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.

Crack! Splash! Measuring the Trail for a Volksmarch - Sunday, Nov. 16, 2015

Who would have thought that measuring the trail for a Volksmarch would be life-threatening? I met Susan on a Sunday morning to help her measure 10k and 6k walks for San Antonio Christmas Lights Evening Walk.

The walk will be Sunday night, December 6, starting at VFW Post 76, the oldest VFW post in Texas.

Below is VFW Post 76's Victorian-style house with Corinthian columns. The house was completed in 1904.

VFW Post 76, San Antonio, TX

We collected everything to start measuring the walk. It took Susan a minute or so to tighten up her measuring wheel. Then we took off on the Museum Reach of the River Walk. As we headed south toward downtown, we decided to cross over the dam and locks to walk on the opposite side of the river. One of the park police on a bicycle asked us if we were measuring for a walk, so we chatted with him for a few seconds, then continued on with the measuring wheel.

As we were walking along the River Walk heading toward El Tropicano Hotel, I saw a river barge heading toward us. I heard a big crack, and behind the barge was a huge splash in the water. It didn't register in my brain what might have caused it, but I knew there were no fish that big in the San Antonio River.

We walked about 100 feet and it immediately became apparent what had happened. A large tree branch broke off a tree and landed on the path right where we would have been if we hadn't stopped to adjust the measuring wheel and talk to the park police! It was our lucky day! The tree branch could have hit us or the family walking behind us with a baby in a stroller. Luckily no one was there when the branch fell on the path.

Susan and the parents of the family behind us started cleaning debris from the path to see if we could make it through. A police officer on the opposite bank yelled at them to stop. He didn't want to see anyone get hurt if the branch broke in more pieces.

We retraced our steps, crossed a bridge, and walked on the other side to get around the tree. Here are some photos of the tree and the rotted branch that fell. There was no wind, so it was just the rottenness of the branch that caused it to break off.

Branch that fell off tree.

Branch landed right where we would have been walking

The tree the branch fell off of

Where branch broke off -- rotten in middle

Quite a large tree!

We had a few people ask what we were doing, because Susan had the big measuring wheel and I had a clipboard with written directions for the walk. We made adjustments to the directions as we went along.

The 6k portion of the walk ended back at the VFW 76 Post, we then continued on the River Walk north toward the Pearl District. When we reached the Pearl, we found a crew putting Christmas lights on the trees. A long pole was used to throw strands of lights high up in the tree.

Putting Christmas lights on the trees.

Throwing lights onto the trees.

There are blue lights in this tree.

From the Pearl, we returned to the VFW Post, then had lunch at Taco Cabana.  We had a great time and thanked our lucky stars we weren't under the tree branch when it broke! You just never know what's going to happen in life. Life it to the fullest!

If you're in San Antonio on Sunday night, December 6, come to VFW Post 76 between 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. to walk with us.

Travel Bug out.

Sequence of Events - Sunday, June 28, 2015

After vacation go, go, go in Oregon, then immediately working four, ten-hour days in San Antonio, I was ready for a break.

Sunday morning, I finally slept in without a deadline. What a treat.

As I slept, Bob was up bright and early (while it was still relatively cool) to run along the south River Walk in downtown. He achieved four miles. Currently, he is training for the San Antonio Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in December.

Our plan for the day included playing games with Peri and Jim, our good friends, who were staying at Travelers World for a couple of nights to attend a family wedding which was Saturday.

I spent the early afternoon cleaning the 5th wheel. They came over at 3:00 p.m. We played about three hours of the game Sequence, and snacked, and talked (except when we were concentrating on our next move). That game gets pretty intense when four highly competitive people play! We played for three hours, girls against guys, and were pretty evenly matched.

For dinner, Jim and Peri, took us to one of their favorite Mexican restaurants, Casa Sol. Oh, and on the way to the restaurant, we drove through the neighborhood where they used to live. We saw lots and lots of deer!

At Casa Sol, Jim and Peri recommended the chicken fajitas. So that's what all of us ordered. They were right, the food was excellent.

Jim & Peri at Casa Sol in San Antonio

Each of us had a plate of "fixin's" for the fajitas

Each couple got one huge sizzling plate of chicken to share.

We ate our fill and had plenty left over to take home.

Painting on the ceiling at Casa Sol.

After dinner, we needed to walk some of it off. We took Jim and Peri to The Pearl District where the old Pearl Brewery used to be. Even though they lived in San Antonio, they had never visited The Pearl. It is now home to unique shops, restaurants and the new Hotel Emma, built in the old Pearl Brewery building. We were there at twilight and snapped some pretty cool photos.

San Antonio River as it flows past The Pearl

Bob, Peri, Jim with Hotel Emma in the background

Hotel Emma

Pretty sunset

A lit wall with highlighted leaves, blue umbrellas behind

Rusted metal equipment taken from the old brewery
now makes an artistic wall in a courtyard

Cured restaurant at The Pearl

Iris??

The Pearl smokestack

Original stables, now an event center

CIA is at The Pearl

Impressive doors on the event center

Close-up of door handles

Night descended. We headed back to the RV park. Today was a great day spent with friends, relaxing and enjoying life.

Travel Bug out.