Monday, March 16, 2009

San Antonio, Texas



This past weekend, to celebrate the beginning of Spring Break, my roommate and I took a trip to San Antonio. Incidentally, everyone kept asking us if we were on Spring Break...which I thought was interesting because we both happen to work for a school district, so our answer was yes, but otherwise we're both well past college age. It seemed like people assumed we were still in college. I guess when you're 26 and people think you're still in college, that's not really a bad thing, is it?

We left Friday morning, and after running a few errands for my job, our first stop was West, Texas (as Gourmet magazine put it: not West Texas, but West COMMA Texas). West is known for their kolaches and it's true, they are so good!

We drove on Interstate 35 so we got to go through Austin and when we weren't far from San Antonio we stopped in Gruene near New Braunfels. I've always loved Gruene. When you're driving there it really looks like you're in the middle of doing-nothing, Texas and then suddenly it's like you're in a little village in the South East or something. It's hilly with lots of trees and a river, so pretty. Of course we went to the Gristmill where we shared chicken fried steak and the best mashed potatoes ever. Then we visited the general store and it was back on the road.


The end of last week and the weekend were kind of rainy and cold all over Texas. The rain made our drive to San Antonio longer than it should of been and not really as fun. We got there in the evening, checked into our hotel, and went to walk along the riverwalk.

I hate cold weather. And everytime I've been to San Antonio (which is many times) it's been hot. And I mean HOT. Like sweat pouring down your back, 95+ degree weather kind of hot. So, to be cold in San Antonio was really very weird to me. It actually kind of reminded me of our trip to San Francisco in December. Friday night was the coldest, rainiest night of the weekend.

We ate dinner at Casa Rio, the place with all the colorful umbrellas that you see in pictures of San Antonio. That was fun, even though we didn't get to sit outside. We also got gigantic chocolate covered strawberries - which has always been a tradition for me in San Antonio. Ever since I can remember going to San Antonio, I can remember always getting a chocolate covered strawberry. My earliest memory of this happened when I was 4: I could only eat half of my strawberry, so I gave it to my mom, to put in her purse for safe keeping. A day or 2 later, when we were back home in Houston, I asked my mom where my chocolated covered strawberry was. Being the honest person that my mother is, she told me that she ate it! As a little child, I was dumbfounded, I had trusted my mother with a prized possession and she had eaten it! And I could only get another one in San Antonio! It was my first lesson in betrayal. I'm just kidding! But it did make an impression on me...obviously, because I still remember it. Let this be a lesson to parents: you can't pull a fast one on your kids, what you do when they're 4, they'll remember when they're 26.

Saturday morning we went to a cute coffee shop called Sip. Then we went shopping at the Market, where I got a purse...that I'm rewarding myself with when I lose 10 lbs....or when I get really sick of carrying the purse I'm carrying now...whichever comes first :) We walked around the Alamo and went in the gift shop, which I think is always the most crowded spot in San Antonio. 

For lunch we ate at Chris Madrid's - a hamburger place that was so crazy and crowded! They are known for their "tostada burger", which is a hamburger with cheese, refried beans, tortilla chips, and salsa on it. It was very good. I want to try to recreate it (in a somewhat healthier version).


Saturday night we went to Mi Tierra in the market for dinner. We got there kind of late and they told us the wait was going to be 2 hours! It ended up being much shorter than that, but we still didn't eat dinner until 11:30! Mi Tierra is open around the clock though. When we were kids, this fascinated my brother - at random times he would say, "is that restaurant open now?"

Sunday we slept in and had breakfast, which turned into lunch, at The Magnolia Pancake Haus, where there was also a 1-2 hour wait! San Antonio needs to build some more restaurants. :)

When we got home last night, we made a quick trip to Target because we didn't have any groceries. Then we stopped at Chipotle to grab some dinner and when we got back in the car, AJ's car wouldn't start. We had dinner and a car full of groceries. Thank God (and my dad) I have AAA. They had the problem fixed and we were on our way home in less than 30 minutes. I sound like I'm making a commerical for AAA...

I'm so glad this week is Spring Break! I'm still working at my other job, but I'm off from the school job and it's nice to have a whole week to relax and do fun stuff!

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