San Antonio

What a beautiful city!!! While in San Antonio we stayed with Australian friends Darren and Tanya who are also over here on posting with the RAAF. It's great catching up with other Australians going through the same experiences and swap a few stories on the various adventures we've all had.

The centerpiece of the town is the riverwalk, a series of walkways along the banks of the San Antonio river, is lined with bars, restaurants and shops and a major tourism hub. We did a river boat cruise around the riverwalk before spending a few hours just walking around the shops and having lunch. I'm sure at night the place really comes alive but with little Alexander only 4 months old we weren't staying out to check it out. A few movies have used the riverwalk as a backdrop to various senses, including the Sandra Bullock movie "Miss Congeniality" when her character launchers herself at someone in the crowd because they were carrying a gun. Something that is not uncommon in Texas. Unfortunately Sandra wasn't there that day but it's a beautiful place to visit.

The other highlight of San Antonio (at least for Adam) was to visit the Alamo. It's real name is Alamo Mission and was formerly a Roman Catholic mission but it is most famous for the Battle of the Alamo, which took place in 1836 during the Mexican revolution. Davy Crockett was killed as part of the Battle of the Alamo, along with some other famous American frontiersmen. There is not much remaining of the original structure but something that struck us is how small it is or was. They certainly did well to withstand the siege for as long as they did (about 11 days).

Carol was thrilled to visit another place with a military background so for her the highlight was definitely the riverwalk.