For whatever reason, we’ve been wanting to visit San Antonio for a long time. Karissa came during college for a few days as part of a basketball tournament, but didn’t get to explore much. I’ve just always though it would be a neat place to visit, based on absolutely nothing. Well, the place exceeded our expectations!
As any first visit to San Antonio should, we saw the Alamo. As they say, it’s a lot smaller than you’d imagine. The Alamo is actually the entire complex surrounding a church – the church (or mission) is what we all think of when we picture “The Alamo”. Texas lost a major battle at the Alamo in their fight for independence from Mexico. It’s the resting place of Davey Crockett, Jim Bowie, and William B. Travis. It was amazing to see and lies in the heart of modern San Antonio.
We strolled the Riverwalk, a Roosevelt-era bet that San Antonio made to draw tourists to the city. It’s a 15+ mile walkway along the San Antonio river that is picturesque and includes countless shops and restaurants. It stretches from the museums north of downtown to the missions south of town.
We visited 4 of the 5 missions. They were all amazing. Mission San Jose was the most intact of the 4. You could really picture life inside of the place as its outer walls were mostly intact as well as roofs on most of the structures. Rumor has it they may rebuild portions of the outer wall of the Alamo (Mission San Antonio de Valero).
We strolled the Historic Market Square, a Mexican-market where the fiesta never ends. There were a lot of cool little shops and street vendors. It was an amazing environment. We had some gorditas and churros while listening to live music rather than eat somewhere quieter and with less authenticity.
While looking for something else to do, I found an old brewery that had been converted into a marketplace and residences called The Pearl. It was the home of Pearl Brewery and was saved via repurposement after the brewery shut down. It is truly an amazing place. Great use of industrial stuff for art. A bit hipster, but what a way to save an historic piece of the city! We later found out that San Antonio is great at repurposing old buildings. The San Antonio Museum of Art is inside the former Lone Star Brewery, amongst many other examples. The architecture of San Antionio is beautiful. We could have spent days just admiring the buildings!
At the end of our time in San Antonio, we took a touristy bus tour. We probably should have taken it first, but it was a nice way to make sure we didn’t miss anything big on our own.
We loved San Antonio. It’s an amazing city with a great vibe, great architecture, and a great friendly vibe. We’ll definitely be back. Hopefully sooner rather than later.