Four Fall Days in San Antonio

 

I have a rather long list of places I want to visit.  Or re-visit.  San Antonio, Texas wasn't on that list.  It's not that I didn't want to go there, it's just I had never been given any reason to consider going there. 

Then, nearly a year ago, we found out that Matt could get sent to a conference.   He could go or he could pass but then he'd be put at the end of the line and might not be up to go again for ~10 years.  He's been to this conference before, in Miami in 2011 and Boston in 2016, both trips I tagged along on (and Luke too to Boston). After many weeks of debating, we decided that Matt would go but then we spent another few months debating if the boys and I should go too.  Most of it fell over Luke's fall break, he'd just have to miss a day of school, otherwise we wouldn't have considered it.  

Months of looking for flights and at hotels and debating and going over and over it.  There were no direct flights from home and we looked at Indy or Detroit too (where we flew out of for Boston and Matt's work trip to Las Vegas, respectively).  We finally booked non-direct flights 2ish months before the trip.  Why not make it a family adventure??  

Luke had done two flying trips with us (Boston and Las Vegas) and Sam one (Las Vegas, where he was a baby and remembers nothing).  Both those had been direct flights.  I was right to be concerned about having a layover on this one.

We flew out on a Friday afternoon and then had about 45 minutes on the ground in Charlotte before a 4 hour flight to San Antonio, landing there around midnight our time.  I don't know that I've ever been in an airport as busy as Charlotte was on that Friday night and we've been in Chicago, LAX, Heathrow (London), and Atlanta.  It seemed 75% of the other travelers were running between gates and the walk between our gates took at least 15 minutes.  Sam was tired and didn't understand why everyone was walking on the moving sidewalks.  What was the point of that?!?! He fell asleep on the flight to San Antonio and that was great for everyone.  Ahhh...to be 4 and sleep comfortably in an airplane seat.

 

San Antonio brought our first ride-share experience, Matt used Lyft.  That was handy and convenient.  We checked into our hotel about midnight, local time, 1am at home.  It was a long day.  

 

The conference had given a few hotel to book at and we picked the SpringHill Suites because we'd have a mini-fridge and microwave in our room as well as free breakfast.  It wasn't the closest to the River Walk but having that mini kitchen and breakfast would be so helpful with the kids.  I don't remember if the other options had a pool but this one did, again, crucial with the kids.  We went a day early and so had to pay for one night at the hotel but the hospital paid for the other 4 as well as Matt's flight and all of his meals (I'm not saying we've gotten good at him ordering big meals and then sharing them with the family...but I am saying it could be a useful skill to have on trips like these.).

 

The breakfast wasn't the best continental breakfast we've ever had but it was still good, I'd give it a solid B.  They had waffles shaped like Texas which one our children had every single morning there.  The staff working the breakfast also encouraged us to take a lot of food with us which is where Sam's daily lunch of PB&J came from (we ate almost all our lunches in the hotel room).  Plus, our room had nearly my favorite shade of blue featured on the wall and carpets so I was delighted by that.  

 

Going into this trip I knew one thing about San Antonio.  It had the Alamo.  I do not know how that information stuck in my head but it did.  When telling people we were going to San Antonio, nearly everyone asked if we were doing the River Walk.  Nothing about that had ever stuck in my head but now apparently it seemed that we had to look into that.  So we did.  It's a walk.  By a river.   Sure, I figured we'd do it.  

Then it turned out to be our favorite thing in San Antonio.

 

 

Thursday's post will be about our three main activities on this trip.   But the River Walk was a pretty important part.  Other than the day we arrived around midnight, we spent part of each day at the River Walk.  And the more time we spent there the more I liked it!  By our first evening I was hooked.  I LOVE walking around in decent crowds and taking it all in (See also: Times Square and the Vegas strip during non-weird hours).

 

 

We ate along the River Walk three nights, one being a Saturday night which was, by far, the busiest.  First was Casa Rio which is home to the famous (really, look at nearly any picture of San Antonio and I think they are featured) umbrella'ed tables (although we didn't sit at one of those, we were put under a bridge like trolls, this was also on Saturday night when we already had waited 45 minutes for a table after Mass so we weren't going to be picky).  Next was the Rain Forest Cafe which Matt & I had eaten at in Las Vegas and thought the kids would get a kick out of.  The last one was The Republic of Texas where they had umbrellas with the Texas flag on them.  The first and third were outside, eating right by the River which was so fun.  Food was fine at all 3.  We ordered too much food at Casa Rio and those leftovers were our lunch (with Sam's breakfast provided PB&J) for the rest of the trip (see: why we needed a fridge and a microwave).  

