San Antonio Riverwalk, TX ~ May 2021

Not my photo, compliments of Pinterest

Finally, our trip to San Antonio Riverwalk.  We had planned this trip for May 2020 but COVID-19 had other plans.  We don't have much planned in advance except Paul researched some restaurants and made a few reservations. I wanted to book a Ghost Tour but the forecast is predicting rain.  The tours are rain or shine but I don't think I want to do an hour and a half walking tour in the rain. We'll wait and see if it clears up one evening.  Other than that, we'll see where our journey takes us. 

Thursday May 20, 2021

Easy trip through airport security with Paul which was nice for a change.

Our flight was on time and luggage arrived in a decent amount of time.

We took a taxi to the hotel.  Check in went smoothly. So far, so good.  Room is nice.  Two room suite (living room and bedroom) with a balcony.  Paul is a little disappointed it doesn't have a kitchenette but we can live without it.  It has a mini-fridge and a microwave.

The weather is great today.  Sunny and low 80's.  Fingers crossed it stays nice, even though rain is still predicted for the rest of our stay.

We stated to unpack but then decided we should go eat lunch first before it got too late because we have dinner reservations at a nice restaurant tonight.  

We ventured around the corner to Riverwalk.  We stopped into a restaurant, The Esquire, known to have the longest bar in Texas.  The menu didn't look that great and we waited a while but no server so we left there and wandered around looking for something that looked interesting.  Waxy O'Connor's Irish Pub!  Yes please.  First things first, I ordered a frozen Irish Coffee and Paul got a Guinness on tap.

I wanted a light lunch so I ordered an Irish Sausage Sandwich on Baggett and Paul got a Ruben. 

So much for a light lunch.  To-go box please!

We walked back to the hotel and unpacked. Then we went down the street and around the corner to the mini-market so Paul could get beer and nuts. They have a 24 hour coffee, tea, soda bar in the hotel lobby so I didn't get any beverages.

Right across from the hotel is St. Mary's Church.  I'll try to get a better picture over the weekend.

The sign above the bench statue says "Homeless Jesus"

Back to the hotel to relax a bit, and then venture out to explore the Riverwalk again.  It's so beautiful here!  Most of the Riverwalk is restaurants.  We finally found some shops.  Paul bought me a Mexican style dress for a fiesta I'm going to next month.  It's black, off the shoulder, embroidery down the front.  Very festive!  

This just in - they chased the rain away for tomorrow.  Thank you Weather Gods.  

On the walk to dinner I saw a unicorn.  No, really! 

Dinner was…interesting…

We went to Restaurant Gwendolyn. Their menu changes daily because all groceries are locally sourced. EVERYTHING is cooked in a wood burning oven, no electricity. They started us off with their house made bread from a 200 year old recipe.  De-lish!  They have a 7-course tasting menu, of which there were courses that neither one of us were interested in, so we opted for their limited menu on the backside.  Quail, no thank you.  Korean Duck, no thank you.  Beef Cheek Ravioli with Truffle Cream, I’m allergic to truffle.  Grouper, em no.  Paul ended up with a starter called Spring Veggies go to Greece. 

It was yellow squash, corn, feta, Kalamata olives, Greek lemon dressing.  It was good.  For his entrée he ordered the ravioli. 

I ended up with Escargot with Herbed Butter and an order of Roasted Carrots.

For dessert we had a Black & White which was flourless chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream and sorbet.

We also had a Panna Cotta with Strawberries.

 

The most fascinating part of the meal was the coffee.  They make it in a German syphon.  It’s a glass carafe with water on the bottom and coffee grounds on the top.  They put a fire under the carafe and when the water boils it syphons up to the grounds and drips down. When its ready, he took the fire canister from under the pot and heated the coffee cup.  It was not only entertaining to watch, the coffee was delicious. 

 

Everything was delicious, the menu was just a little challenging because nothing had descriptions so the server had to explain all the dishes. And then you're like, what did he say THAT was?

On the way back I had to hop on a scooter.  They have free scooters all over the streets of San Antonio.

It's not a Vespa, but then again I'm not in Rome!

 Friday, May 21, 2021

The weather is absolutely beautiful out on our balcony.  Today we are going to venture out to the Alamo.  Since the weather is nice today I’ll see if I can get tickets for a Ghost Tour.

But first, the view from the balcony:

Straight down - turn the boat around

San Fernando Cathedral 

Court House

Our room includes a breakfast buffet every morning.  During the week its from 6 until 9 A.M.  Paul didn’t want to rush this morning so he said if we got downstairs after 9 we’d just have an early lunch somewhere.  We got down at 9:03 and they hadn’t broken everything down yet so the manager said to go ahead.  He also mentioned that during the weekend it’s open until 10.  They had biscuits and gravy, potatoes, scrambled eggs, sausage patties, oatmeal, bagels and toast.  I had sausage, potatoes and half a bagel.  Not bad.

