Day 2: San Antonio

It was a good night in the Days Inn Airport. Breakfast was adequate. Egg and sausage biscuits, cereal, and juice.

Dad and Joel had a spirited discussion about why mirrors transpose left and right, but not up and down. Dad's opinion is that if our eyes were arranged vertically and not horizontally, the mirror would transpose up and down, because if we lay horizontally, left and right are now up and down and they are transposed. Joel says that it still works when you close one eye, so that can't be true. Dad says that our brains are just wired that way. Mom says "eat your cereal before it gets soggy."

We drove to San Antonio (about 8 miles) and parked in a ramp. Our friendly GPS, the “Hertz NeverLost” guided us there. We had indicated our destination to be the Alamo. It successfully brought us right to the Alamo, but there were detours due to all the activities in town. The GPS not only guides us to our destination, but also enhances our self-esteem when we get there by stating "You Have Arrived!" That makes us feel good! It turns out we hit a big Alamo weekend because it’s the 175^th anniversary of the battle of the Alamo.

We were wondering what our GPS would say if we made a wrong turn, so we found out, because we had to drive around aimlessly looking for a place to park. We wondered if it would state in its monotonous tone “You Are Lost!” but instead, it politely reassured us that it was “Recalculating the Route.”

We decided to go up a Public Parking ramp – one of those corkscrew deals where you drive in a circle as you go up. The GPS informed us “Approaching Left Turn … Followed by Left Turn … Followed by Left Turn.” Very helpful!

We walked to the Alamo and there were lots of festivities because of the 175^th anniversary weekend. There were hundreds of costumed folks re-enacting various aspects of the time and culture. It was a pretty interesting tour, and at noon they re-enacted the attack by the Mexicans when the Alamo fell. It was complete with canons and gunshots, with smoke filling the air.

After a short lunch in a small café, it was time to walk the famous Riverwalk – San Antonio’s version of Canal Park and the Lakewalk. It couldn’t compare to Lake Superior, of course, but it was interesting. We took one of the narrated boat tours around part of the river, which is a man-made river off the natural San Antonio River. There are lots of things happening there, from shops to sidewalk cafes (lots of Mexican food) to bands.

Joel asked Cha-Cha and found that San Antonio is the second largest city in the US with a population of over a million. I find that hard to believe and will have to check this out. Can you believe everything you hear from Cha-Cha?

We took off for Port Aransas around 3pm and the drive was successful but uneventful. Lots of cacti, turkey vultures, hawks and farmland. Very flat country and very sparsely populated. Arriving in Port Aransas, we made our obligatory trip to Whataburger and stopped at the grocery store for breakfast and lunch supplies.

The house we are staying at belongs to the people who Grandpa Dick pays to park his camper in their yard. It is currently unoccupied, so we are able to rent it at a reasonable rate. It should be a comfy home away from home for the next few days!