 

 

Why I am talking food, I should also mention that we had a longer layover in Charlotte on the way home and had time for my beloved Jamba Juice and Shake Shack, two of our NYC staples.   That Aloha Pineapple was just as good as I remembered it.  Matt was, unsurprisingly, less excited about both of those stops.  

Also on the topic of food, I left my children alone in a hotel room for the first time ever.  So I could run one floor down, gone about 3 minutes total, to grab a hot tea while they were still asleep the mornings Matt left early to go to his conference.  I then sat by the mini fridge area, where I could turn on a light without waking them up, and read my books.  It was a delight.  (One of those mornings my light burnt out so I was stealing a lightbulb from a lamp in the room so I could continue my reading.)   (And if you are wondering, that is my beloved sweatshirt I am wearing.  Of course I took it.  Went on my person or carry-on both ways.  I wouldn't dare check it.)  I even thought to save my cup and used the same one each morning of our trip!  As well as taking down some plastic ware that I kept washing in the room sink and reusing.  Trying to throw away less, even on vacation!

BACK to the Riverwalk.  It was delightful people watching and had such a wonderful atmosphere.  It's set a level below street level, with bridges crossing above for traffic.  Meaning you can just keep walking without having to cross a street.  It's bordered mostly by restaurants but some shops too.  One side was more restaurant-y.  The other (which I only ended up walking during the day with the boys) was much quieter (you can see part of it in Miss Congeniality, a fact I only learned when we took a boat ride and then proceeded to look up clips of).  We spent part of 3 evenings walking along it and I loved all of it.  Boys and I went back during two of the days to walk a bit more of it.  It was just so much fun.

The river is largely man made and only 3 feet deep.  They drain it at least once a year in order to clean it (they report finding A LOT of cell phones in there).  It did feel safer walking along it, knowing how easy it would be to grab one of our kids out of it if they fell in (they never did, we didn't see anyone in the river the whole time).  It's a bit different than it would be walking right along side our rivers here at home!

As for what else the boys and I did for 2½ days in a hotel room while Matt was gone?  We visited the pool, did some souvenir shopping (including for a bottle opener after Matt sliced his hand opening a bottle of hard cider we bought at a CVS along the River Walk).  I couldn't take my usual crate of books that goes along on road trips but I did have a chapter book going with each of the boys and I read to them (we need books constantly in our lives.  I also took 4 for myself.)  We visited the pool.  We did some drawing in the hotel room.  They got Dude Perfect while I read.  (Dude Perfect on smart TVs saved us more than once in hotel rooms last year.  It is perfect because it requires no logging in and hours of entertainment.  Although we never did hours in one sitting.).  We also spent a good amount of time at breakfast each morning and they slept in.  All in all, not too bad of a way to spend a few days.

Other items of note...we bought a 6 pack of hard ciders at CVS our second night but then I decided we couldn't leave Texas without getting margaritas so we did that our last night on the River Walk.  Matt decided it would be a terrible idea to drink those while we walked along a body of water with our two kids but it turns out people watching with a beverage is a delightful activity that I greatly enjoy (see: Jamba Juice in Times Square).  Our kids also shared a strawberry limeade we bought in an obnoxious cup that still lives with our sand toys.  It looked like they were drinking a margarita but, trust me, they were not. 

We went to mass at St. Francis which sits so close to the River Walk that it's mentioned in the boat tours.  It's also surrounded by a mall.  Not related to St. Francis but do you know how San Antonio got it's name?  When missionaries landed there in the 1700s or something, they said Mass on this little island on the River Walk (where the boys and I stopped) and, since it was the feast of St. Anthony, they decided to name the island/settlement San Antonio.  At least that's the story on the plaque on the island (greatly paraphrased). 

We thought San Antonio was a small town, too small to get direct flights.  We learned while there that it's the 6th biggest city in the US.  (Recently gone up one spot!)  We only saw a tiny bit of it, other than our Lyfts to and from the airport.  The little bit centered around the River Walk that we saw was the very touristy part but we really enjoyed our few days there. 

It's not somewhere I ever would have thought to pick but I'm glad we all tagged along anyways.  It was a fun getaway in the fall when the weather was cooling off at home and I always appreciate a family adventure to a new spot.  This was a good one.

Sam and I got the pleasure of sitting in the VERY BACK ROW of the plane, next to the bathroom, on the way home.  Of course, this might have been our only flight of the 4 that Sam didn't insist on using the bathroom.