Sunday, July 20, 2008 (Tom)
Sunday, July 20, 2008
We have had a series of pleasant, yet eventless days, here in the land of the lotus-eaters, where each day is much like the one before, and prospects for tomorrow are not much different than today.
I am exaggerating, of course, but staying in motel rooms is not half as much fun as roving the country like gypsies so the ennui is palpable around here, despite specific activities each day to keep ourselves entertained.
Friday was travel day, as we left Austin and went first, back to Rockdale to scavenge the Cacafuego for gear and clothing that we had been missing during our first hiatus in Austin. We drove from there to San Antonio, and along the way we saw a roadrunner and longhorn cattle, neither of which we managed to photograph, and we stopped for lunch at Sonic, which is an old-fashioned car-window fast food place that, apparently, everybody in the country takes for granted except us easterners. We also stopped at a farmer’s market and bought hand crafted goat cheese from a toothless old texan in a straw stetson hat.
Our hotel in San Antonio was a bit of a dive, in the shadow of the interstate, but the price was right, and we were only about ten block out from the downtown tourist district, so we could walk back and forth and get our exercise with only the occassional detour around a wino or two on the way. The Alamo is downtown, surrounded by gift shops and office buildings, much like Liberty Hall in Philadelphia, of Graceland in Memphis, and it is oddly unnerving to stand and contemplate the solemn history of the place with neon and chaser lights behind your back. There is a plaza there, with great gobs of human activity surging back and forth, including kids with plastic light sabers and sombreros, as well as belligerent street preachers and two, or maybe even three, arch-rival ghost tours who would, I think, gladly make of each other fodder for next season’s spiel.
And, it was HOT. Siesta time is a serious business when the sun burns down over a hundred degrees from two to five pm. We didn’t notice if all of San Antonio shuts down for siesta, but we certainly did. In the hotel with curtains drawn, naps being optional, and then out again after six pm. The first night we visited the Alamo, then dined on the Riverwalk, which is a long maze of meandering walks along the canals and channels of the San Antonio River as is cuts through downtown, lined with restaurants and cafe tables, and with tour boats and dinner boats plying trade up and down the waterways. It is pretty, but the food was tourist grade, much as we expected.
My class at ACA
On Saturday, I got up and made my escape to Alamo City Aikido, the local ASU dojo, in the hopes of a little exercise and a change of pace, since I haven’t been training much at all this year, and it is about time I got back into it. I had packed by aikido gear for just such an unlikely eventuality, that I would find myself in a town with a dojo, and with time on my hands, and it turned out that the family could do without me for a few hours after all. The local sensei was an alum of the Washington DC dojo, so he knew my teachers, and told me that I was welcome to visit, but he would not be there, and that he suspected I would outrank any of his local students and would I mind teaching class? I ended up doing just that, which was a little uncomfortable for me since I felt out of shape, but we all had fun, I guess, and they bought me lunch.
Stephen Spielberg works with Angelina Jolie on her characterization of the title role in THE SOPHIA LOREN STORY
Ann and the girls were out touring the Alamo interior and getting lunch, so we all rendezvoused for siesta and a swim under the freeway, then went out for the evening to first tour some of the other old missions, then dinner (away from the Riverwalk), then a ghost tour from one of the snipey, fractuous, and frankly-creepy-wouldn’t-feel-comfortable-passing-him-on-the-sidewalk tour guides. They passed out infra-red thermo-meters (laser pointers), magnetic field detectors (stud finders), and dowsing rods (bent coat hangers on a spool) and tramped us around downtown pointing them at things and listening to stories about the old spanish garrisons and vigilantes and such. It was mildly amusing and moderately irritating at the same time, but it gave us something to do.
- Lunch in Boerne (Bear Moon Cafe)
This morning we shook the dust of that town from our car tires and had another travel day, this time to the Texas Hill Country, which is much like the Texas flatlands, only hillier. We spent a pleasant hour or two in the crafts and antiques town of Boerne, and had luch at the local coffeehouse, with a homey character and a sophisticated menu. I had Yucatan chicken and lime soup, as an example, and I hope to recreate the recipe someday.
Now we are in Fredericksburg, another lovely town of arts, cafes and wineries. I had small tastings at two wineries this afternoon, within two blocks of each other, and there are at least three more further down Main Street to hit tomorrow. The German heritage of the place apparently is responsible for the town policy of encouraging open containers of beer and wine on the sidewalks,which is, in my opinion a very civilized way to live, at least until someone puts an eye out, or something.
Dinner this evening was crackers and toothless texan goat cheese, with a jar of local jalapeno jelly for counterpoint, with bananas and Nutella for dessert, enjoyed in the comfort of the Super 8 Motel. We are all content with a quiet evening tonight.
Saturday in San Antonio and Sunday in Fredericksburg
Mission San Juan
The Alamo "Cottonwood Tree"
nice walkway in the Alamo
Elinor was there too
So, being the hungry tourists we were, we went to the Riverwalk Place for Mall food. A good time was had by us, even thought the food was normal. We did walk home via The Riverwalk and that was lovely. Especially once we got out of the food area and the crowds died down a little. There are a few lovely mosaics to be found, and yes, fish do live there along with the many ducks.
Back “Home” to swimming and laundry, while we wore our swimsuits, I could wash everything else. Late afternoon is when we set off to see the Missions, and dinner at Rosariao’s, which was great and fun, and then off to an awful Ghost hunt. It was tauted as being Scientific, but it was just dumb. (in my opinion) Some people were amused, we had “instruments” too, but it was not full of enough ghost stories for me. One instrument measured the differing temperatures on a building, so most of the buildings were let’s say 90 degrees, but a section of something cold, like 60 degrees, might indicate a “field of energy”. Then there were dousing rods, that could also detect energy fields, and if one wanted to obtain one’s own pair, that could happen for a mere $20. For two handles and two coat hangers taken apart? I don’t think so. Back to the hotel and sleep and then Sunday to travel to Fred’burg…
Ducks
- Enjoying Blizzards on the walk home
I did like the inner courtyards of the Missions: especially San Jose’s. It was large and green, but I could imagine it busy with people shopping and visiting and gardening and tending their flocks. Concepcion had a small quarry close to it, with an artists’ conception of how the locals broke and carried rocks to build the mission. All very interesting.
