Saturday, January25^th :

Marilou wasn't to arrive until around 4 pm, so I spent the day walking around the downtown area. Took some photos of the buildings, etc.

My first destination was the Villita area which is known for its artists. I was not impressed. I thought there would be outside displays, etc. but they are all in buildings. I didn't even take any pictures there, but on the way I got a couple of shots of the Tower Life building that we see from our balcony.

Next I headed to the San Fernando Cathedral to see how far a walk it was, since my plan was to go there for Mass tomorrow. On the way I came to the county courthouse which had some interesting architecture and statues outside.

It wasn't that far of a walk to the church. Next to it was the St. Joseph I believe a chapel for the cathedral. Anyway they had a statue of San Antonio de Padua for whom the city was named. I was able to get my inside photos of the cathedral so I won't have to do them tomorrow.

From there I just walked around, visiting the Alamo area and getting some shots of the various buildings, etc. I stopped at the Buckhorn Museum and talked to the dude about what it included. Decided I'd come tour it when Marilou arrived. I wondered around quite a bit, ending back at the Villita area, where I tried to get a glass of wine, but the restaurants there apparently are partial to beer so I headed back to the Wyndham and opened my bottle of Chardonnay.

Picked up Marilou a little after 4 pm and headed back to the hotel to unpack. She was hungry so we headed through the Villita to the Guadalajara Restaurant that I had researched and was planning on getting Chile Relleno, but they were out of it by that time. I ordered my second choice of Mixiote which is a Barbacoa of Lamb. It was pretty good.

It was drizzling outside so we donned some waterproof ponchos and made our way to the San Fernando Cathedral for the 9:00 laser light show called "San Antonio the Saga." It is a video art presentation by the world renowned artist Xavier de Richemont. He used the front facade of the cathedral as the canvas for the light show dealing with the historical events in the Texas history. It was a little confusing at times, but interesting at other times.

Sunday, January 26^th :

We attended the 10 am Mass at the cathedral. We went there a bit early. I wasn't sure how fast Marilou could walk and wanted to be there early so we could get a seat near the middle and not have our view blocked by the pillars. It's not that large of a building. We were successful in that plan. After the Mass started it got pretty full in there.

After Mass we headed to the Iron Cactus Mexican Grill & Margarita Bar. We both got the Pescado del Mar after a glass of Chardonnay. Both were good. The restaurant is located on the River Walk, but not too far from the church.

After that we backtracked past the church to the Historical Market Square. That was a little further than I estimated. Here is a mixture of Mexican shops and restaurants. Marilou did some shopping she had pledged not to do, but the clothes looked very nice. Near the end of the market there was a place where various dance groups performed dances from several regions of Mexico.

Monday, January 27^th :

I got up early and went to the balcony to try my hand at dark photos of the Tower of Life building and the saucers on top of the Drury Hotel. I needed my tripod and remote switch, they are a little blurry.

So some of the scenes on the way include views of the San Antonio river along the "River Walk". We passed by one of the oldest VFW posts in Texas. The bus driver seemed impressed by the separation of boys from girls at the Providence High School. The bus had some problem light come on so we got off at the Korean War and Vietnam Veterans Memorial. That gave me the opportunity for some non-moving photos. Much easier to take.
We switched to a different bus and continued the trip. I recognized the Frost Bank motif on one of buildings since we used to bank with them. Then we passed by the Market Square that we had visited on Sunday. Got a different view of the entrance from the top of the bus.
Then we passed by the Pioneer Flour plant and the Guenther House that were on my wish list of places to see during this trip. We also got a view of the Tower of the Americas Space Needle that I plan to eat dinner at later in the trip.
One of the curious items we saw was the Fairmount Hotel. It was moved from where the Marriott Riverwalk now stands in order to preserve the historical building. I think it's still a Guinness book record move.

We got back off at the start, then took the Go Rio, river boat ride through the river walk area. We walked around the mall past some are work and down the stairs to find the launch point for the ride. We had an hour wait for the next trip so we went inside and got a chilly dog.