Forgot to mention yesterday, it also includes "dinner snacks and cocktails" every evening.  Dinner snacks was more like dinner than snacks.  They had salad, chicken, potatoes, veggies, rolls. They also had nachos and hotdogs.  We skipped that because we had dinner reservations.  We got cocktails and took them up to our room and enjoyed them on the balcony.  He got a margarita and I got something that had rum, pineapple juice, cranberry juice and lime.  M-M-Good.

We walked down to the Alamo Mission (or was it up?)  Admission is free but you have to get tickets with a designated time to get into the old church.  Ours was 11.  We walked around the gardens and statues while we were waiting. There is also a Living History Encampments on the grounds.

The church was built in the 1800’s.  No photos are allowed inside.  There wasn’t much to see inside anyhow.  The alter has been removed and there are some memorial plaques on display for those who died, plus other plaques with historical data.  There are several moisture monitoring machines inside connected to the walls.  From signage:

The stone masonry is deteriorating due to crystallization of soluble salts and by expansion and contraction of clays embedded into some of the stones. The sensors will collect data over a years time. The data will provide the preservation team a better understanding as to why the walls and foundation are deteriorating.  The goal of the study is to determine appropriate preservation.  The limestone walls are approximately 4 feet thick on average.

We walked around the Riverwalk afterwards on the way back to the hotel.  Paul went to use the treadmill and I waited for the maintenance man to replace our mini-fridge because everything was frozen and there wasn’t a temperature control on the inside. Beer slushies! Then I went down to join him in the jacuzzi. Yesterday the pool area was packed.  Today there was just one couple when we went in and they left shortly thereafter. The pool is on the rooftop.  So peaceful and quiet.

A better view of St. Mary's from the front of our hotel.

Tonight we have dinner reservations at a steak house.  We didn't eat lunch so I'm glad our reservations are at 5:30 and not 8 like last night.  

Dinner at Bohanan’s was incredible. Very nice steak house.  We were upstairs in a room that looked like it was originally a patio and they closed it in.  We had a table right at the window overlooking Houston St. 

There was a Jane Austin quote on the first page of the cocktail menu:

"I'm sure of this: That if everybody was to drink their bottle a day, there would be half the disorders in the world there are now"

I had a Vodka Blackberry Sour.  It was amazing.

Paul ordered French Onion Soup that he said is better than Zinc Bistro (our favorite French Onion Soup at a restaurant in Scottsdale). I had a bite.  It was very good and super cheesy.  

We ordered the Chateaubriand for Two.  It comes with Béarnaise Sauce, Duchesse Potatoes, Asparagus and Carrots with Hollandaise Sauce. It's carved tableside (typical).

It was fantastic and cooked to perfection.

The meat was super tender and flavorful.  The potatoes and veggies were perfect.  The sauces were very good.

For dessert we shared a Amaretto Cheesecake which had some house made almond brittle.

I forgot to take a picture before the forks ventured in!

Meghan, our server, was phenomenal. Highly recommended. 

Saturday, May 22, 2021

Right now it’s nice on the balcony, but the dark clouds are rolling in.  It’s supposed to start raining at 8 a.m. and continue most of the day. 

Not to worry, we have umbrellas! 

Today we are going to venture out to the Governor’s Palace and the Marketplace.

We have no dinner reservations tonight so that’s still up in the air.  Maybe Texas BBQ or Mexican.  TBD.

Wait, the clouds are starting to roll out!  Who knows what the weather will be like today!?!?

False alarm.  Drizzle on the patio. 

We had breakfast downstairs.  Same offerings as yesterday however today I discovered the waffle iron and cereal bar at the other end of the dining room.  We split a waffle along with a repeat of yesterday’s breakfast.

After breakfast I got one of the room keys recalibrated because it was working intermittently.  I asked if the breakfast was the same every day.  She said yes, however the dinner snacks change daily.  Tomorrow we might go somewhere else for breakfast.

We decided to head out in the drizzle.  We took our Nautica jackets because they have hoods and skipped the umbrellas. 

Bexar County Court House

Founder's memorial

We were trying to find the Spanish Governor’s Palace and got a little lost.  We got to the Mercado, which is actually the entrance to the Marketplace, and it was raining pretty hard.  The vendors were putting their sidewalk displays back into the stores.  I asked about four of them if they knew where the Governor’s Palace was and they all said no.  We started walking in the direction we thought we should be going.  We got to San Fernando Cathedral and went into the gift shop.  The lady said it was on the street behind the Cathedral.  We walked right past it!  We went back and took the self guided tour. It was constructed in the 1700’s and restored in 1930. It was originally used for captains in the military until 1800.  It houses the last visual remnants of the Presideio San Antonio de Bejar.

