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.

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.