San Antonio Strollin'

      This past Wednesday, October 12, Tom and I flew into San Antonio, Texas for a stop-over visit on our way to a wedding in Austin.  We'd never been to San Antonio - I'd never been to Texas - and as  strolling the San Antonio River Walk was on my  bucket list, this was the moment to make it happen.
     Tom booked us a room in the Holiday Inn along the River Walk.

     The hotel lobby was on the minimalist side,

...but very pretty,

...as was our room on the 11th floor,

...where we had super-comfy beds,

...and a view of the River Walk below

    We arrived in San Antonio around noon - 1 pm Ohio time, which was the time that our brains and stomachs were still on - but by the time we'd deplaned, retrieved our baggage and rental car, and made our way downtown to the hotel, it was 1:30 pm - 2:30 Ohio time - and we were commensurately starving. 
     So first on the agenda was snagging some belated lunch.
     We stepped out of the hotel lobby - which exits to the street, as opposed to the River Walk behind the hotel - looked up and down the street right and left,  opted for a left turn and started down the sidewalk.    

    After a few blocks we came to a restaurant

...called the Blanco Cafe.

     Though the windows were darkened so that we couldn't see inside, the sign on the door said "Open", so we figured we'd give it a try.
    The Blanco Cafe turned out to be a cute Mexican place,

...all decked out for Halloween ,

....and the November 1st Mexican Holiday, The Day of the Dead.

     The food was really good and the portions huge.

     Tom had fajitas,

...and I had tacos.

      After lunch we walked to one of the many River Walk entrances  to be found around downtown San Antonio.   

     We strolled along the River Walk,

...until we came to a sign pointing us towards the Alamo. 
      Then we  ascended back up to the sidewalk,

...where we were helped by one of the friendly, helpful city guides stationed around the city,

...who gave us a street map and showed us the way to the Alamo

     The Alamo

      Though located in the heart of the city, once inside its walls The Alamo felt like a lovely sanctuary.

...within which the history of the birth of Texas came alive for we visitors,

...through a guide's lecture,

...a film,

...displays,

...and the remains of the old mission fort itself.

     After our visit to the Alamo we returned to our hotel via the River Walk and, by now feeling the effects of having been up since 4:30 am  Ohio time, flopped onto our  comfy  beds from which we didn't budge until hunger came knocking once more, around 7 pm.
      Since it was pretty late for dinner, we decided we'd like to go for something on the light side.  We both recalled - or were pretty sure  we recalled - driving by a little hot dog joint on our way to the hotel and on the same street, so we decided to seek out that place.
     We left the hotel and began walking in the direction towards which we remembered - or thought we remembered - passing the hot dog place. 
     We walked and walked, then walked some more until we were well outside of the downtown tourist area and the environs were starting to look a mite down at the heel, but we walked on in search of our hot dog joint, even though by this time we were feeling that the hot dog joint was no longer necessary, we'd take any old joint. 
     After about a half-hour's worth of walking we could see that we were almost at the freeway and were about to turn back when I looked down a side street and noticed a string of lights that appeared to be hung over a patio so I suggested we walk towards the lights in hopes that what I saw might turn out to be a restaurant.
     As it turned out the lights were indeed hung over an eating establishment,  an lovely little place called Guillermo's

...that felt like a setting from a movie set in Texas or maybe Mexico.

...except that the house music was a sort of  jazz-pop fusion which we found very pleasant,

...as was the food.      I had a tasty ahi tuna salad topped with bacon (most of which I passed over to Tom, not being much of a baconphile myself,

...while Tom had a vegetable panini which he also liked,

...and a beer, which arrived ice cold  in a ginormus goblet.

     After dinner, as we sat for a while basking in the atmosphere and the music before heading  out on the long walk back to our hotel, we considered our good luck that we came across this restaurant before we hit the hot dog joint we'd originally set out to find.
     As we were leaving we told our server how much we liked the place and Tom mentioned to her that we were glad we found this place instead of the  hot dog place we'd been  were looking for.
    Our server  gave him a confused look.  She'd never heard of any hot-dog place around there.
    To be continued...