Texas

(Becky writes) Yesterday and today we have spent enjoyable days in San Antonio. We arrived here early yesterday afternoon and promptly headed to the El Marcado (the market). I'll have to admit it was a bit of a let down for me. We have heard and read that it is quite similar to the markets in Mexico so that is what we were expecting. It really is not. It is more like any indoor mall that we all have in our cities except that pretty much all the merchandise is of Mexican influence. While on this trip we have visited markets in several cities, Sante Fe, Seattle, and Los Angeles and I must say these markets were all more similar to our experience in Mexico than the one here in San Antonio.



However, from there we traveled to the Riverwalk and it was all I had anticipated and then some. It is beautiful, romantic and just a delightful place to spend time. We had dinner at a steak place last night, sitting outside on the veranda and then a boat ride around the San Antonio River. The boat drivers give a great history of the area and we both really loved it (and learned a lot).


Today we toured the Alamo after seeing the IMAX movie about the same. IMAX is amazing, talk about high def. Unfortunately the movie was so violent and graphic that I had to keep my eyes closed much of the time. After the movie we walked over to the site of the Alamo where they have preserved the longhouse building and much of the church that was actually there is 1836. There are many artifacts displayed and it was quite interesting. One interesting fact that I was reminded of is that the officer in charge of the Texans was from South Carolina. There were actually quite a few South and North Carolinians who fought in that battle.




We decided we had enjoyed the riverwalk so much yesterday that we would walk back over for our lupper (lunch/supper) today. We heard last night on the boat ride that Del Rio was the original business that opened on the riverwalk in 1946. For a while the only businesses on the river were Del Rio and the office of the architect who designed the riverwalk. Del Rio is tex mex at its very best. We had an incredibly yummy lunch - I had the best green tomatillo sauce I have ever tasted. I'm afraid Moe's will never have quite the same appeal.