All About Our Short San Antonio Vacation

As I sit out on my porch tapping away on my phone right now I feel as if I am writing an essay for grade school English class. Why? Partly because I will be summarizing what we did while visiting San Antonio Texas this past week. For those playing at home, y’all might recall that the destination was a surprise to my family, they knew we were going somewhere, they just didn’t know where that somewhere was going to be. Were they surprised? Pleasantly I believe. Why San Antonio? I had a few reasons, all personal, but I knew that everyone would have a great deal of fun as well. The hotel was the first surprise, it helps to have a family member high up on the food chain in Marriott, because we had a penthouse suite (two rooms connected), which to the average person would be paying $2600.00 per night, I got it for $9.56 a night plus taxes, including underground parking. So, when we pulled up to the Rivercenter Marriott I understandably got a few confused faces pointing at me.

After checking in, unpacking, and showers, we set out for the Riverwalk to hunt down supper. Luckily, for us at least, we made it into Joes Crab Shack minutes before the storm hit. We are, drank, and talked for close to two hours. By the time we walked out the storm had passed. During dinner I vaguely laid out our plans for the next few days. We walked the Riverwalk, taking in the sights, and just enjoyed each others company. This was all new to my son, last time he was here he wasn’t even walking yet. As well for my daughter’s boyfriend, he has never been to San Antonio before. Those of y’all that have been to the Riverwalk know it can be a little overwhelming the first time, so y’all can just imagine their reactions to things. Once it got pretty late we headed back to the hotel to get some rest.

The next morning, we headed out to the plazas and shops of El Mercado (Market Square) for some more sight seeing, shopping, and a late lunch at Mi Tierra Cafe y Panaderia ( Mi Tierra Restaurant and Bakery), my wife’s favorite place to eat while in San Antonio. This place is huge, it takes time to stop in every single shop as one must do when the misses is along. After a few hours, it was time to eat, the food was awesome as usual. So, after a few hours in Mi Tierra, we continued “shopping” until early evening. Even I found some things (besides t-shirts) that bought, none for me, but my mother, mother in law, and for my sister in law. I will get to all that in a separate post. After getting back to the hotel we finished out the evening with a long swim in the rooftop pool. When we got back to the room there was a message waiting for me in my cell phone from a friend who I had called in a favor from. I stepped out of the room so I could call him back, hoping it was not bad news. You see, he works for Six Flags and was was working on some discounts for me since the price tag in five adults for one day at Fiesta Texas is pretty steep. I was very surprised and very happy to hear his news, five adult passes and parking for the whopping pcice of FREE, Nada, zilch, or just plainly, zero dollars and zero cents. Needless to say, I went to bed happy.

The next morning I got up before everyone so I could go to the business center to print everything out from my email.  This, on the other hand, wasn’t free, cost me $21.89 for the internet time and the pages I printed. But, it was worth it. Right now y’all are thinking I’m a real cheap bastard, and you are almost right, but in my personal defense, I call it being resourceful, I know just a few people who owe me favors, all I was doing is calling those favors in. Plus, in this regard, I was merely looking for a deal or discount, but free is always a better price. So, I get back to the room and get everyone up, dressed, and out the door in an hour, record time if you ask me. After a short drive we arrive at Fiesta Texas, its just before 10 am, but the parking lot is filling up fast. I located a spot up front, parked, and off we went. Generally, this is where I would drop everyone off and leave, but since we are on vacation, I decided it would be best to tag along. Ready! Set! Go! Wait a minute, everyone wants to stay in the group and all I can do is smile. Now, this adventure will also be its own post because allot happened throughout the course of the eleven, yes I said 11, hours we were at the theme park. I will say this much though, I only ride one ride when I come here, and that ride is Superman. However, most of the day it wasn’t running, so I thought I was screwed for sure. Its okay though, I spent the day doing what I do, and that is to be the keeper of everyone’s things while they ride. Between people watching I also caught the odd catnap here and there. Superman did eventually open and I did ride it, like 10 times in a row if my count is right. At the end of the day we were all pretty much toast, exhausted, and ready for some sleep.

Friday morning came fairly fast, more site seeing on the agenda, we were heading out to see the Alamo, a personal favorite historical destination of mine. I have visited the Alamo at least 101 times in my life and I never grow tired of it. This will be my sons 2nd time here, and the boyfriends first time, so I figured this was going to be interesting to say the very least. This will be explained in depth in another post as allot happened on our visit this time. After the tour, we all met up again to walk the streets, do all the Ripley’s things, and let everyone do their final souvenir shopping. We closed the day out by having dinner at The Magic Time Machine where Captain Jack Sparrow was our waiter. A night nobody will soon forget. Before heading to our room everyone wanted to walk the Riverwalk once again. I pointed out we needed to get back, it was late, and we has a decent drive ahead of us back to Houston in the morning. I’m such a party pooper. We got up Saturday morning, packed, had breakfast, and headed home. It was a great get away for all of us and a nice break. We all had a blast which was my goal and as a bonus I got to spend some time alone with my wife. I think she liked it too. I will get those other posts out soon enough so just be patient with me.