Sunset, Kailua-Kona, The Big Island, Hawaii, March 11, 2024

Sunset, Kailua-Kona, The Big Island, Hawaii, March 11, 2024
Sunset, Kailua-Kona, The Big Island, Hawaii, March 11, 2024

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Work, the North Riverwalk, and Super Bowl Party - Wed., Jan. 29 - Sun., Feb. 1

Wednesday through Saturday, I worked at the RV Park my usual four, ten-hour days. We are busy! Besides Winter Texans (the rest of the nation calls them snowbirds), we had an FQCC rally with 21 rigs come in Saturday for three nights.

Super Bowl Sunday, Susan, Darren, Bob and I did the River Walk North Volksmarch which starts at El Tropicano Hotel and follows the San Antonio River north past the San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA), and the Pearl Brewery District, all the way to Brackenridge Park. This is one of my favorite walks in San Antonio. Here's why: all along the north River Walk are art installations - on the bridges, under the bridges, along the trail - each installation has a plaque describing the art and artist. Plus, the landscaping is mature with flowers, trees shrubs...it seems no matter what time of year we walk this, something is blooming.

The fog was thick when we headed out which made for moodier photos.

New mural on El Tropicano Hotel
No getting lost on the River Walk
The  oldest VFW post in Texas is in San Antonio
The photo below is taken behind the San Antonio Museum of Art along the River Walk. I love how the fog makes the trees look otherworldly above the river, but the reflections in the river are so clear.


At the old Pearl Brewery, a renaissance is in progress. The brewery is being converted into the upscale Hotel Emma. Not sure when it's slated to open. In addition to the hotel, new restaurants and shops are already open.

Black-bellied whistling ducks
Brackenridge Golf Course in the fog.
Foggy Brackenridge Golf Course

Sharp-shinned hawk hunting over the river
New Boiler House Restaurant at The Pearl
Here are Darren, Bob and Susan in front of the recently opened Nao Restaurant at The Pearl.
Darren, Bob, Susan M.

Cool entry door at Nao
The new Hotel Emma is huge!
 These fish swim in the air "currents" under an interstate bridge.

Fish art (at night, they're illuminated)
Below is one of the River Taxis on the San Antonio River. It is passing in front of one of the new buildings on the Museum Reach of the River Walk.

Rio River Taxi
In 2014 the new Tobin Center for the Performing Arts opened downtown. Now concerts, plays, ballets and other cultural events take place here every weekend.

Completed river side of Tobin Center for the Performing Arts.
Tobin Center under construction on Sept. 2, 2014
Tobin Center on Sept. 2, 2014
Tobin Center as seen from the side 9-2-14.
Now here's a surprise! As we were driving into town, we passed Travis Park. It looked like there were a lot of painted Easter bunnies in the center of the park. I told Bob as we were driving past that I wanted to stop for photos on the way home. He obliged. There was no street parking as the churches had services on Sunday morning. Bob dropped me off so I could figure out what we were looking at. He drove around the block many times while I snapped photos.

Turns out the "Easter bunnies" were not Easter bunnies after all. They were art pieces from Monterrey, Mexico on loan to San Antonio. The show is called Mano Factura: Arte Regio. As you can see they are quite unique and definitely not rabbits.







Travis Park with Mano Factura art
Bob was a good sport and just kept driving around the block for me. We kept an eye on each other so I knew where he was when it was time for me to hop in the car.

We went home and relaxed until almost Super Bowl time. Susan and Darren invited us to their home for the party. We brought the pizza and some gourmet cupcakes. Susan made Caesar salad, piroshki's with ground beef filling, olive spread, spinach dip, and provided a veggie tray, fruit tray, chips, ice cream sundae bar with four kinds of ice cream, toppings, and whipped cream. Lynn brought homemade peach cobbler. Darren made a refreshing punch with pineapple juice, orange juice, and ginger ale. We ate like kings.

Too bad the game wasn't as good as the food. We're Seahawks fans and the Hawks sucked. At least we had good camaraderie and enjoyed watching (most of) the commercials.

Susan recently took up making stained glass windows. They converted a room of their house to her stained glass studio. The carpet was ripped out and they installed new flooring. Here is Susan in her new studio with one of her projects.

Susan in her studio
Susan & Darren's remodeled room (new flooring)
Now you are up to date for last week. We had a terrific time.

Travel Bug out.


7 comments:

  1. So looking forward to the Riverwalk, thanks for the preview!

    Hans and I will be staying at your RV park for one week starting 2/16. I hope you two will be around that week and we'll have a chance to meet up.

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    Replies
    1. Hans and Lisa,
      We're so excited you'll be staying at Travelers World! We definitely must get together and do some walking or hiking. If you like bird watching, Mitchell Lake Audubon Center is about 10 minutes from the RV park and our park is right at an entrance onto the Mission Reach of the River Walk. Both of us work, so we can do things around the schedule. I work Wed. through Saturday, and Bob can be somewhat flexible on his days off. The best date for us to get together would be Sunday, Feb. 22. Tuesday, Feb. 17 is also an option, but I have a work meeting regarding benefits (don't know time of it yet).

      We are looking forward to meeting you!

      Delete
    2. Sounds great! One or both of those days should work, I guess it depends on weather and any other thing that comes up in the meantime. We'll talk when we arrive and see what we can put together. You know we love hiking! :-) Looking forward to meeting you!

      Delete
  2. There's never been a closer second place to any game I've watched.

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  3. really looking forward to exploring the expanded RiverWalk when we come back through SA. . .great pics!

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  4. So fun! You see the coolest things and I really love the hawk (of course) but the trees on the golf course in the fog are really super! Didn't know about their sculptures either which is very cool. So much talent.

    ReplyDelete

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