River Walk
San Antonio's River Walk is a 3 - 4 mile flagstone esplande that borders the San Antonio river. It is flanked by restaurants, hotels, shops, and activities, not to mention the convention center and a BYOB (bring your own boat) area for kayak enthusiasts to navigate.
I was there with T3 and we decided on a boat tour of the 4 miles of the River Walk that is allowed public boat transportation. I didn't get a lot of great pictures (we were sandwiched in with little maneuverability), but rest assured it is absolutely gorgeous, and I think it is a great addition to the city.
I didn't get the best angle on this building, but as you come out from under a bridge it looks like this is a free floating wall rising out the street.
This is an old German church (San Antonio is the edge of Hill Country, remember).
This building looks like a boat looming over the river.
After the boat tour T3 headed home. Their little ones were super tired, but I decided to stay and have lunch at Ritas on the River. I'd done a little research on various restaurants along the River Walk and had several in mind. Ritas ended up being the closest to where the boat dropped us off, but it was only marginal in terms of deliciousness, AND there were a gazillion pigeons all over the place. This is why I don't eat outside. Also, those are TAMU Aggies loitering and chasing pigeons. :)
Looking at the River Walk from street level. This is the slow season in San Antonio so there was a lot of construction going on all over the River Walk. The Walk itself is pretty narrow, so some paths were completely closed with detours up to street level and then back down to the river level. There were "guides" all over on street level asking as you came up the stairs if you needed to reacquire the River Walk. I thought that was a super perk!
I have horrible navigational skills and because of this thought I would be forever lost in the jungle known as River Walk. It is however, surprisingly easy to navigate, and there are a ton of river taxis that make getting around very, very easy. Love the River Walk!
Hill Country
Texas Hill Country is roughly the size of Connecticut (think about that my east coast friends - a small region of Texas is the size of Connecticut) and sports rolling hills that never rise more than 1,900 feet. It was settled in the mid-1800s by mostly German immigrants. The most prominent feature of Hill Country are wildflowers, and I spent the morning at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin.
Side note: just outside of Austin is a town called Dripping Springs, Texas and its water tower proclaims it is the "Gateway to Hill Country".
I will start by saying that I really miss living near (enough) The Huntington. I continue to believe that one day I'll move somewhere with a lovely botanical garden that I love almost as much, but alas, the Wildflower Center is not it. I suspect that it is glorious during the prime wildflower bloom in the spring. So there will likely by a "revisited" post next year.
Beautiful rain gutter
These are called wine cups.
The gardens were lousy with butterflies and bees and other bugs.
And you know how much I love "inside looking out" pictures...
Indian Mallow
Purple Coneflowers
Mesmerizing
Mealy Blue Sage
Wild Poinsettia
Autumn Sage
I've no idea what these are, but they were scattered all over the ground. I couldn't figure out what tree they fell from.
Oh, and there is this sign posted at the trail head.
After the Wildflower Center I took the scenic route out to Fredericksburg the heart of Hill Country. I am constantly amazed by the places I go and how it seems so many of them have thriving wineries. There is totally a Texas Wine Trail, who knew?
Fredericksburg is a quaint little German town with a lot of shopping and such. Clearly, I did not shop, but I did eat at a German restaurant, The Auslander.
I got a semi-authentic German meal...
Y'all, this potato soup was so good!
That would be schnitzel (chicken), potato pancakes, spatzle, applesauce, and Bavarian brown bread. It was all super good.
For dessert I had apple strudel with vanilla bean ice cream.
After dinner I leisurely drove along the south westerly edge of Hill Country (although without stopping to take pictures) and then headed to San Antonio to meet T3. I look forward to driving Willow Loop (just outside of Fredericksburg and supposedly the best wildflower drive in America) next spring.
Mansion on Turtle Creek
I didn't end up taking any pictures of the outside of the building, or even pics with my nice camera. These are all discreet cell phone shots because the patrons at this place... they are horrible. Now the staff was fantastic, and the food was terrific, but the customers? The customers were straight out of Big, Rich Texas and it made me want to stay as far away from Dallas as possible (residence-wise). This may actually be an unfair assessment given that the season opener between Michigan and Alabama was that day at Texas Stadium and most of the horrible people were wearing red (Roll Tide), but still.... BLECH!
Also, I was running a little bit late because there was a lot of confusion surrounding what time it was on this leg of the trip. Arizona does not participate in Daylight Saving Time, but the Navajo Nation does so depending where you are in relation to the NN you could swing an hour in only a few steps. And then my phone decided it was also much too confused to be bothered updating automatically so I was an hour later than planned in leaving OKC and driving to Turtle Creek. That probably did not help my mood... anyway...
I had the brunch tasting...
Fancy butter (I am obsessed with fancy butter - just ask Nate!)
With a roll and a scone
The amuse was a fancy tomato soup shot
My appetizer was melon soup - it was soooo good, especially the candied nuts, fresh melon, and (shout out for the Grandparents Eggett) orange sherbet.
I forgot to take a picture of my biscuits and gravy before I dug in - that is how fantastic it was.
The sausage was jalapeno so it had a bit of a kick.
The biscuits were flaky and the hashbrowns were perfectly brown and crispy.
(The eggs remained in the kitchen.)
I had the sherbet/ice cream sampler for dessert:
I think this was supposed to be a berry sherbet, but it didn't really taste very good.
The mango sherbet was a home run!
I remain undecided about this sour cream vanilla ice cream. It started out tangy and sour and then turned sweet and creamy in my mouth. It was confusing to my peasant taste buds.
Wow, this is a terrible picture of the chocolate ice cream - I am not a huge fan of chocolate ice cream, so there's not really a lot to say, except it was chocolate peanut butter ice cream which made it dreamy.
I think the sugar cookie is supposed to be Texas-shaped. It was good, but unremarkable.
