Flashback to Texas - San Antonio

During our 2009 stay in Texas, we had to head up to the Fort Worth/Dallas area for a couple of weeks while Joe took part in a course.  We decided to take a little detour on our road trip to San Antonio.

Just over 1.3 million people call this Texas city home and many tourists come to check out where history was made at the Alamo.  Apparently, San Antonio is also the birthplace of chili and home of the Frito, Cheeto and Pace's Picante Sauce.

While we were definitely interested in the Alamo, we came to see the River Walk.  We'd been hearing about this city and it's fantastic downtown area from many people so we booked the Hotel Valencia for a night in order to explore the surrounding area.

Hotel Valencia from the River Walk

One level below the regular streets of the city sits the San Antonio River Walk which is exactly as it sounds; a river with pedestrian walk lining the sides.  It is lined with restaurants, shops and hotels.  One can wander the snaking river by foot or take a boat through the channel.

The River Walk really came alive at night as the heat of the day subsided and people flooded the restaurants out on to the sidewalks.  

The next day as we departed San Antonio, we made a stop at the Natural Bridge Caverns.  These caverns were discovered by students in 1960 and are the largest caverns in Texas.

As we descended the 211 feet into the caverns, the temperature continued to drop providing a little reprieve from the Texas heat.  While the attraction has obviously been developed for tourism, many formations sit untouched and water still flows and drips.  We chose to do the standard tour however if you are feeling a bit more adventurous, you can put on climbing gear to take you into other areas of the cavern.

San Antonio was a really great city to visit with endless amounts of things to explore.  We only really grazed the surface in our overnight stay