For one of my wife’s milestone birthdays, I planned a trip to San Antonio and I promised her it would be warm. Her birthday is around Christmas and so it was on Christmas day, we flew in to San Antonio and spent a lovely few days that turned out to be mostly chilly.
Ironically, we had just passed another decade and we were still celebrating another milestone birthday. (I believe the rule for a milestone is that you get a whole month to celebrate). So it was serendipity that we would be returning to San Antonio and the best part was the weather forecast. This time, we were expecting temps in the upper seventies.
We decided on Hotel Gibbs which was right next to the Alamo. On our first trip, we stayed at the slightly more expensive Hotel Contessa which was right on the River Walk and a hotel we had seen on the Travel channel. We also paid more for that trip because it turned out we were there during the Alamo Bowl. I wasn’t sure what to expect before checking in because once again, the hotel price seemed super reasonable. The only “gotcha” turned out to be that we had to pay for parking but there was no way around that if we wanted to be close to the action and able to walk everywhere. All in all, this was an awesome deal and a great location.
The hotel was built in 1909 as San Antonio’s first high rise office building. Below, you can see the original elevator but the ones in use are actually hidden back behind.
Since the weather was so nice, we headed out to the River Walk in search of a dog friendly location for lunch. I use the app, Bring Fido quite often with good results. Ironically, that landed us at a restaurant we had enjoyed 10 years ago, the Lonestar which is especially known for it smoked meats. I had the most amazing brisket sandwich and a margarita. Carol had a burger and beer. They were very accommodating of Kismet.
There is so much beauty in San Antonio. Below are a few photos I snapped while we wondered around.
More about San Antonio next week!
Wonderful pictures! I was there in 1980 with my running partner from the Army. Mario had cousins there so it was like visiting family. Mario was from East LA. He spoke a chicano dialect. A very smart man who always beat me in chess. His family was from Texas, ah memories!
I love the city and I was so irritated that my husband got to go for a conference last week!