San Antonio Trip

I've always heard about how pretty San Antonio is. How it's the Venice of United States. Well, finally I got to see it.

Day 1 (May 24): Our flight to San Antonio started in Philadelphia Int'l Airport at 6:03 AM on a Friday. It was a long weekend (Memorial day) and the hubby and I both decided to take Friday off to stretch our San Antonio vacation.

Our flight was Philadelphia (PHL) - Houston (IAH), then IAH - SAT. We arrived in San Antonio at 11:24 AM and after getting our luggage we hopped on a shuttle that would take us to the Enterprise Car Rental office so we could rent a car for 4 days.

Valencia Riverwalk Hotel

We arrived at our hotel at around noon but didn't get our room until 2:00pm. Usually, the check-in time is after 4:00 pm but fortunately we got our room earlier than that.

We wanted a hotel by the riverwalk that's why we decided to stay at Hotel Valencia, which was our temporary home for 4 days and 3 nights. It's a nice hotel with interesting interiors, nice ambience, a fine restaurant and they even have some tables facing the river walk, a bar, a swimming pool and a courtyard. They have a valet parking that costs $35/day and the staff are all very friendly and genuinely helpful.

Since the hubby and I both didn't get enough sleep (we left for the airport at 3am) the first thing we did was take a nap. We woke up at 5pm, took a quick shower then put on some semi-formal clothes for our dinner at the Towers of the Americas revolving restaurant called The Chart House.

But since our dinner isn't until 8:00pm, we first tried their Skies Over Texas 3D (it's actually more like 4D). I suggest you do this when you're at the Towers of the

Towers of the Americas

Americas. Then we had our photo taken before we went up the viewing deck for the 360 degrees view of the city. After which, off we went to our dinner.

The hubby and I like to have dinner at restaurants overlooking the city and so far we have tried Boston's Top of the Hub (it soars 52 floors above the Back Bay), New York's The View NYC (it's a revolving restaurant but the view is disappointing because all you can see are walls & windows from the tall buildings), Restaurant Ciel de Paris at Montparnasse in Paris, Vivere's Sky Lounge in Alabang, Philippines and now, the latest is The Chart House of San Antonio. We're hoping to try Seattle's SkyCity restaurant, which is right on the Space Needle, next time.

The food is very good and the view is spectacular during sunset (FYI: sunset in May is around 8ish).

sunset view at The Chart House revolving restaurant

We didn't want to go straight to bed after dinner so we walked along the riverwalk. Most of the places were closed already but it was still an interesting walk, plus I got myself a new cowboy hat, haha (the one I brought with me got mangled up during our flight to San Antonio).

riverwalk at night

Day 2 (May 25):: We went to Natural Bridge Cavern for our day two activity which is only a 30-minute drive from downtown San Antonio (it's $19.99/person). I also tried their ziplining

inside the natural bridge cavern

 activity which I enjoyed thoroughly ($17.99/person for two zip lines). I have enjoyed my first zipline experience back in the Philippines when my friends and I went to Cagayan de Oro for our Canopy Walk/Pinoy Rafting experience, so when I saw they have this at Natural Bridge Cavern I didn't think twice and bought a ticket. The video below shows me ziplining on the second line. You'll have to "zip" through 2 lines.


ayeen ziplining in san antonio - day 2 from bluemarlinfish on Vimeo.

the capitol building

We then went to see Austin, Texas. We really weren't supposed to go there until the day after for our hot air balloon ride but the hubby wants to check the place because we have to leave very early in the morning (4am) for that and he just want to get the feel of where the location is.

We just visited the Capitol building and the famous 6th street. Then we had lunch at Salt Lick at RoundRock for some real Texan food. The hubby like their brisket very much. I like my meal too, and the sauce, O-M-G! There's regular and hot, both are good! The bread they serve is good too. I used that to make my pulled pork sandwich, too yummy!

inside texas capitol building

my meal: combo plate - bbq ribs, pulled pork, beans, potatoes, coleslaw

Day 3(May 26): We woke up at 3:00am in attempt to get to Austin by 6:00am. Problem is, it's been raining on and off and come 5:00am the hot air balloon people called to tell us they can't fly the balloon because of the weather. Oh well, I guess we now have an excuse to go back to San Antonio. It's a good thing the hot air balloon booking never expires so we can always just use it anytime we're ready to go back.

