The next day, we found our friends house and they were kind enough to volunteer to drive us around for a little sight-seeing.  She even took a couple of days off work to hang with us.  Apparently they have lived down here a few years but have never really done much sight-seeing (who does that?  No sight-seeing in their own home town? LOL) so they were as excited as we were to see what we could find.

The first stop was the Alamo which was right in the middle of downtown San Antonio.  Funny how the Alamo ended up right in the middle of downtown San Antonio, do you think they planned it that way?

Tomb Rider 3D

Apparently most of the down town area is just for tourists.  They had a bunch of touristy stuff like this Tomb Rider 3D in various buildings.  But we weren’t here for enjoyment, we were here to be Educated!

The Alamo!

Course there is always time for a little photo-op

Our gracious Tour Guides

After the little photo-op, we went to fill our minds with interesting facts…..

Memorial of those that died at the Alamo

This woman in period dress was giving a little speech about how the women and children helped at the fort

I almost look like a statue, don’t I?

Look!   Here’s where Davey Crockett stayed!

Accommodations

We could have gotten a room here but they didn’t allow cats.  Only if they were going in the stew pot 

We took a little walk around the grounds and saw this great climbing tree 

See the pole holding up one of the branches?

Here is info about the oak tree.

Do you think there is a difference between this “live” oak tree and the ones in Minnesota with the acorns on them?  Sure is big…and cool looking, but if you’re planning on planting this in your yard, you better make sure there is plenty of room ;).

After we looked around the outside and the garden area, the next stop was inside of the museum part of the building.  The first building looked like a church inside but I couldn’t take any pictures.  The next building had a lot of exhibits but I couldn’t use a flash so most of the pictures didn’t turn out too good.

Look at all those keys. Just think of the key chain they must of had back in the day.

Religious artifacts, probably Catholic

Of course there were plenty of guns, or should I say muskets?  Cannon balls, old maps, old uniforms, old books and this exhibit

Someone’s hair

Turns out it’s 

Now who the heck thought “Gee, I bet Davey will be famous some day, I’ll just cut a piece of his hair and keep it in this locket, just in case.”  I wonder if people are following me around and getting my hair clippings?

They had this exhibit at the end.  It had a slide bar on it so you could see the Alamo

Back in the day

and

Current day

that was kind of cool.

After we finished that education filled tour, we decided to head out to the River Walk,

River Walk

one of the biggest tourist things in San Antonio and something on my bucket list.  I prefer the “oh look, isn’t that pretty!”, rather than the “oh look, wasn’t that educational!” LOL,

On the way there (as we wandered the streets trying to figure out where to go) we passed this tall red piece of art

Friendship statue from Mexico

We had to ask someone what it meant.  It is supposed to represent two arms holding hands.  One is the US, the other is Mexico.  Mexico gave it to the US back in the day as a show of friendship.  I wonder if they are thinking about asking for their statue back hee, hee.

Then we saw this other piece of art

No bull?

I’ve never seen anyone dress up a bull before.  Good thing it’s stuffed.  I would imagine he’s be horrified if his other bull friends saw him dressed like that.

We finally found the River Walk and a place where we could get on one of the boats.  We figured we take the boat tour first and then hit the place by feet later.  The River Walk is 15 miles long and it flows through approximately 5 miles of downtown San Antonio.  Our boat tour guide the one in the blue shirt and straw hat at the back of the boat, was very talkative.

Our waterway guide

Unfortunately his English was so bad I could only pick up a few words so it was more of a looking tour than a talking one.  I think everyone had a hard time understanding him.  You could tell he was trying to make jokes but they were falling flat because we could only understand part of what he was saying and no one was laughing.  His tip jar was probably pretty empty.

So anyway, here is what I saw

Nice archway

Cool Waterfalls

Traffic lights?

This was kind of weird but the river did come to a “T” here so I suppose they had to have this light.  Good thing it was green for us.

Dual opening

Sit down in the front!

We had a bunch of people on the boat.  Kind of made it hard to take pictures :(.  A lot of heads down.  Hey!  You’re on a tour, put your phones down!

Looks like you can close this off

This looked like a “lock” where maybe you could close off this part.

Tree growing out of a wall

That’s something huh?  See, this is what happens when you don’t pull that little weed out of the crack in your driveway.

Those guys at the restaurant have kilts on.

I kinda wanted to see what kind of food they had at a restaurant where the wait people wore kilts.

CVS? Quick stop! I need to pick up my prescriptions!

I suppose….everyone needs somewhere to pick up their drugs somewhere.

Look at all those bells

Bronze cow round-up

Better duck your head

There were a lot of foot bridges that passed overhead.

Locks on fence

You’re suppose to come here with your love and put a lock on the fence and throw the key into the river to show your forever love.  But our friend pointed out, those locks always come with two keys, that way if you break up, you can always come back and get your lock LOL.

Santa….is that you?

Huh, now we know where he goes on vacation 

Wake up kid and look behind you!

Stairs to Houston Street

Buffalo

Do you think he’s stuffed?  Why isn’t he all dressed up like the bull?  I guess buffalos have more dignity.

Spooky Ooky

We had a good time on the boat ride and even though it was pretty hot, once the boat got going it was a little cooler.  When we got off the boat we decided to take a little walk on the River Walk and find us some chow.  I saw this and wondered what it was

Cooler

Apparently it sprays out a mist of water to cool the customers off when it is really hot.  I wonder if you could narrow the beam and turn it into an awesome squirt gun?

After we walked around some more and had some chow, Mexican food mind you, we went to an old brewery that they turned into a hotel

Brewery/Hotel

I think this is where they kept their horses, kind of like Budweiser.

Cool train

Good way to re-purpose

Bar area

Can you see those things on the right?  Those are the vats for the beer.  They cut a hole in the wall and turned them into cozy little rooms.

Lobby

How do you like that for a “business center”?

We went outside and checked this out

Beginning of the River Walk

All in all a fun, if not HOT day.  Another thing checked off my bucket list.

Tomorrow we are going to Fredricksburg so see some old army person’s house.  Should be a blast so tune in next time.