San Antonio

I’ve now spent 4 of the past 7 nights in 3 different hotels in 3 different cities. MAN, that sounds so cosmopolitan of me! There was last Saturday night, spent in downtown Houston at the Four Seasons before the half marathon. Then there were Monday and Tuesday nights, spent at the Mission Inn in Riverside while I was visiting my Vomit Comet teams (and there is a whole blog entry to come about that place). And now last night and tonight are being spent at La Mansion del Rio on the Riverwalk in San Antonio!

(And after this, we’ll be staying home for a while because hotels don’t grow on trees, you know.)

The “weekend getaway” idea was hatched a couple months ago when we noticed that the Rockets would be traveling down I-10 to play the Spurs last night. “Hmm, that sounds like a great excuse for a mini-vacation in San Antonio,” we thought. And so it was. We left yesterday afternoon, checked into the hotel, and headed straight to the basketball game. The AT&T Center was a really nice arena with both more variety and better prices than the Toyota Center. There was a huge bar area where you could 1) purchase a beer for less than $7, which is amazing at a sports arena these days and 2) take your pick of a least 15 different beers, including the non-Budweiser variety! (I had a St. Arnold’s Amber. At a sporting event. I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure you can’t find St. Arnold’s at Houston sporting venues despite the brewery being IN HOUSTON.)

I’ve got to give the Spurs fans credit as well — they were great fans. On their feet during the intros, cheering wildly only 2 minutes into the game, and so on. Too bad for them that the ROCKETS WON. Oh yeah. It was a great game, a nailbiter at the end, and a great win for the Rockets. They really needed a boost after some of their recent performances. There were lots of Rockets fans that had the same idea as us, and we saw lots of red shirts both at the game and on the Riverwalk afterwards.

El Mercado

This morning we relaxed in our hotel room for a while before heading out for a full day of shopping. I’m amazed to report that we actually didn’t buy much — just a ceramic spoon rest (I know, random) and some awesome pastries from the Mexican bakery in Mi Tierra. The weather could not possibly be any nicer, and it’s been awesome walking around in the bright sun and perfect temperatures, especially after all the cold weather of a couple weeks ago. The coolest part of the afternoon was when we stopped in a small museum, on the spur of the moment, after seeing a banner advertising an exhibit by an artist that Jose recognized: Jesse Trevino. As we paid our admission fee, the woman at the desk told us that Trevino, who grew up in San Antonio, was actually in the museum already leading a group on a tour of his art!! We were able to join in and listen to him talk about his paintings, which was totally cool and unexpected.

Tomorrow we plan to get cultured — after all, San Antonio really seems to be the cultural center of Texas (in my opinion) — before heading back to Houston!