We were in Austin when it was still a little dark and decided to loop around the downtown area again so I could take some pictures of the buildings (I like buildings and interesting architecture).

Come 6:30am we headed back to San Antonio but before we went back to our hotel we wanted to try this hole in the wall Mexican place for breakfast called Grumpy's. We learned about that place while overhearing a conversation from one of the visitors at the Natural Bridge Cavern. We wanted to go there for lunch after the caving but it was already closed when we got there (they close at 2:00pm and opens at 8:00am). So we went back there the next day on our way back to San Antonio from Austin.

I love my fried chicken steak but it's just too big. I think I only got to eat just 1/8 of it. The hubby liked his order very much too, it's called huevos rancheros con carne guisada w/ beans, hashbrowns and tortillas. He specially liked it with their hot sauce.

riverwalk cruise tour

Since now we have the whole day free, we decided to finally do our river cruise tour ($8.25 per person, available from 9am til 9pm). The hubby kept oohing-aahing. It's obvious he likes San Antonio very much. He thinks it's better than Paris, I don't. I mean, I like San Antonio too, and wouldn't mind coming back but no, it doesn't compare to Paris. When I pointed this out to him he then explained that he's compairing our River Sienne cruise with this riverwalk cruise tour. I think I kinda get what he meant. You won't see restaurants and shops along the river Sienne. In San Antonio, on the other hand, are rows and rows of restaurants and shops and the river even goes through a mall. I still like Paris better though, no offense San Antonio fans.

alamo
hindi.
alamo nga e.
hindi ko nga alam e.

After the tour we walked to the Alamo site. I'm not a history buff and I just wanted to go there just for the sake of going there but the hubby on the other hand liked the history and the story behind the Alamo walls. We paid for the guided tour which lasted for an hour then we went in the Alamo museum to explore on our own.

By the time we're done it's past lunch so we headed back to the riverwalk to find a restaurant. I have just one requirement though, a restaurant that serves those HUGE margarita, lol. A friend of mine suggested it and I thought that would be cool to try and so we did.

our margarita after 15min (it was
actually filled to the brim)

We went to this restaurant called Dick's Last Resort. It's called that because the servers are trying to be "that". They will yell at you, they would sound obnoxious, they would throw your check at you. But they will give you a warning in advance that it's just all for fun. They're just living up to the name, lol. So anyway, since it's a HUGE margarita the hubby and I just shared. I don't want to eat too much so I just ordered their crab balls. I didn't like it. The hubby ordered fish and chips, that, however, is good. Oh, and yes, the margarita is soooo good! And we got to keep the big margarita glass.

Then we head back to our hotel for some nap and woke up around 5pm to get ready for our dinner cruise. It's nothing fancy, just some chicken or beef fajitas and dessert. We booked the dinner cruise thinking it would just be a barge floating on the river while we're having dinner but what a pleasant surprise! It's actually a riverwalk cruise tour too. I highly recommend a dinner cruise riverwalk tour  instead of just the regular riverwalk cruise tour. We booked our dinner cruise through Cafe Ole and paid $37.50 each plus tax. Don't forget to try their Daquiri Margarita, it's good!


bluemarlinfish on Vimeo.


San Antonio isn't just about Riverwalk, they have lots of interesting buildings too and some unusual stuff like the one on the picture below.

cinderella-ish horse carriage ride

Day 4(May 27): Nothing to share except that this was the day we had to fly back to Philly. I did, however, tried to wake up early for some quick stroll so I could take photo along the riverwalk with my travel gnome (pinky st:).

my travel gnome (pinky st:), sacheen

all photos by yours truly, please do not use without permission.