Good morning once again from the Balcony. Alas, today will be my last post written in Texas.
Yesterday was nice. We started out with breakfast with mom and Dave. My tummy wasn’t in the best shape, so I ate light for a change. After breakfast, we all came back up here to the balcony, exchanged gifts, and shot the breeze. Mom gave C some neat little things for scrapbooking. She also got Green Eggs and Ham for the baby, inscribed on the inside cover. My favorite book as a child (favorite author as an adult). Very cool indeed. They planned on taking the scenic route home, and set sail not too much later. It was great seeing them both!
After they departed, we slowly got ready. We were just about ready to take off, when we ran across one of the benefits of pregnancy. When C tried to put her shoe on, the shoe shrunk! It had fit her the day before, but not today. Must be the AC. So she spent some time soaking her feet in a cold bath, trying to make them shrink up a bit.
Come to find out, putting her feet up for a little bit does the trick much quicker. So off we went, cold feet and all. Down to the Omni la Mansion del rio hotel, just to our East. The history on this hotel is that it was a boys school built in 1852. In was later bought by two lawyers who once went to this school, and converted into a hotel for the 1968 World’s Fair (Hemis Fair). To those who see the hotel from the riverwalk, when the arches change to square, that’s the addition they made. Its unfortunate that the hotel does not pride itself on its history. No historic photos of any kind were inside. So we moved on.
Next stop was lunch at the famous Casa Rio, the first restaurant on the Riverwalk. Opened in 1946 by the urging of Robert Hugman, the architect of the Walk. When you look at pictures of the riverwalk, if you see a patio with brightly colored umbrellas (red, blue and yellow), that’s Casa Rio. The food was great. The service wasn’t bad. The ambiance was spectacular.
After lunch, we walked over to the Hilton Palacio del Rio. The hotel holds the distinction of being the fastest commercial building to be built. It was constructed in only 202 working days using a now standard modular system. The first four floors were built onsite. The remaining floors were built offsite, then brought in and lifted into place. Once again, a hotel that doesn’t tout their history. So we moved on.
From here, we went over to St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. Built in 1868, it was built by the growing german community to hold services in German. Later expansions of the nearby Joeske’s Department Store (later Dillards) tried to purchase the land. Refusing to sell, the store was built on all three sides of the church. This can be seen best from the Tower of the Americas, which I’ll highlight in a later post.
We then moved on to the Hyatt Regency. The only hotel to be on both the Riverwalk and Alamo Plaza, by use of a park that virtually extends the river down from Alamo Plaza, through their atrium, and onto the river walk. When the hotel was built, it could only be built 13 stories tall as a new building cannot extend a shadow onto a war memorial. Being the crafty and sneaky folks we are, we snuck up to the pool on the rooftop for some great views of the area.
On we moved, down the riverwalk, to La Villita. This is a cute little artisan area, located on the south end of the riverwalk. It was the first latino community in San Antonio. Later, it was acquired by the city, and restored as an artisan community.
After that, we walked on down to San Fernando Cathedral, which I believe was the oldest cathedral in the nation still in use. This is the church that is visible from our balcony. It also houses the remains of Davy Crockett, William Travis, James Bowie, and the rest of the soldiers that gave their life defending the mission during the Battle of the Alamo in 1836. Twas an amazing sight, being in that cathedral. Just awe inspiring.
And lastly, after a much needed rest period at the hotel, we went to dinner at the Chart House, at the top of the Tower of the Americas. The food was substandard (I think because Lakeside Supper Club and George have spoiled us), but the view was spectacular. I will let the pictures speak for themselves in my wrapup post. The restaurant rotates once per hour, and I swore they had it planned so that when we sat, we were just shy of the downtown area. When we placed our orders, we just came upon downtown. As we passed the south side of the city, dinner arrived. About the time we finished, we were coming upon the city again.
The remainder of the evening was spent walking from the Hemis Fair Park, down the riverwalk, and back to the hotel.
Yet another fantastic day.