San Antonio
January 27-31, 2007
When I found out I had a conference for work in San Antonio, Tammy and
I decided to make a trip out of it. I had been to the city in
high school, but we didn't have much time there, and Tammy had always
wanted to go. The conference was Monday-Wednesday, so we flew out
on Saturday to have some time to see the sights. One of my
co-workers, Charlie, and his wife Robin decided to do the same.
We arrived in San Antonio in time for lunch on Saturday, and we ate at
the first place we came to, Casa Rio, which is also the most well-known
restaurant along the river. We were able to sit down immediately
at a table right next to the river, which was really cool. Except
for the pigeons, the setting was perfect...since it was January, it
wasn't too hot, there were ducks in the river waiting for a handout,
and the occasional tourboat would motor past us. The food was
excellent.
After lunch, we headed down the riverwalk over to The Alamo. When
I visited in high school, we had our picture taken outside, but I had
never actually been inside. It was neat, but there really wasn't
a whole lot to it. From there, we headed to El Mercado, the big
Mexican marketplace. I remembered it from high school...of
course, after you've been to a few of the stores, they all kind of have
the same thing. We bought a few things and headed back to our
hotel. That night, we explored the Riverwalk some more, and ended
up eating at Rita's Ice House. We finished the evening with the
riverboat cruise that takes you all along the river and gives you a
guided tour of a lot of the history. It was really cool at night,
especially on a busy Saturday night...all the restaurants are filled
with people, and you're riding in your boat right past people's tables.
It's a very unique experience.
Our hotel was the Marriott Riverwalk...it's a nice enough hotel, but it
is dwarfed by the Marriot Rivercenter that is literally right across
the street from it. One thing we will not forget about it was the
new hotel they were building on the other side...we could hear the
construction all the time. It wasn't as loud at night, but they
kept on all night.
On Sunday morning, we slept in and eventually went in search for
breakfast. We had seen an ad for the Market Street Deli, which
seemed like it would be a good place for breakfast. We walked all
around the area, obviously targetting Market Street, trying to find
this place, and we could not. We finally gave up and went back to
eat at the place in our hotel...which of course was called Market
Street Deli. D'oh! We had our first ever breakfast
burritos, which were very good. We explored around the inside of
the Rivercenter Mall, which was right next to our hotel, until it was
time to check out. We drove the several blocks over to our second
hotel, which was where the conference was going to be. This was
the Marriott Plaza, which was just a short walk from the Riverwalk.
Charlie and Robin had a gift card for Tony Roma's, which we no
longer have in Birmingham, so we took a break from Mexican food and ate
there for lunch. After lunch, we explored around some more and
eventually walked back to our hotel, where we took it easy for the rest
of the afternoon. For supper, we went back to the Riverwalk and
ate at Republic of Texas. My food tasted especially good since
Sunday night was the start of when I could start expensing my meals.
After all, the only thing better than a good steak is a good
steak that you'll be reimbursed for.
On Monday morning, we hit the hotel's breakfast buffet. After
turning in the rental car, we explored around the riverwalk some
more...it's a very different place on a weekday than it was during the
weekend. There were hardly any people around. We headed
down to the Aztec Theater, which is a restored old theater that has a
free special effects show in its lobby. It was a neat place, but
the show (and I use the term loosely) really wasn't anything to get
excited about. You get what you pay for. We then went and
explored Hemisfair Park, the central attraction of which is the Tower
of the Americas. We rode the elevator up to the observation deck
and were treated to an incredible view of the city. For lunch, we
headed to a place called Shilo's Deli, a very homey-feeling German deli
with the best reuben ever. We walked around some more, then
headed back to the hotel knowing that the fun part was over.
Monday night was the welcome reception for the conference, which
fed me pretty well. We ended up ordering room service for Tammy
when I got back, which I helped her eat.
I spent all day Tuesday in the conference, which took care of my
breakfast and lunch. While Charlie and I were sleeping through
presentations, Tammy and Robin explored La Villita, a group of small
shops and artisans right next to the hotel, and eventually made their
way back to the Riverwalk. They ate at Casa Rio again for lunch.
They ate dinner at Guadalajara Grill, which was also very close
to our hotel. Charlie and I had to endure the conference's
entertainment at a place called Azuca. The first hour or so had
some flamenco dancers (who were really good) providing the
entertainment during an open bar, but neither Charlie nor I drink.
Dinner involved us all being crammed into a room too small for
the group and eating really fancy food that we're just not fancy enough
to appreciate. We had been told earlier that we could have
brought our wives along, for $95 each. We were very glad we
decided against that.
Back at the room, Tammy ordered me a smoothie from room service, since it was my birthday.
Wednesday, the conference again took care of my breakfast and lunch.
Tammy was starting to feel a little ill, but she and Robin again
explored the area and ate lunch at a sandwich place she can't remember.
Soon after, we caught a cab to the airport for the trip home.
Our flight ended up being delayed, then later cancelled, and then
they managed to fit our entire flight onto another flight.
We grabbed a bite to eat in the airport before our flight left.
Fortunately, we managed to make our connection in Houston (after
trucking it through the airport), and arrived back to Birmingham.
Unfortunately, not one piece of any of our luggage made it back.
We were certain that it just hadn't made the connection and that
it wasn't lost, but it's still pretty scary to think about the
possibility of not getting your luggage back.
Our luggage made it back the next day, and the airline actually
delivered it to our house, which was nice of them. And so ended
our trip.
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