San Antonio Part 1

 The kids and I left Albuquerque at 6:30 am on Friday morning. The drive was surprisingly easy and uneventful. We mostly listened to music the whole way, and the kids loved the extra space in the car without dad. We arrived at the hotel in San Antonio at 7:30 pm. It was a little stressful for me because they required valet parking and I was tired and a little grumpy, but my mom met us in the lobby and had already done most of the checking in, so it wasn't so bad. Matthew flew in from his conference in Chicago and arrived about an hour later.

Saturday morning was spent getting to know the hotel and making a trip to Target for groceries. 

After lunch in our room, we headed downtown and met my family at the Alamo. This was number one on Matthew's to do list, but unfortunately he was rather underwhelmed.

After exploring the Alamo, we made our way to the river walk. Grandpa and Jennifer opted to find a spot to sit and people watch while the rest of us ventured along the busy river way. There were tons of people out for the St. Patrick's Day celebrations going on. We came across a performance of  Irish step dancers, which was fun, and then stayed there to watch a river boat float parade.

My parents and Jennifer had decided to ride the bus downtown, and they didn't want to try to find their way home in the dark, so they headed back to the hotel around 4 and our family stayed to explore some more. We looked for some murals and street art I had read about as we made our way toward the Cathedral. The kids had fun playing in the wading fountains and we got some food from street trucks for dinner.

There is a light show projected on the Cathedral on certain nights, and our plan was to see that. Unfortunately, I mistook what time it started, so after waiting around in the square for a couple hours, we doubled checked the schedule and learned the show wouldn't start until 9pm. We decided to check out the river walk a bit more since the crowds had dispersed, and went in search of ice cream. We ended up getting novelties at a CVS, then made our way back just in time for the show. It was really unique and probably the coolest thing we saw on our whole trip.

My parents and sister ended up having their own adventure involving getting off at the wrong bus stop and thinking they had lost their car or that it had been stolen, so it was a memorable evening for everyone.