Hey hey hey! Happy Wednesday everyone! Man, it was hard to get out of bed yesterday morning. But, it was motivating knowing I was starting the work week off on a Tuesday rather than a Monday!
I hope you all had a fun (and hopefully long) weekend like we did! I only worked a half day last Friday and left the office at around 11am headed home. After some last minute packing, we hit the road towards San Antonio at around 2pm. The drive was a quick 2.5 hours (it seemed even quicker for me because I slept part of the way) and we were checking into the hotel by 4:30. Luckily we stayed at a hotel that was on the Riverwalk and easily accessible to almost everything by foot. By 5:30 we were on the Riverwalk having a drink.
I went to San Antonio with my family when I was very young, probably 8 or 9, and don't remember it being anything like it is today! It's absolutely gorgeous and it didn't take me long at all to fall in love with the city.
We had originally planned to have dinner at Dick's Last Resort, but ended up having one drink there and then walking along the Riverwalk until we found another place that looked like fun. We ended up at Waxy O'Connor's Irish Pub.
Schoen absolutely loves Irish whiskey, so stopping at this place was a no brainer. We each had a few drinks and I ate a small bowl of potato and leek soup to tide me over until dinner time.
We hung out at Waxy's until it was time to head toward the Alamo for the Sisters Grimm Ghost walk at 8:30. We ended up getting there early and walked around the outside of the Alamo for a bit, snapping some pictures.
When I was little, the Alamo seemed much bigger than it really is. It was great being able to snap some pictures when there were not swarms of people in front of it.
At around 8:30, our Ghost Walk started and was led by Mark, who was very appropriately dressed for the occasion. lantern and all!
We visited between 6 and 10 of the most haunted places in San Antonio, the most popular of the places was the Historic Menger Hotel.
After we learned a bit about the Menger, we headed over to the Emily Morgan Hotel.
I had actually learned about Emily Morgan back in school. For those of you who don't know, Emily Morgan was an indentured servant who had been captured by Santa Anna and the Mexican forces back in 1836. She was the inspiration behind the song The Yellow Rose of Texas and legend has it that she haunts this hotel.
A few other places we stopped were the Casino Club Building and the Spanish Governor's Palace.
If you ever plan on visiting San Antonio, I highly recommend going on a Ghost Walk with Sisters Grimm. It's very affordable and our guide was incredibly knowledgeable, funny and answered any questions we had. It's a great way to get to see a large part of the downtown area, while learning a lot of the history of San Antonio and hearing ghost stories!
After the Ghost Walk, we headed over to the Hard Rock Cafe for a really late dinner and then we called it a night because we were exhasuted!
I had originally planned to get up early Saturday morning and get in a 4 mile run along the Riverwalk, however my feet were so sore from the amount of walking we did the previous day/night that I knew there was no way I would be able to tackle a run. So, I listened to my body and took the day off. After grabbing a quick breakfast at the hotel buffet, we headed out to explore more of the city.
Despite our sore feet, we decided to walk back over to the main park of the Riverwalk from our hotel. I wore a different pair of shoes on Saturday and my feet were thankful. San Antonio is such a gorgeous city, with a ton of great places to snap pictures.
After taking our time strolling along the water, we eventually made it back over near the Alamo. We decided to pop into the Menger Hotel to take a look at the inside.
The pictures taken below are from the original part of the hotel which was built back in 1859. The hotel is absolutely stunning inside and my pictures definitely do not do it justice.
After checking out the Menger we headed back over to the Alamo which was right next door, for First Saturday. Admission to the Alamo is always free, and after a quick 30 minute wait in line, we were inside.
Every first Saturday of the month the inside of the Alamo is transformed to give visitors a glimpse of what life was like back in the 1830's. It was so neat to get to listen to some of the speakers and see some of the demonstrations.
After exploring The Alamo for about an hour, we took a much needed walking break before heading over to Market Square. We decided to hop on one of the trolley's that can transport you throughout the city. Our feet were very happy to be resting for a while!
At around 1pm we made it to Market Square and after numerous recommendations (thank you Facebook friends!) we headed straight to Mi Tierra for lunch.
There was about a 30 minute wait, so we just grabbed a drink at the bar. Their mango margarita's are amazing!
Schoen and I both agreed that the food at Mi Tierra was easily the best Mexican food we have ever had. It was delicious and we both had no problem making happy plates.
After lunch, we headed into Market Square to do some shopping.
There are a ton of shops filled with colorful pottery, knick knacks and decorations.
I ended up picking up a few of these brightly colored bowls for our kitchen.
After lunch and shopping, we headed back to the hotel to clean up and rest a bit. The remainder of our night was spent on the Riverwalk bar and restaurant hopping. Come Sunday morning, we were exhausted and our feet needed some rest so we decided to head back to Houston shortly after breakfast.
Overall our San Antonio trip was an absolute blast and we already have a list of things we want to do and places we want to visit on our next trip!Labels: Holidays, Houston, Vacation
