A Fun Day In San Antonio

What a great city this is!!  Now, our hometown of Chattanooga is wonderful, but this town is so chocked full of things to see and do.  Our day was just full of seeing wonderful things and learning all about the city of San Antonio.

The San Antonio KOA is undergoing a transformation of their front drive.  Oh, the gate driveway is great, but once you get through the gate, then you must turn to the right in order to maneuver around the campground.  Once it gets completed, they will have an awesome entrance way into their campground.

Our day started early as our tour bus was scheduled to pick us up at 8:15.  So we were waiting at the gate, and watching the workers who were busy as bees getting the driveway ready for the asphalt   A trolley picked us up and took us downtown to the tour bus office to transfer over to our vehicle that was to be our transportation and teacher today!

We met our bus driver, Tom, who was a retired San Antonio police officer, and a lifelong resident of San Antonio.  He really knew his city and you could tell he was a very proud resident.

Our first stop was the Japanese Sunken Gardens.  What a beautiful garden and city park.  It has awesome colored floral displays, a waterfall and is a safe habitat for Koi and aquatic plants.  It's a 'reuse' of an old rock quarry, and the quarry dates back to 1899.  It was completed and dedicated to the city around the time of the start of WWII, and the original name, Japanese Sunken Gardens, was not a popular name, so Tom said they changed the name to Chinese Sunken Gardens!!   Now, it's called by either name, and is even known as just the Tea Garden!!  All in all, it was a beautiful place.  It's close to the San Antonio Zoo, and Brackenridge Park, which is also a very well used, family style, park owned by the city.  I have included just a few pictures that we made today.

From the gardens, we headed to the famous San Antonio River Walk.  We rode one of the boats down the River Walk, and learned a lot about the area, and about the River Walk itself!  Very nice time, and we enjoyed it so much!  We did learn that the city is in the process of expanding the River Walk into other parts of the city.

Here comes our boat

beautiful

Yep, Butch enjoyed it as well.

very relaxing ride

all types of restaurants offer seating by the River Walk

Bells symbolises the Missions that were built there

Our next stop was into the downtown area to the Buckhorn Saloon & Museum.  The saloon was like what you see on western movies & TV shows!  The exception to this one was, it was opened by a man who had a vast collection of horns, animals, and used the saloon as a source to show them off.  While we were there, 3 men and 1 woman came in for lunch, dressed in full cowboy gear from the hats to big spurs!!  The exhibits of the animals are from all over the world and is reportedly to be over 500 different species!!  

the cowboys & saloon girl show up for lunch

just part of the horns!!

Texas Longhorn Steer

chair made out of horns

a BIGGER longhorn steer

We then went to the Texas Ranger Museum which was a fantastic history of the world's most famous law enforcement agency!  It had artifacts and, actually, a recreation of old San Antonio!  Very interesting place, and as you can see from the photo's, we enjoyed it and had a great time!!

Bonnie & Clyde's car --  wow, was it all shot up!!

a chuck wagon that would have been used by the Rangers

big display of weapons

maybe get into the bank vault???  hummm????

t'

We then went to visit the Alamo.  It's often called the 'cradle of Texas liberty'.  It was actually smaller than I had pictured in this pea sized brain of mine, but once you see the drawings and models of what it was back in the day, it was actually a huge place.  We also had enough time to tour the Alamo and to have lunch as well.  Butch and I found this neat deli around the corner, and was able to sit down and enjoy a relaxing lunch in the coolness of air conditioning!!!  yeahhhh!!!  

While at the Alamo, we saw a big display naming those who were killed during the big battle, along with the states that they were from.  We counted a total of 33 from our great state of Tennessee!  These were men who were killed, but didn't become hero's as some did!  Those bodies were cremated and are entombed in a big monument very close to the Alamo!  Quite impressive!!

Butch & Brenda at the Alamo

The Alamo

The Alamo

We also visited the Mission San Jose, a completely restored mission, and the Mission Concepcion.  Mission Concepcion is the oldest unrestored stone church in the nation.  

We were tired puppies when we were driven back to our campground, but we had a fantastic day.  One thing about it, we didn't have to listen to the lady in the GPS telling us where to go, we didn't have to find parking places, and we learned more about San Antonio than we would have if we had driven ourselves!  Good investment, as far as we are concerned!!

We've had dinner, watched some TV, and the workers have continued to work on the massive driveway for the campground.  We just had a knock at the door, and it was the owner apologizing for the late work and noise, and asking us to stop by the office in the morning, and he would refund our money for tonight's stay!!  Can't beat that!!!  Two nights stay for the price of one!!  What a deal!!  We were going to stop by in the morning anyway, because they offer a big 'chuck wagon style' breakfast for $3.00.  We will have breakfast there, get our refund, and then hit the highway toward Beaumont!!!

I know this was a lot to read, but hope you've enjoyed our tour of San Antonio, because we sure did!  Now to get a good nights sleep!!  

Thank you for traveling with us.  

Goodnight and much love.