Hanging out with the Governor.  He was apparently very tall!

We left there and went back to the room.  It was raining pretty hard. Little did we know our jackets are not water resistant.  We got pretty wet through to our clothes.  Back to the room to dry off and rest a bit.  It stopped raining so we ventured out again, this time we traded the wet jackets for umbrellas and I traded my wet tennis shoes for boots.  We went back to the cathedral but we couldn’t go in because there was a wedding going on.  The man standing guard said there would be another wedding in an hour.  We walked around a bit until the wind picked up and our umbrellas almost lifted us away!  We made it back to the hotel. Whew.

Paul went to the treadmill and I met him for a jacuzzi. By then the rain had slowed to a light drizzle. 

We went back out again and went back to the Marketplace.  WOW.  It was hoppin’ with lots of music and vendors and visitors. 

We meandered through the shops and supported the local economy. 

Then we went to Mi Tierra. They opened in 1941 as a three table café for the farm workers at the Mercado.  Now it’s a landmark said to be world famous.  They have a beautiful bakery.

The line was longer for the bakery than it was for a table.  We put our name in and she said “it will be an hour wait, no less than 25 minutes”.  Okey dokey then.  We went to the bar and ordered a beer and a margarita.

The margarita was excellent.  It took about 40 minutes to get a table.  The food was very good.  I had fajitas and he had a platter with fajitas, enchilada, taco, rice and beans.  The fajitas were tender and well seasoned. 

We skipped dessert. 

We walked back and finally were able to get into the San Fernando Cathedral.  They had Saturday evening services going on so I didn’t get any pictures.  They have a very good organist.  Tonight at 9 P.M. they are doing a light show that is projected on the face of the church that is the History of San Antonio.  We saw an amazing laser light show on the front of a cathedral in France. When I checked their website it said it was created by a French artist. Hmmmm. Could it be?  I doubt either one of us will be able to stay up until 9 to venture back out.  We’re old fogies. 

So the old fogies decided to venture out at 8 p.m.  I had already showered and was in my pjs. I got dressed, we walked over, found a nice seat.

It was 8:30 by then and beautiful out.  There are three showings, 9, 9:30, 10. I told Paul they probably start right on time since it’s a 25 minute show and they schedule them so close together. At 10 til 9 the lights on the cathedral went out.  At 5 til the lights in the plaza went out.  Waiting, waiting, waiting. At 10 after a couple of ladies sitting in front got up and as they were leaving they announced the show was canceled due to computer issues.  WHAT!!!!  Hmmm, how do they know?  I got out my phone and sure enough it said all shows 5-22 were canceled “due to a function at the church”.  There was no function at the church,  it must have been the computer, especially since I checked the website before we left and there was no mention of cancellation.  Whatever the cause it was disappointing. We walked back to the hotel.  It’s suppose to show again tonight but of course its supposed to be raining.  We shall see.

Sunday 5-23-21

Its cloudy on the patio this morning but no rain yet.  Its supposed to be cloudy til noon then rain the rest of the day. 

We don’t really have plans today except breakfast somewhere other than our hotel. I’m sure we’ll figure something out.

We started off walking down the Riverwalk and had breakfast at Ostra at Mokara Hotel & Spa. We opted for a table indoors because it looked like it was going to rain any minute.  The food was very good.  I had blueberry pancakes with lemon curd and he had an omelet. 

These were perfect.  Blueberries throughout.
This is a small order (typically 3) as recommended by our server.

Then we walked and walked up and down the Riverwalk and past the loop to stroll a bit along the river. 

It's a duck's life

Love locks on the bridge

Cool door at an abandon building on the Riverwalk

Then we went back to the plaza by the Cathedral and sat in the park for a bit until it started drizzling.  Then we mowzied back to the hotel again and rested a while. 

We can see the San Fernando Cathedral from our balcony so we don’t have to go back to the plaza tonight if its raining.  He hit the treadmill and I joined him for a jacuzzi.  Our typical M.O.

By the time we went back out, the forecast moved the rain to 10 p.m.  Nice. 

Dinner at Landry’s Seafood on the Riverwalk.  A short walk from the hotel. We were a little early so we walked past the restaurant down the Riverwalk and up to the Alamo Plaza.  We went into the Mesger Hotel, said to be the most haunted hotel in Texas.  

We walked around a bit. I didn’t sense any ghosts while we were there. They must have had better things to do on Sunday evening. We walked back around and to Landry’s. He stared with Lobster Bisque and I ordered a Caesar Salad. 

The soup was good. The salad needed a little somethin’.  He ordered Pecan Encrusted Mahi Mahi which was served over rice and spinach. 

I ordered my Happy Meal, a Lobster Tail with Asparagus and Fingerling Potatoes. Everything on my plate was delicious.  

