San Antonio, Texas - July 22nd to 23rd, 2023
San Antonio was not in our original itinerary. However, we found out that our daughter would be there, so we changed a couple of campground reservations to meet her there. We were in San Antonio during Season One (On a Mission: San Antonio, Texas - July 20 & 21, 2019) along with a few times before that. San Antonio is always a fun place to visit.
Saturday, we drove to San Antonio from Fredericksburg. As we left town, we stopped at the HEB grocery store. After San Antonio, we’ll be heading to Big Bend and we’re not sure what grocery stores will be in the area. We also didn’t want to spend time in San Antonio grocery shopping.
Saturday was spent at the Alamodome at the Drum Corps International (DCI) Southwestern Championships. Our daughter is on the color guard staff of the Wyoming Troopers corps. Her corps had a free day scheduled for Sunday, so we planned on spending the Sunday with her in San Antonio.
We arrived at the Alamodome around 11 am. The championships didn’t start until 1:30 pm, but the parking lots opened at 10 am. We previously emailed the stadium to make sure we could park Red Tail in their lots. They informed us that we could park in lot C, with the general visitors. If we overhung into a second parking spot, they would charge us $40 instead of the normal $20. However, when we arrived at lot C, the attendant said they were sending buses and RV’s down to lot D. At lot D, we handed them our credit card to pay. We should have asked how much it was first. It was $65! What?! Just for parking for the day? That’s more than our campground fees at the San Antonio KOA for the night.
After we parked next to the large class A motorhome in the lot, we walked to a nearby restaurant for lunch, Reese Bros Barbecue. The route we took to get there looked a little sketchy, but didn’t feel sketchy. It was through a neighborhood of small homes with chained up dogs in their front yards that didn’t seem too pleased we were walking down their street. We took a different route on the way back that seemed a little bit better.
The barbecue place was fantastic. The place just opened at 11 am, but there was already quite a few people there enjoying their food. There was a large seating area, outside, but it was shaded with large fans blowing a good breeze, so it was comfortable. The ordering line moved slowly, but there was shade to stand in and the food came out fairly quickly after being ordered. While we were waiting for the cashier to take care of something in the back, the person chopping up the meat handed us a couple samples of brisket. OMG! It was melt-in-your mouth smokey goodness! Well worth the wait.
You could order the meat separately, on a sandwich with toppings called a torta, or in a taco with homemade flour tortillas. We opted for the tacos along with a side of okra beans and slaw. The combination of flavors was unusual but fresh and fantastic. We couldn’t tell you what everything was comprised of, but we believe the chopped brisket on the tacos was topped with a salsa containing orange and cucumbers. The next time you’re in San Antonio, you’ll just have to try their food for yourself.
The rest of the day was spent inside the Alamodome. Luckily, it is air-conditioned, so we didn’t mind being inside. It has been four years since we’ve seen a live drum corps competition. Our children are no longer performers, but it was still nice seeing the shows again. Our daughter was even able to come sit with us for some of the last shows, after her corps was done performing. The competition finished up around 9:30 pm. It wasn’t a long drive to the San Antonio KOA afterwards to turn in for the night. A thunderstorm passed through during the night, which cooled things off a little bit, but increased the humidity.
Sunday morning, we picked up our daughter from her corps’ housing site and headed downtown for the day. We found a more reasonable place to park this time, compared to the expensive stay at the Alamodome. There are several large parking lots on the south side of Hemisfair Park, near the District Court building. Since it was the weekend, we could park there all day for $3. Now that’s better!
We spent the day walking around town, from one air-conditioned place to another. Our first stop was the Commonwealth Coffeehouse & Bakery in Hemisfair Park, near the Yanaguana Garden. There we enjoyed a breakfast of a croissant, blueberry cream cheese pastry, and a croissant béchamel croissant with ham. We washed the meal down with a tasty hibiscus lemonade.
From there, we strolled through La Villita and down along the River Walk. The temperatures seemed a few degrees cooler along the River Walk compared to up at street level. We’ve always enjoyed walking around in this area. Despite the crowds of people, it seems peaceful. Along the River Walk, we ducked into Cafe Ole for a drink. All three of us had virgin margaritas, but each had a different flavor, passion fruit, strawberry, and blood orange. After replenishing our fluids with our drinks and our electrolytes with the chips and salsa, we continued our stroll.
From the River Walk, we headed back up to street level and made our way down Commerce Street to the Historic Market Square. We’ve been here once before, but it was closed the last time, so we were not impressed before. This time was much different. The place was hopping. There were vendors lining the market, both outside and inside a couple of buildings. The wares were very colorful, with many of the items from Mexico. There was live music, both outside and inside. We bought a large fruit cup from a vendor, which Ann and our daughter split. It had large pieces of fresh watermelon, pineapple, and cucumbers along with a couple of grapes. A perfect snack for a hot day. Inside one of the buildings, we sat down and listened to the live music for a little while. It was a fun atmosphere.
As we left the Market Square, we could see a large dark storm cloud heading our way. Instead of taking the more scenic route back through the River Walk, we made a beeline for the Dough Pizzeria Napoletana back in Hemisfair Park to make sure we beat the rain. The wood-fired pizzas were delicious, although a little pricey. Keith finally got a margherita that he liked, unlike the one he had earlier in Kyle, Texas (Austin, Texas - July 15th to 18th, 2023).
It never did rain, but the clouds and breeze cooled down the air. After our early dinner, we sat outside on a shaded bench in the Yanaguana Garden. A private event was going on nearby with live music. We could hear the music well from our shaded seats. It was a great place to relax, enjoy the music in the pleasant temperature, and watch the kids play in the splash park.
To finish our eating tour of San Antonio, we walked over to the nearby Lick Honest Ice Creams, the same chain we visited in Austin. We opted for the same thing, since we liked our choices last time, a waffle cone with a scoop of fresh mint & chocolate chunk and a scoop of dark chocolate, olive oil, & sea salt along with a root beer float made with Hill Country honey & vanilla bean and Root Bexar from Southside Craft Soda. Our daughter went for a dish of honeyed peaches with rosemary.
Then it was time to head over to the Convention Center entrance to find the Troopers staff bus to drop off our daughter. It was a fun, relaxing day for all three of us. We’ll see each other again in October when we return home. We wish the Troopers the best on the rest of their tour.
The drive to the Kerrville KOA from San Antonio was uneventful. We reached the campground before dark. A good night’s sleep was what we needed. We had a long day of driving planned for the following day.
It was a short visit in hot weather, but San Antonio did not disappoint. Even though we didn’t really have any plans of what to see or do, we saw and did a lot, ..well, mostly eating. Drum Corps and good food. Not a bad combination.
Check out our related video: San Antonio, Texas
(Ann)