Humidity Saps Our Strength - Sunday, July 26, 2015

Bob was out the door before me to run with his marathon training group. He said he was going to do 2-3 miles with them, then he might meet up with Susan and I to walk with us on the River Walk.



Susan and I met at 7 a.m. at El Tropicano Hotel in San Antonio where the Volksmarch start box is located for the Museum Reach of the River Walk. We signed in and took off walking.

Juvenile yellow-crowned night heron

“Puente de Rippling Shadows,”
or “Bridge of Rippling Shadows,” by Rolando Briseño

Susan wanted to check out the Wyndham Garden Hotel because a Volkssport group will hold a meeting there in August. They will do the walk we're doing today, only starting from this hotel. The Wyndham Garden Hotel is very pretty.

Lobby at Wyndham Garden Hotel

Bourbon Street Seafood Kitchen at Wyndham

From the Wyndham Garden Hotel, we took the steps down to the River Walk and continued past beautiful ponds and the San Antonio River. The flowers along the way were fantastic today.

Water lilies

Bee attracted to a water lily

Flowers framing falls at The Pearl

Bat-face cuphea (Cuphea llavea)
Look closely to see the bat face!

Hibiscus

Hibiscus

San Antonio River at The Pearl

The Pearl

We walked past The Pearl which used to be a brewery, but has been re-purposed into shops, restaurants and the Hotel Emma. Bob called at this point to find out where we could meet up. We decided to meet just north of The Pearl at the intake where excess San Antonio River water goes into a bypass system that keeps San Antonio from flooding when we have lots of rain.

Bob arrived just as we walked up to the area where he parked. The three of us then walked together north to and through Brackenridge Park, then back down Broadway. Bob left us near where he had parked his truck and Susan and I continued back to El Tropicano.

Three killdeer in a drainage ditch

Killdeer

One of the largest events in San Antonio is Fiesta in April. City-wide festivals take place over the course of ten days with music, dancing, food, drink, and entertainment on various stages. The Fiesta store, where you can buy T-shirts, pins, badges, and other souvenirs, is on Broadway.

We also passed by Sam's Burger Joint which Susan swears has the best onion rings, so good in fact, she won't eat onion rings anywhere else. Our walk took us through the Pearl shops and back to the River Walk.

Susan sniffing to find out if the Mexican olive tree
flowers have a scent. (They don't.)

Identifies what the pretty water area at The Pearl is called

Susan on the walkway at Pearl Springs

"The Grotto," by Carlos Cortes

Can you see the skull face? (This is at The Grotto)

The Grotto on Museum Reach of the San Antonio River Walk

San Antonio Museum of Art (housed in an old brewery)

Before I found out the name of the art installation on the McCullough Street Bridge (pictured below), I called it "Hands Across the Water."

“Puente de Encuentros,” or “Bridge of Encounters,”
by Rolando Briseño

When I say the humidity sapped our strength today, I wasn't kidding. We were all sweating and miserably hot. The temperature was probably 90 degrees but with the humidity, it felt like 100. We couldn't wait to get back into our air-conditioned cars.

Susan and I had planned to go to breakfast at the Guenther House, but our movie started at 10:30 a.m. and we didn't have time. So it was straight to the theater for us. We saw "Trainwreck."

After the movie, lunch was at 54th Street Bar & Grille just across the parking lot from the theater. By the time the movie was over, we were very hungry. I had a wonderful salad. After lunch we each headed home.

It was a great day of exercise, movie and a good meal. Just too hot to be walking.