360 degree view of San Antonio.

However, it was VERY windy up there.

There is a revolving restaurant called the Chart House at the top of the tower, which we checked out, but it was pretty busy, so we went up a little further to the bar and ate there. The drinks and food were awesome.

Here's a view of the restaurant at night from the bar area:

It slowly revolves around so you get a complete view of the city while you're dining. And the view at night was pretty awesome:

After hanging out in the tower, we explored the grounds a little bit before heading back to the hotel.

The River walk all lit-up at night:

The next day we had a full day and night to spend in San Antonio, so we definitely had plenty of time to explore all around the River walk.

We ate breakfast at a Mexican restaurant called The Original, and then walked over to the Alamo.

It is actually a fairly small building, but it was pretty cool to see it in person. 

We walked through the Alamo, then checked out the gardens around it and the gift shop.

The gardens were really pretty, and there were some pretty large and amazing trees and cactuses!



In the afternoon we took a River cruise, where the tour guide explained the history of all the buildings and things around the River walk. Definitely a must-do (along with the Alamo) if you're visiting San Antonio!

It was super relaxing, and we learned a lot about the city and its history.



After the river cruise, we did some more exploring and hanging out along the river. We got huge ice cream cones from a little ice cream shop, and had margaritas at Rita's.

We also checked out La Villita, a little Mexican village of shops and art galleries, and the stage below where I guess they do shows from time to time.

The Rivercenter mall is also on the River walk, which is an actual full-size mall, right on the river. We walked around in there for a little while but didn't buy anything. Just tried some Texas-related accessories on for size :)

Once we were done exploring, we went back to the hotel and swam in the pool, which was outside on the roof, on the seventh floor. Then we got ready to go out to a few bars on the River walk.

We checked out the Coyote Ugly saloon/bar, which was nothing if not classy.... :) 

Then later we checked out the oldest bar on the River walk, The Esquire Tavern. Very romantic, lantern-style lighting which was cool. 

Too bad when we left to go back to the hotel, it was POURING down rain, and we ran to the hotel and got soaking wet! Made for some good memories though! Hope you enjoyed my overview of our little stop in San Antonio. So many fun things to do along the river, and it was one of my favorite spots we stopped in Texas, for sure. Next up is Corpus Christi, where we got engaged! :)