San Antonio Riverwalk

Saturday afternoon we headed downtown to the river walk in San Antonio for some sight-seeing. Unbeknownst to us, it was Fiesta weekend in SA and we were right in the thick of it. Everyone was gearing up for a huge parade when we got there around 5:00. We wandered around the main plaza near the Alamo (it had already closed by then) just taking in all the people.

It was a lot to see!

a panoramic shot of the area across from the Alamo

After we'd wandered for a while, we headed to the Riverwalk to take a river boat tour. The river is a strange combination of natural and man-made sections; the man-made sections were designed to bring tourists, hotels and restaurants together, to create a short-cut between a bend in the river, and also to deal with flooding during high water years. The riverboat tours took us around the u-shaped natural section and along the man-made cutoff between the top of the U. It was so much fun!

That steeple belongs to a church that, every 4th Sunday, does the whole service entirely in German. Although San Antonio is predominantly Hispanic, there is still a large German population in the area.

loving the boat!

This picture and the one below it are of an outdoor amphitheater that spans the river. The above photo is of the seating area, the bottom one is of the stage. The river runs right between the two. If the stage appears familiar, it's because it is in Miss Congeniality!

We kept seeing these trees all over San Antonio. They're called a Mexican Olive tree and they produce little olive-like fruits and have the most beautiful white blossoms. It was really fun to see them in bloom.

We also got luck and saw a Yellow-Crowned Night Heron. They're related to regular herons but are a lot shorter and smaller. This guy has the most gorgeous red eyes!

This mosaic is supposed to tell a lot of the story of Texas, from the Spanish conquistadors to being a Mexican colony and state to Texas' independence to statehood with the United States. I wish we would have had much longer to look at it.

After we got done with the river boat tour, we wandered along the riverwalk on foot (looking for a present for Jed) and had ice cream for dinner. When we were good and tired, we headed back to the car...and had to cross the parade to do it. We stopped to watch for a little while and wait for a lull so we could cross. It was about 9:00 by this time and was totally dark. All the floats and marching bands and everything in the parade was lit up with little lights. It was really cool. I wanted to get a picture of the band's hats but Dave said that was supremely dorky. Bummer for y'all. We had such a good time!