Now We Can "Remember the Alamo"

Hooray for getaways!  This Veteran's Day weekend we took off to San Antonio for the first time.  Despite Neal, Sophie, and Rhys all fighting colds, it was a weekend of fun family togetherness and famous food stops.  We made our first stop just outside of Austin at he Salt Lick for dinner.  This restaurant was featured on several Food Network shows, The Travel Channel, and The Today Show for their tasty BBQ cooked over an indoor open fire pit. 

We sampled the sausage, brisket, and turkey with sides of beans, slaw, and bread.  It was all good and especially the brisket and beans.  Then we were back on the road for a couple more hours to our hotel in San Antonio.

The next morning we visited the Alamo first.  Everyone told us that it's really small compared to what they expected so we had that in mind but still it seemed small.  We toured the grounds, went into the church, observed a special gathering for the Marine Corps, and whizzed through the gift shop.

Look!  We were Photobombed by some kid with a T-Rex!  Rwar!



There, that's better!  Scram kid!



It was interesting to learn the history, this being the 175 anniversary of the battle of the Alamo.  Overall, we learned a bit and were not allowed to touch or photograph much.

Then we set off across the street and strolled along the River Walk.  It winds and loops along the banks of the San Antonio River, under bridges as two parallel sidewalks, lined with restaurants, shops, hotels, etc.  We took a boat tour and kicked back while we learned about it's construction history, and businesses.  Some of us "kicked back" a little more than others.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at Brackenridge Park and The Witte Museum.  In the park we had lunch among a huge variety of aquatic fowl and hit the playground.  After that we boarded the Brackenridge Eagle miniature train that chugs along the tracks skirting the banks of the San Antonio River, as it makes its way through the park.

We braved the train even given its spotty history of collisions, derailments, and even a modern day robbery (in 1970) just to see the kids smile and hear both of them exclaim "Choo Choo!" repeatedly. 

We finished our afternoon at the park with a visit to The Witte and letting the kids go wild in the Science Treehouse where they were able to experiment with air power and simple machines.  We all had fun here!  


Science--it'll blow your mind!  Just look at that face!



We only were able to explore one of the four floors before they closed.  That was okay because we were hungry and off to our second restaurant.

The Cove was spotlighted on Guy Fieri's Drive-Ins, Diners, and Dives or "Triple D."  We would have never know to look for it unless we saw the show for it is squeezed into a little corner of a not so great neighborhood and has an attached laundry mat and car wash.  Yep.  We just stopped for the food though.

See the sudsy car on the right?!

They boast sustainable, organic, and local and it was really good.  We got two different sandwiches to share, the Lamb Burger with Latin Spices and Cotija and the 09er Burger - a beef burger with roasted red peppers, goat cheese, and pesto aioli.  Guy Fieri called the Lamb Burger the "Best Lamb Burger ever!" and it was tops!  The 09er lacked nothing in flavor either though.  We had a great time filling up on the burgers and fries.

On Friday, we were off to another of the five missions in the San Antonio area, Mission San Jose.  After a short video reviewing the history of the people and viewing the artifacts in the adjoining rooms, we were off to see the mostly reconstructed mission.  Not always accurately reconstructed either, we learned from one of the rangers.  For instance, in the quarter where the native people lived there are fireplace like structures that do not have any chimney's or flues but those reconstructing put there in the 1930s.  What those structures were based on is anyone's guess. 

The church was really the only original structure standing and it was undergoing some reconstruction on the artistic stonework around its front doors.  The kids were most excited about the water that powered the gristmill.  Rhys was grinning from ear to ear saying, "ya ya!" for water.  I explained to Sophie that the mill did the same thing as our hand grinder at home but a lot faster and a lot easier.

The gristmill

Then we took our irritable and snotty-nosed children to the Mercado, the largest Mexican market in the U.S.  We hit the bakery first and got the whole family sugared up. 

We sampled sugary cookies, macadamia nut pralines, coconut candy, etc.  Then walked through the shops and enjoyed the colorful flowers and clothes, the funny skeleton figures for El Dia de los Muertos, and the leather work.

We spent the rest of the afternoon napping in the hotel room while the kids wrestled each other the entire time (and we thought they needed sleep?!).  Then we went to our third famous food place: Big Lou's Pizza, as seen on Adam Richman's Man vs. Food on The Travel Channel. 

Adam signed a Big Lou's pizza box.

They really wanted to put themselves on the map so they invented Big Lou's 42" pizza!  42 Inches!!!  We like good pizza but knew that was sure death for our family so we got a picture of this group of friends about to kill themselves with volumes of food.

We ordered two 12" pizzas for ourselves.  We still had plenty of leftovers to snack on the next day.  We got the BBQ Brisket pizza and one of our own creating.  We loved both for different reasons.  The BBQ had a great sweet-salty mix, the other had fresh toppings and the best sauce ever--super fresh!  Both had the same light, chewy, yet crisp crust.  Great experience.

We were prepared to leave San Antonio Saturday morning.  We really enjoyed the speed version of the city and had a great time despite the colds that hung on.  We said our adieu by hitting one more restaurant for breakfast: The Magnolia Pancake Haus featured just this week on Triple D.  The wait was long (just over an hour) but that is pretty typical for this place even before the Triple D fame. 

Guy Ate Here employee T-shirt

Guy stenciled on wall with his autograph.

We ordered an apple pie pancake or the Authentic Munchener Apfel Pfannekuchen, a Smoked Turkey Arugula Frittata, and Corned Beef Hash and were very happy.  Service was great too.

We were happy to be home and sleep in our own beds but had a great time seeing and doing new things as a family.  Great little getaway.