Lightseeing, Part 1 - December 17, 2015

Thursday, December 17:
Magical, beautiful, fantastic light displays make the San Antonio downtown River Walk a great night-time visitor's mecca from the Friday after Thanksgiving until New Year's Eve. Bob and I had the pleasure of doing a 10K (6.2 mi.) Christmas Lights Walk with Susan, Darren and their son, Kyle, on Thursday night, December 17.

The walk started at VFW Post 76, the oldest post in Texas. From there, we immediately entered the River Walk trail and headed toward the locks on the river.

Lights by the locks reflected in the San Antonio River

Beautiful lighted decorations line the path

Tobin Center for the Performing Arts

Tobin Center for the performing arts opened this year. We were delighted to see the colored lights adorning the building and wonder if they will change the colors with the holidays. Red, white and blue for 4th of July, perhaps?

As we walked, we passed river barges loading people for river barge tours of the River Walk holiday lights. 

River barges to take people lightseeing

Waterfall court at Embassy Suites Hotel

The next part of our walk led us up to the Main Plaza in front of the San Fernando Cathedral. When we crested the stairs we heard music. Lo and behold, The Saga, a 24-minute art installation laser light show projected onto the facade of the San Fernando Cathedral, was in progress. The show usually runs Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. We were delighted by our good fortune to see it on a Thursday night. The Saga will be in San Antonio for ten years.

The pictures below don't do the laser light show justice. The lights are continually moving and changing to show the history of San Antonio in 24 minutes. You will get the idea of how cool this is, though.

The Saga at the San Fernando Cathedral

The Saga at the San Fernando Cathedral

The Saga at the San Fernando Cathedral

From the cathedral, we crossed the street to the Bexar (pronounced "bear") County Courthouse. Taking photos at night shows a different side to San Antonio than what you see during the day.

Bexar County Courthouse in the foreground

Entryway to the courthouse

La Villita lights

La Villita was originally settled nearly 300 years ago. Now this is a historic arts village. Click the link to read more.

By this time in our walk we were hungry. I talked everyone into going to The Republic of Texas which was on our route. While the food was good, the service was quite slow. Therefore our walk lasted longer than it should have. It was okay, though, we were out to enjoy the evening, not rush through it.

Kyle and Darren at dinner

Me and Bob at dinner

Looking at Republic of Texas and the
River Walk from Commerce St. bridge

We resumed our walk with nice full tummies. Next stop: the Alamo. Every year there is a themed Christmas tree at Alamo Plaza. This year's theme is the San Antonio Spurs.

Carriage ride, anyone?

The Alamo

Alamo Plaza Christmas tree

Kyle and Darren

Spurs logos, player numbers and basketballs adorn
this tree

Waterfall court of the Hyatt Regency

In the Hyatt's waterfall court is the Biergarten restaurant. We weren't hungry, but a photo opportunity presented itself and Kyle took a great photo of the four of us.

Bob, Me, Darren and Susan M.

After we walked through the Hyatt Regency, we were back on the River Walk enjoying the lights.

My favorite photo of the evening!

From downtown, we headed north onto the Museum Reach of the River Walk toward The Pearl (where there used to be a brewery...now transformed into the Hotel Emma, shops and restaurants). Along the Museum Reach of the River Walk, different types of art are along the path. Underneath the I-35 bridge are large fish. At night, the fish are lit.

Coming up on The Pearl "lagoon"

Once past The Pearl, an outdoor eatery had this tree trunk ensconced in lights.

After The Pearl, we made our way back to the VFW Post and called it a night. The weather was lovely for our six-mile walk, but the Christmas lights truly made it magical.

Check the next post for another night of lightseeing.