6 January ‘09 Tuesday
Yesterday it was Wal-Mart and today…Costco. Now that we’re caught up with “shopping” we’re ready to explore San Antonio. On one side, shopping at Wal-Mart was easy as we’re parked in their parking lot, but Costco…it’s 20 miles away and on the other side of town. Once we found Costco we were surprised to find another Wal-Mart just a block away. Seeing as how we came in on 90 instead of 10 and we were heading south on 35 when we leave, the Wal-Mart we’re in was the right choice after all. After spending more than an hour at Costco we still had plenty of time to see the sights. First we had to find the Alamo.
Yesterday it was Wal-Mart and today…Costco. Now that we’re caught up with “shopping” we’re ready to explore San Antonio. On one side, shopping at Wal-Mart was easy as we’re parked in their parking lot, but Costco…it’s 20 miles away and on the other side of town. Once we found Costco we were surprised to find another Wal-Mart just a block away. Seeing as how we came in on 90 instead of 10 and we were heading south on 35 when we leave, the Wal-Mart we’re in was the right choice after all. After spending more than an hour at Costco we still had plenty of time to see the sights. First we had to find the Alamo.
Now San Antonio has really made it easy for those tourists that are coming into town for the first time. Signs are everywhere directing you to every site you could want to see, besides, the Alamo is located right in the center of town and there was plenty of good parking at a fair price. The city has done a great job of keeping the Alamo in pristine condition and to have “information” boards large enough so that you can read them while looking over someone’s shoulder and of course, displays of artifacts that were plentiful and well displayed.
We ventured across the street, down some stairs, and strolled the Paseo Del Rio (River Walk).
Unfortunately our timing wasn’t the best to see River Walk. They just started their annual “Mud Walk” Celebration…that is where they drain the river and clean all the mud and debris that has been left throughout the year.
That’s OK, we still had a good walk and even found a place to treat ourselves…Haagen Dazs, and we even ate it on a beautiful deck overlooking the Mud Walk Celebration (those working down in the river banks and lower, doing what needed to be done). San Antonio also has 4 absolutely beautiful 18th century missions that have some wonderful history behind them being Spain’s outposts along its northern frontier. Unfortunately we only had time to visit one and that one was Mission San Jose y San Miguel de Aguayo…”San Jose Mission, the Queen of Missions…”.
The missions are all a part of The National Park systems and they have done a great job of maintaining them and staffing them with knowledgeable personnel. Our 1 hour tour was excellent and well worth the time for all to see.