The boat guide pointed out many interesting sites along the way. The Hilton Palacio del Rio hotel was built in record time by completely assembling each room offsite and setting them in place, modular style construction. This was done to have it ready in time for the Hemisfair '68 World's Fair.
There is a statue of a round up outside the Western Art Museum. We passed under a bridge where lovers install locks to symbolize their attachment to each other. We went by the Ben Milam Bald Cypress, from which the famed fighter for Texas independence was killed by a sniper.

One of the buildings looks like it's just a flat wall from the way it's constructed. I think that is the Nix Professional Building. We also saw the office of R H H Hugman who was the architech that had the vision to develop the River Walk area. He set up office there to demonstrate to others it was a good area to develop.

After the boat ride we Hop on Hop off again instead of waiting for the Wyndham shuttle. So I did some repeat photos on the way to the Cathedral where we got off and walked back to the hotel.

Later we met up with Dave and Marlina Rabagao at the Tower of the Americas to eat dinner at the Chart House Restaurant. Another benefit of sitting through the Wyndham presentation was that we were able to get "preferred", window seats, at the restaurant. The sea scallops were cooked just right (tasty), and the company was great. Got some pretty good views of the city and the sun set from the restaurant while we ate and conversed. After dinner we went to their house to visit a little then back to the hotel.

Tuesday, January 28^th :

Ditto yesterday's leisure breakfast then the shuttle to the Alamo. We took the Hop on Hop off to the Buckhorn Saloon and Museum and the Texas Ranger's Museum. Apparently the cowboys that used to visit the saloon often didn't have money, but they would have antlers from the various animals. The bar owner would trade drinks for the antlers. Now there are thousands of antlers on display.

There are also hundreds of stuffed animals on display. Marilou especially liked the rattle snake display as well as the art work formed by rattle snake rattles.

The museum also included a section of unusual animals, freaks of nature. Then there are also several rooms filled with mounted fish. Between two of the rooms, Marilou found a machine for turning a penny into a memento.

Adjacent to or part of that Museum is the Texas Ranger Museum. It has photos and some history of the various officers and their actions. One such story is how Officer Hamer was brought out of retirement to hunt down Bonney and Clyde in 1934.

We then returned to the saloon where we both got a huge hamburger and fries. We got a 10% discount with our admission ticket to the Museum. Above the bar were several bucks with huge racks. The museum includes a 78 point buck that was purchased by the owner for $100 in 1890.

Following that we got back on the Hop on Hop off bus to the King William Historical District. There we viewed the Guenther House. His family was established the Pioneer Flour Mills on the banks of the San Antonio River in 1851. It is still in business near by the House/Museum. We did a self-tour of the House. I bought a bunch of Texas motive cookie cutters in their souvenir shop.

Leaving that Museum, we attempted to walk along the streets of the district to see the other houses, but the streets didn't seem to match the map and we ended up back on Flores, so we headed home. Stopped at the HEB on the way to pick up the Soy Sauce I had forgot to buy earlier.

Wednesday, January 29^th :

Today we headed to Fredericksburg to try out the wine country tasting. But first we went to the LBJ National Historic Park. We checked in at the visitor center complex. We watched the movie on the details of the site.

They gave us a map of how to find the LBJ House. It was a few miles down the road. First we did a short hike through the Sauer-Beckmann Living History Farm. We were able to see some of the farm animals and examples of the living style of the cowboys. Saw some long horn cattle on the way to the farm where we saw chickens, sheep, turkeys and buildings.

At the house there were two volunteer women demonstrating how to weave sheep fur into yarn. In the kitchen we just missed the lunch for the residents that live there in the conditions of before electricity, etc. There weren't any bison viewable at the American Bison Herd corral. But we were able to see the herd later on our way to the LBJ House.

