San Antonio River Walk!

I recently looked back at some of my early blog posts and got a new burst of motivation to do what Mike and I had originally intended to do...share our nomadic experiences with you all!  I just love that word, “nomad”. It reminds me of the days in 7th grade reading class when we would create a poster for our spelling words, like the “rotund”, shirtless man laying on his beach towel rocking out next to his boombox, and the “insolent” teenage punks making wisecracks during class. Anyway, that’s what I remember drawing. But one definition of the word nomad is: a person with no fixed residence who roams about; a wanderer. I may be crazy, but that pretty much sums us up this year. It has been quite the life since we left Pittsburgh in September 2010. A life with some exceptionally rough times along the way which, in turn, changed the experience into something completely different then what we had initially planned. Regardless, it has been a beautiful adventure in so many other ways. So, here goes. I’m going to start off with a few of our memories from the famous San Antonio River Walk!!  And by the way, who says “wisecracks” anymore?? Ahh, and the good old days of boomboxes... Anyway ...

The River Walk! When we first heard we would be starting out in San Antonio, TX, we knew absolutely nothing about the area except that Texas is big and hot. Of course my dad got carried away with excitement when we found out where we would be. He borrowed a stack of tourist pamphlets from a friend of his who works in San Antonio, and set up a day to take me and Mike to AAA to plan out our trip, get more maps and travel books then we knew what to do with, and stake out the hot spots in our new “home”.  The River Walk was all over the place, and since I knew nothing else about San Antonio, the River Walk is what I pictured the whole week-long trip south down to Texas.

I had been told from a friend who traveled to San Antonio that although the River Walk is the only thing you hear about when people talk about the city, it is probably one of the places you will spend the least amount of your time. I’d say this is quite accurate, but the times that we did spend there were definitely memorable. On the top of my list was Halloween, or Dia de los Muertos, which is celebrated in many different ways there. Of course, the first year that I didn’t have to work on Halloween was the year we hadn’t made any new friends yet, so Mike and I decided to go out on our own and embrace the culture of the holiday at the River Walk. We hopped around to a few different bars and restaurants along the river and enjoyed Margaritas and nachos while we watched the area blow up with all sorts of creatures as the night went on. Like the way my Pop-Pop likes to sit back and people watch at Park City mall, we just enjoyed the show as we chilled and observed all of the crazies go by. (Yes, I just compared myself to Pop-Pop). I was just waiting for someone to accidentally get shoved into that river. I wonder if that has ever happened? We played the guessing game to see who was better at figuring out the meaning behind the eccentric costumes and cheered along with the crowds as the Roman soldiers walked by pronouncing to the tables of diners, “Hail Caesar!! Have you tried the salad?? Try the Caesar salad!" 

Throughout the evening we had seen one girl from afar but could only make out different colored dots on her white dress. We kept trying to figure her out, but she was too far away to get a good look. Later that night while we were walking along through the crowds of even rowdier groups, I saw the same girl coming toward us. When I looked at her costume I instantly got excited as a flash from my childhood came to mind of my friends and I sitting on a beach towel at the Millersville Pool eating candy buttons from the snack shop during the adult swim. We got closer to her and I enthusiastically asked her, “Are you those candy button things?!?” She looked at me, daggers coming out of her eyeballs as she put her hands on her hips, scrunched up her nose, and replied, “No. I’m Katy Perry! “  “Oohhh...Of course you are...” Oops. She rolled her eyes and huffed away down the river as we cracked up at her stupid costume and at me for being me...as usual. I guess I need to freshen up on pop culture. Plain old candy buttons would have been much more original anyway. 

A great view of the River Walk on one of our first days in town!

Spending time with new friends at Zinc Bistro and Wine Bar on the River Walk -
A great restaurant and bar that makes their guacamole table side! Pretty awesome!  

The San Fernando Cathedral at Military Plaza on the River Walk.

A shrine created by a student for Dia de los Muertos, in Military Plaza.

Me and Mike on Halloween :)

One of the "Bloodweiser" parade boats...random.

On the river boat getting the grand tour :)

Melissa, Lauren (My wonderful traveler friend!)
 and me riding the river boat for our first time
during our last weeks in San An! We had to fill
 our last weeks with all of the touristy things we
 hadn't done in the first 4 months there ;)

The River Walk is so beautiful during Christmas time!!