Saturday, August 29: First visit to the Riverwalk

JOHN - Jayma and I finally decided to hit the Riverwalk. Well, it was well worth the visit. We got down there in about 15 minutes and that was just getting a little lost. Now that we know how to get there, the trip from our apartment takes 10 minutes, tops.

We were immediately struck by the amount of energy coming from the area. It was still early in the evening and hot enough where it wasn't very crowded. We decided that we were going to have dinner that night but not hit The Alamo. We wanted to eat dinner down there but we were going to walk around for a bit. Plus, I had a new pair of sandals I wanted to break in.

As we were walking around the Riverwalk, we loved all of the restaurants we kept running into. There were plenty of Mexican restaurants/bars but there were also some Italian and even an Irish pub. The great thing about all of these places: you could sit right alongside the river. There were tour boats were in full force. We decided not to do the tour boat thing yet b/c we figured we'd be going down there again. And again.

After walking around a bit and taking numerous pictures of us goofing around (and ducks too), we decided to have dinner at this restaurant called the Republic of Texas. I think we had a waiter who was in the worst mood because he didn't seem happy at all. We ordered margaritas and daiquiris and people watched. By this time, the crowds were starting to pick up but the weather was just right and it was fun just sitting there on the river. Across the river was another restaurant where the music was loud and the patrons were having a great time. I think we are going there next time. We ended up sharing a mushroom burger and some apple crisp. It was yummy.

After that, we walked around some more and stopped at this really cool gift shop where Jayma picked up some postcards. By this time, the sun was down and the Riverwalk was really coming alive. We ended up leaving around 9ish but agreed that we wanted to stay there one night and enjoy a long night at some of the taverns. My good friend, Pete, is coming to visit next weekend so I think that's where we will go.

After that, we went out with Lisa and her boyfriend, Don. Lisa was Mrs. Schiebel's student teacher from fall 2008 and recently took a job here in San Antonio for NISD. We were originally going to go to this place called Big'z but it was closed. We ended up hitting this really nice bar called Stone Werks. It was a gorgeous night and we sat there and talking teaching and other stuff. Lisa and Don were fun to hang out with and we actually met some new friends, Corey and David. They had the really strong Texas accents and displayed that Southern hospitality. For some reason, everyone always wants to talk to us about Illinois. I find that funny b/c we just want to talk about Texas.

It was a great night and we are looking forward to going to the Riverwalk again and hanging out with Lisa and Don.