The food was very good but the service was not.  She was pleasant but she must be related to someone to have gotten a job as a server in that restaurant.  We had to ask her to clear our bread, soup and salad plates, she took three plates and left two.  Paul asked for more water and I had to ask again because she never brought it.  Just not on the ball.  

We skipped dessert and walked back to Alamo Plaza and had Irish Coffee at Pat O'Brien's. Bartender made a fresh pot of coffee because he wasn’t sure how long it had been sitting.  Then he put two shots of Jamison in the mug (off to a great start) and topped it with fresh brewed coffee.  Then he put cream and sugar on the side.  That was a little weird but it was still okay.  Every place makes it a little different but I’ve never had it with the cream and  sugar on the side.  Since the rain moved out of the forecast, when we left there and walked back to the plaza. We sat in the park for about an hour until the light show Saga at the San Fernando Cathedral began. It's the history of San Antonio. It was totally worth the wait. Light show and music were incredible.  It’s a “must see” if you go to San Antonio.  It’s going to be showing until 2024 so you have a little time!  

I took about 100 pictures so here are just a few!

Monday, May 24, 2021

It raining now but is supposed to stop from 8 til noon. Who knows? Today is travel day.  Check out time is 11. We'll skip breakfast and have lunch at the airport before heading home-sweet-home.

We ended up having breakfast at the hotel.  Then we checked out and went to the airport. We were super early so it was a long wait.  Our flight was on time but a took a while for our luggage to come down in Phoenix.  

RECAP

The Drury Inn & Suites was nice.  It was conveniently located right on the Riverwalk. We walked everywhere. It's old but well kept. Construction stated almost 100 years ago, Sept 1921. The lobby area is nice, the suite we stayed in could probably use some updating, although it was comfortable and we had upgraded to a suite with a balcony. We use the balcony a lot when were in the room. The staff was very friendly and helpful.  Breakfast buffet is included every morning however they never change the food.  They also offer dinner "snacks" which is really a meal but we didn't partake.  We *did* go by for a cocktail a couple of times.

The weather was a mixed bag.  You know the old saying "if you don't like the weather, wait a minute"?  The weather app was not predictable. Rain moved in and out without notice. It rained off and on but it didn't stop us from doing the things we wanted to do.  We only got drenched once.  It was a warm rain.  The weather was in the low 80's most of the time.  When it wasn't raining, the air was thick. One day I had to stop walking and sit a minute to catch my breath. I'll take 100* of Arizona's dry heat, over 80* of wet heat!  

The streets of San Antonio are VERY CLEAN.  They have ambassadors walking around picking up every scarp of trash.  We did notice Sunday evening that there were a lot more street people sleeping in doorways than there were over the weekend.  I felt safe on the Riverwalk and the few blocks surrounding the hotel.  Not so much at the Alamo Plaza.  

Best meal, hands down, was Bohanan’s.  The ambiance, the cocktail, the food, the dessert, the service, all incredible.  

Not so great was the Irish Coffee at Pat O'Briens. The bartender was nice but I prefer my Irish Coffee made the traditional way. Topped with whipped cream please!! 

History: The Alamo and The Spanish Governor's Office both have great historic significance.  The streets of San Antonio are proud of their heritage and have historical markers on nearly every street corner.  The Saga, light show on the Cathedral was amazing.  Its is scheduled to show Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday until 2024.  You should see that!  

Shopping: The Riverwalk surprisingly doesn't have as much shopping as I expected. There was one area with a general touristy store (t-shirts, mugs, key chains, etc.) and the Mexican Import store upstairs where Paul bought me a dress.  The Riverwalk is mostly restaurants.  The Marketplace on the other hand was full of shops, mostly all offering the same things (shirts, dresses, shoes, pottery, yard art).

Mask Situation: The governor of Texas lifted the mask restrictions the beginning of March "100%", however the mask mandates at individual businesses are as wishy-washy as the weather.  Some businesses have no restrictions, some say not required for customers full vaccinated (which is a joke because its on the honor system as nobody is/can ask for verification in the US).  Some have signs on the door that say "masks recommended", one Mexican Restaurant on the Riverwalk had a sign that said "no mask, no tacos, no exceptions", another had a sign that said "we know the governor lifted the mask mandate but we have not". Keep one in your pocket just in case, or bypass those businesses.  They are required when you fly, both inside the airport and during the flight.  

Overall I'd say it was good trip.  

Special thanks to my sister for taking good care of our fur babies. ❤❤ And to Jay for the best airport shuttle service!  

Thanks for following my travels.

Next stop: Maybe a girls trip to Hawaii this summer.  Another trip to Cape Cod in September, this time with Diane and Jay. We always enjoy Cape Cod and they have never been.   

Here are some other random photos:

Quackers

Mosaic Planter

Tile art column

Light pole planters everywhere