Thanksgiving in San Antonio

We had no specific plans for Thanksgiving, so in the middle of October we decided to book a hotel in San Antonio and spend our 4-day weekend there.  I was happy to not be cooking Thanksgiving dinner for a family of kids that don't really eat, and it was a great chance to explore a city we've been wanting to visit.

Thanksgiving meal
We drove the 4.5 hours to San Antonio on the morning of Thanksgiving.  We found a Cracker Barrel near out hotel which seemed like a great choice for dinner, but apparently everyone in town had the same idea.  Instead of waiting 3 hours for a meal (we were starving) we found a Dennys open.  Their Thanksgiving meal was decent, and the kids ate their weight in pancakes, eggs, and sausage.  I call that a win all around. We went back to the hotel to swim before bed.

I can't see a face... but I'm 99% sure this is Siena based on behavior.

The Missions
San Antonio is famous for the Alamo, but there are a group of Missions about 15 minutes south of the city that give a lot of history and context for the Spanish missions that were established in Texas. The Spanish government was looking for a way to get more tax-payers, plus free labor, so they used the Catholic church to establish missions.  The Natives faced a lot of danger from other nearby tribes, so joining these missions seemed like the better choice.  There was a video at the Visitors Center that struck me-- the priests were teaching Christianity during the day, and then at night, groups snuck out to hold wild fire dances at night, completely going back to their original culture.  But apparently within a few generations, the mission life became their new identity and those Spanish/Catholic roots run strong in the area.  Most of the missions still have established congregations that meet in their chapels each Sunday.

So that was probably my favorite thing we saw in San Antonio.  We toured one mission, and then drove around to see the other ones.  Siena was having an anti-social moment, so I sat in the car with her (ordering things online from Amazon) while Hyrum and the other kids went to take a look around.

Sea World
After a morning a the Spanish Missions we spent the afternoon at Sea World. In the winter it doesn't open until 1 pm, so that worked perfectly.  We really lucked out and got a few free tickets because Hyrum is in the military, so it didn't cost nearly as much as it otherwise would have.  :)

I don't think I've ever seen whales in real life, so that was pretty cool.  Sea World is no longer breeding whales in captivity, so it will likely be the last time any of us get to see whales in that kind of setting.  We went to a show with Beluga whales and dolphins, which was quite entertaining.  They're smaller and can do jumps and tricks.  And there was a different show with Orca (killer) whales. They're HUGE.  And they could do several tricks-- jumping, swimming out of the water and rolling around on platforms/landings.  They could dance and make noises on command.  We saw a third show with sea lions or something-- entertaining but not nearly as impressive.

In addition to the shows (which were the clear highlight) there were tons of rides for the kids.  They went on their first roller coaster and got to dance with Sesame Street characters.  We finally pulled out around 6:30 with some exhausted kids.

San Antonio
We spent Saturday exploring downtown San Antonio.  The main attractions are the Alamo and the Riverwalk.  The Alamo was much more crowded than the missions we'd seen the previous day, and much smaller.  The other missions existed for over 100 years, and spanned the time period of belonging to Spain, Mexico, Texas, as well as the Confederate States.  There was a lot of history!  But the Alamo was only an active mission for about 20 years, and then became a fort, first for the Mexicans and then for the Texans.  So it had a completely different historical significance, and is so famous because the defeat there really rallied the Texas troops to win the war.

The Riverwalk was interesting-- there are walking paths along the river a floor below street level, with shops and restaurants.  We spent a while exploring.  We stopped to buy caramel apples at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.  Siena ate her few slices like you would an orange, and I was more than happy to eat the chocolate-covered outside.  We saw the oldest neighborhood in San Antonio, then found a huge playground nearby where the kids played for almost 2 hours.  We had to tear them away when we were starving and had to go buy food.  We decided to leave the touristy part of downtown (where I assumed prices were slightly inflated for the ambiance) and went to a hole-in-the-wall Mexican place with good reviews on Yelp.  It didn't disappoint!  The guacamole and chips were so good the rest of the meal didn't really even matter.  (But it was good, too.)

We went home and swam at the hotel one last time.  One note about our hotel-- this was the 2nd or 3rd time we've stayed at Homewood Suites, and we're big fans.  It's hard to find hotels with suites (so the kids can sleep in one room and Hyrum and I don't have to be quiet at 7:30 pm.)  The best part is that Monday-Thursday they offer a complimentary evening "snack", which is their term for a full meal.  Plus we like the breakfast.  Hyrum eats so much at continental breakfasts that he's full until about 3 pm.

Sunday we packed up at went to church just north of the city.  Hyrum ran into friends from Colombia that he hasn't seen in about 20 years.  We saw the temple nearby, then had a 5 hour drive home.

Quick, awesome weekend!  I liked San Antonio, and thought it would be a good place to live.  It didn't take long to get outside the city and have lots of trees.  Dallas is such a sprawling city with  never-ending suburbs and so many free-ways and cars.  Also, San Antonio was the type of Texas you always envision, with cowboy boots and a lot of Hispanic influence.  I think Dallas has some of that, but much less.  Dallas is a lot of transplants and immigrants-- at least the area where we live.