A Western Celebration

     ...Continued from yesterday:
      On Friday morning we returned to The Blanco Cafe several blocks up St. Mary's Street from our hotel (see post from  10/14/2016),

....to join the local crowd for breakfast

...where I had the biggest, fluffiest pancakes ever to grace a restaurant table,

​...and Tom had an equally sizable and commendable bowl of oatmeal, which he doused with cinnamon, his spice of choice on  oatmeal.

    After breakfast we had couple of hours before we'd be leaving San Antonio for Austin for the wedding  of Vince and Kathleen,

​...the son and soon-to-be daughter-in-law of our good friends Birdie and Greg.

...so we decided to take a final stroll along the River Walk.

     Then we left for Austin, an hour-and-a-half drive north of San Antonio.
     We stayed along with the other wedding guests  at the lovely Austin Marriott South, just outside of downtown Austin.

     Our room.

​Our bathroom.

     The wedding festivities officially began with the rehearsal dinner at the Rockin Y Ranch in the ranch's party barn, beautiful, spacious,

​...and very Western.

      The food was a fantastically delicious Tex-Mex buffet,

...which we ate at picnic tables out on the light-strewn veranda.

​     For dessert there were specialties of the two  home states of the bride and groom,

​...Buckeyes, the chocolate-covered peanut butter delicacies - made by Birdie for the occasion - indigenous to Columbus, Ohio, the home town of the groom,

...and key lime and chocolate pecan mini-pies, favorites of Kathleen's fellow Texans.

     Then the guests spent the evening strolling the lovely grounds of the ranch,

​...which over-looked the lights of Austin,

...or playing pool,

​...or horse shoes,

​...or sitting around the fire pit,

...or just enjoying the happy glow of the evening,

      ...that emanated, of course, from the happy glow of two beautiful  young people about to begin their lives together.

     To be continued...