We left there and travelled on Ranch Road 1 to a crossing of the Pedernales River where we picked up Park Road 49. We didn't stop at the birthplace etc. on the way since we already saw them on the movie and went right to the hangar that housed the Air Force One plane LBJ used. It's not as impressive as the one at Ronald Reagan's library, but they got a lot done there.

We entered the visitor center and waited about 15 minutes for the hourly tour of the area. The house was closed due to some structural repairs being done inside, but the guide pointed out several interesting points from outside the building. She did a good job.
First she showed us some models of the house and acreage around the area and the significance to LBJ. Next we started the tour and entered a garage that housed the various cars he owned. The guide explained how he used the various automobiles, etc. to impress other dignitaries. He apparently had a good sense of humor. He liked to scare folks with his amphibious car that could drive in the river.
Instead of having the typical guest register book, LBJ had the guests mark their names in concrete 12" blocks that were called "Friendship Stones" that were then used as pavers around the walkways for all to see. The originals have been moved for protection from the elements, but they have been replaced by copies so everyone can look at how the various celebrities and dignitaries marked their visit.

The guide pointed out the various rooms and the history of how they were used during his presidency that are quite interesting. She pointed out where he liked to hold meeting under the trees by the river, etc. You need to see it for yourself, I can't duplicate.

From there we went to the wine tasting at Inwood Estates at the recommendation of Anna. I was expecting to do the luncheon wine tasting, but apparently when I changed the date that we were going there, I moved to a day that the Bistro part isn't serving so we settled for the wine tasting only even though we were hungry. I didn't know they only made reds. I had to move to whites after my cancer treatment since my mouth is sensitive to acids. Several of the wines were very high in tannic acid. Most of the wines were pretty good tasting, but my gums broke out and they were very sore for several days after that. Don't think I'll order any from them, especially based on the price. I guess I'm a California wine person.

Leaving there we found a DQ for a very late lunch then headed to the hotel, Wine Country Inn. On the way I saw the structure at the Texas Rangers Heritage Center at Fort Martin. I knew it was closed that day, but pulled over for a photo of the structure.

It took the girl at the Wine Country Inn a while to figure out that I had changed the date from Friday to Wednesday, but based on the three other cars in the parking lot, she didn't have trouble finding us a room.

We left to meet Dennis and Phyllis at the Altdorf's Biergarten restaurant. When I made the MapQuest directions I typed in East Main Street instead of West, so we spent quite a bit of time looking several blocks from our destination, before Marilou did a search and discovered the error. Dennis and Phyllis were patiently waiting for us, about a half hour late. Anyway I ordered the sausage sampler I had in mind and we talked until it looked like they were fixing to throw us out so we left.

Thursday, January 30^th :

The Wine Country Inn reservation included breakfast bar. They have a waffle maker and I haven't had waffles in a long time, so I went back for a second. The waffles were to die for after so long. Drove back to San Antonio and rested up a little before the Celine Dion concert at the ATT center.

The concert was scheduled to start at 7:30, but we left for the venue around 5:30 so we could search for it in the sun light. Good thing, they had my researched route via Cesar Chavez street closed and forced us to go to I-10. After several guesses of how we could get to the center, I ended up on I-37 heading south, and turned around to pick up Cesar Chavez street near the Astrodome and made our way to the venue. We were in our seats around 7:00, but the show didn't start until 8:20. Not sure why, but it seemed like the "expensive", up front seats knew the real starting time, since they didn't come in to their seats until around 8:00.

Her show was awesome. I was a little perplexed with the initial songs. She changed her format to encourage participation of the audience which incurred very high volume and some distortion from the sound system versus her focus on her voice at a more delicate tone and focus on the quality of her voice as I remember her Vegas Show. Different but good.

Friday, January 31^st :

The Party's over. We ate breakfast, then completed the packing of the bags. This time I didn't miss the I-10E branch from the confusing I-35, I-10 and various street intersections from our connection to the interstate from Cesar Chavez. I went to the arrival side instead of the departure side, so had to do a go around. Headed home to pick up Tina at the Kennel and then start planning my next excursion.

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