Doin' it up BIG in Texas

Days 39-42    2/11-14/2010
 
The San Marcos River right behind our camping site 

 

  

We arrived in San Marcos in the midst of a cold, grey and very wet day but the gods must have been smiling down on us since the only pause in the downpour was at the very moment when we arrived at our campground and needed to set up. We decided on this location for 2 simple reasons - we have friends who liver here and because it's equally between San Antonio and Austin. We made good use of remainder of the day by getting the laundry done and allowing the kids to swim in the indoor heated pool – quite a treat when it's so nasty outside.

The campground here (Pecan Park) is great -- one of the nicer ones (as far as amenities go).  It’s located on the San Marcos River and they’ve done a great job of leaving lots of nature intact so it doesn’t have that open parking lot feel that seems indicative of so many of the private campgrounds.  The kids have had fun wading and playing in the creek that runs between our campsite and the river behind us. We thought about canoeing the river (there's an outfitter nearby) until we noticed the aluminum canoe wrapped at a 90 degree angle on a nearby rock.  It's a pretty unruly river with quite a current - plenty of white water. 

On Friday afternoon we met up with our friends Megan and Richard Jones and met their 12 wk. old baby Gideon for the first time – quite the cutie.  Megan gave us a tour of the new McCoy’s Building Supply office headquarters as well as one of the local stores. She even gave the kids a short lesson on lumber basics out in their lumber yard.  It was great to see the impressive operation in person after hearing about it for so long.  Not to our surprise, after speaking with many of their employees, it was obvious that the McCoys are great folks for whom to work.  Later that evening, joined by Megan’s folks, we all had a fabulous steak dinner at a local steak house called Texas Reds and enjoyed catching up with these friends we don’t get to see very often.

 

The San Antonio River Walk

 

Lunch at a local Mexican Cafe overlooking the river

On Saturday we headed into the long awaited city of San Antonio where we spent hours walking along the river walk which -- not only beautiful, but also a great place for shopping, eating and people watching. The gorgeous sunny day brought out tons of locals and tourists alike which made walking the narrow sidewalks a bit treacherous since there are no curbs or railings keeping you out of the river. If you’re walking on the wrong side, one slight bump from a passerby could land you in the San Antonio with a splash and lots of laughs from the on-looking restaurant patrons.  Thankfully, we managed to avoid providing such entertainment but instead had loads of fun eating local foods, shopping, and even watching a Mardi Gras parade floating down the river--our second chance to load up on beads.

 

Mardi Gras floats heading down the river

Kerby and Joelle finding their own kind of fun - the air vents along the sidewalks of San Antonio - whatever blows your skirt up. . . 

And of course we remembered the Alamo-the fort at which 189 Texans including Jim Bowie and David Crockett fought for Texas' independence from Mexico. Most interesting for us was the "History Shop" (a little hole in the wall) where a to-scale model of the fort is on display in the same room as an under-glass archeological dig that's shows many of the weapons and artifacts that were found in that very spot where the battle of the Alamo took place.  We listened to a narration (by none other than Phil Collins) that explained much of the battle. It was quite educational. 

On the way home (the camper is now “home”), we stopped by Cavender’s Boot World at the local outlet mall and Kerby, Joelle and I all left with new western cowboy boots – a pricey endeavor but I had promised the kids (and secretly myself) boots for our birthdays.  Somehow I just couldn’t talk Scott into getting a pair – not the cowboy type (who’d have guessed).

And during the few minutes we've not been running around seeing the sites, I tried my hand at some Origami