Thursday, March 27 had heavy rain in the forecast, so we planned a mostly indoor day. (The forecast was right - it rained steadily all day, which is rare for TX generally and Austin in particular). We slept in, did a little shopping north of town (I had underpacked, so I needed a few more short-sleeved shirts), then had lunch at a local burger chain P. Teddy's. It was pretty good with a Char Grill vibe. After lunch we headed to a local arcade and played some pinball.
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| The arcade we went to had a lot of pinball machines, so we had fun playing them. We could have gone to the UT art museum or the TX History Museum, but we opted for flashing lights and sounds of this large arcade. |
Riley and Jensen video called us from Italy. Glad to hear from them to know things were going so well for them on their trip.
We headed in early to relax and do laundry before our trip to San Antonio the next day.
Friday morning we headed south after breakfast. We charged near downtown and found a very good Texas BBQ for lunch on the recommendation from some locals, Smoke Shack BBQ. Again, outstanding BBQ and they had this spicy cream corn that was banging!
Since we had some time before we could check into our hotel, we decided to spend some time at a cool shopping and dining area, called the Pearl. Pearl was a TX-based beer that went out of business a while ago. Someone had the brilliant idea to revitalize the old property into a multi-use district. It sits on the Riverwalk, too, so it is accessible by walking or by boat.
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| The old can plant is now bougie condos. |
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| The original building has been preserved. Lovely architecture! |
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| There were added fountains and public art throughout the area. |
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| So glad this building survived! |
We enjoyed the Pearl area then headed to the Crockett Hotel next to the Alamo, our home for the next two nights. It is a historic hotel with a compact but otherwise fine room. We ventured out on foot to explore the area, including the Riverwalk area. We had an early dinner at Dough Pizzeria Napoletana which was amazing! We shared a blood orange soda and the tre colore burrata - totally DELICIOUS! We planned to also get a pizze, but we were really satisfied with the burrata, so we stopped there.  |
| Tre Colore means 3 colors, so this was burrata had sundried tomatoes inside, along with pesto and those little tomatoes on the outside. The flatbread was really on point, too. |
After dinner, we spent time walking along the Riverwalk and people watching. We also learned more about the history of the area on a riverboat ride.
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| I couldn't resist getting Leon to climb inside this playground climbing structure. |
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| There is public art everywhere. This lovely lady asked us to take a picture with her. |
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| Doing the tourist thing by taking a riverboat cruise. |
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| Sculpture along the Riverwalk in front of the art museum. |
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| We were tired by the end of all of this touring, so we took a grumpy picture. That's the sign on our hotel above our heads. |
San Antonio is truly a special place. Thanks for taking us along, and for doing the touristy things!
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