San Antonio Texas, the River Walk and Dia de Muertos or Day of the Dead Celebration has been on my wife Alice, buckets list for 30+ years. We finally got around to planning the trip in March of 2022. Because of the war in Ukraine and gasoline prices soaring, we bought plane tickets and secured a hotel room on March 8th. Our daughter Hailee was staying with us and Daughter Nissa, her husband Joe and kids Andryc and Markley were going and staying in the Marriott next door to our Holiday Inn. Both hotels are right on the River Walk.
Fast forwarding to October 25th Alice and I dropped off our 3 yorkies with niece and nephew Melissa and Josh then went home and got ready for an early flight the next morning. Alice got 2 hours of sleep and I got 4 before the alarms alerted us for our drive to the airport. Alice was 15 minutes late leaving the house and that could make a difference at an airport so I was driving a little fast on the county road. Hailee was meeting us at the airport and called me as we were going down the road. As I was hanging up and laying down the phone, out comes 3 deer into the roadway. I slammed on the antilock brakes (I hate those damn things) and tried to steer to the left to miss them. Alice had a hold on my arm, really tight, restricting my movement resulting in me hitting the 3rd deer in the rump on the right front fender of the car. The airbags didn't deploy and the headlight still worked so on to the airport I drove. First deer I have hit in 63 years.
We got to the airport, met Hailee, got through security and still had a little wait. We finally boarded the plane to Atlanta and took off at 7:00 am, October 26th. We had just a bit of layover in Atlanta then took the Delta flight on to San Antonio arriving at 11:45 am their time. We got a quick Uber ride to the Holiday Inn hotel on North St. Mary's street. We got our room early which was great but being on the 21st floor made it hard for me to look out the window. You could see the River Walk below if you got real close to the window and looked down. I couldn't do it and Alice and Hailee made fun of me the whole stay. We were very hungry so we walked a little portion of the River Walk taking in the sights and seeing the other tourists out in the beautiful fall day. It was in the 70's and felt good to us Ohio folks. We decided on eating at the Iron Cactus, a Tex-Mex restaurant at a table right on the River Walk. The food was great and spicy but really expensive to us cheap folks.
Meanwhile the Stump family was 2 hours behind us. They were flying Southwest and left Columbus for Houston then on to San Antonio. After they arrived at their hotel room on the 8th floor, Alice, Hailee and I stood outside on the River Walk and waved up to them as they stood on their balcony. They were hungry and found the Acenar restaurant another Tex-Mex right next door to our hotel. We all went for a walk to see the courthouse, an Old Catholic church and we saw a fountain with a Day of the Dead alter set up. Back at the rooms, Andryc wanted to swim but their hotel pool was more like a bathtub so we all went to our hotel pool where Andryc got his swim on. Since both hotels required room keys to get into the back doors, we traded key cards so we could access both hotels. We were all tired after the early morning flights and the jet lag stuff; in fact Markley was already asleep in her stroller so we all headed to our rooms for an early night to bed.
Thursday October 27th I was up by 6:30 their time. Texas is 1 hour behind Ohio and it was still dark outside so I went to the exercise room, rode a bike and played on the elliptical getting a sweat worked up to start the day. Back at the room Hailee was still asleep and Alice was in the restroom. There was no hurry because we were on vacation and just relaxing. The Stumps reported a bad night due to Markley not sleeping very well in a new place so they were moving kind of slowly. Thinking of breakfast, the Stumps went out on their own while us other 3 went to a restaurant I saw in a flyer. It is called Schilo's, the oldest restaurant in San Antonio. It's a German-Texan type place started in 1917 and the breakfast was very good. The Stumps walked to the Historic Market Square and we met them later using an Uber to get us there. We did not want to rent a car because it cost $30.00 a day to park at the hotel and Uber was the best way to travel. Since Alice had her surgery on her spine only 7 weeks before, she was still having some trouble walking around but she did great even climbing the many stairs on the River Walk. I feel it made her stronger. There were a lot of shops at the market to spend money in and the thing I noticed most was the colors. The Mexican clothing is so brightly colored especially with reds. Leaving the shops we walked the .6 mile back to the room stopping to see the Spanish Governors Mansion and the San Antonio City Hall. After getting Alice back to the room for a rest, Hailee and I went to the Royal Blue Grocery, a small local store selling everything from fresh coffee and beer to food, chips, etc. It was a neat place.
I bought a six pack and took a beer out and sat on the River Walk just relaxing and watching people walk by. The Stumps came out while waiting for Alysse, Nissa's friend from high school. She is a wonderful photographer who travels around the U S taking famous folks pictures. She met her husband Dante in New York City when he was playing in a band. He's a wonderful guitar player and is from San Antonio and they only live a few miles from downtown. We made plans to meet up later for supper and around 5:00 pm we met at the County Line BBQ restaurant. I wanted to try some authentic Texas BBQ. Alysee and Dante joined us and after some good food we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the parade. The SpiritLandia (Day of the Dead) River Parade is seeing elaborately decorated floats with altars, catrinas, and costumed riders all celebrating life and loved ones. They use those River Walk boats and it reminded me of our Popcorn Festival Parade only on water instead of land. It was only the second year for the parade and they had some problems. After changing clothes and the women dressing in parade gear we got ready for the floats. And we waited and we waited. The 7:00 parade didn't get to us until 8:00 but we had fun conversing with all the folks around us. A little rain started to fall but not enough to send us back to the rooms until the last float finally drifted past us. After the parade we all hit the hay to get ready for another day.
Friday morning around 8:00 am heavy rain fell and the news channel was very happy because they needed rain. It didn't last too long so everyone except Alice met to walk around the whole River Walk. The loop part that is around us is only 1.5 miles long. It was a brisk walk with cloudy skies but warm. At 12:15 everyone walked to the Alamo, which was only .3 mile from us, for our scheduled tour. There is a lot of history at the Alamo and our tour took over an hour. They also had a musket firing demonstration which was very loud and smoky. Afterwards Markley needed a nap so back to the rooms we went. Our Uber driver from the airport told us about the Pearl District and said it was an interesting place to visit. The Pearl Brewing Company was an American brewery established in 1883 in Downtown San Antonio. Pearl beer is still in production at Miller's Fort Worth, Texas facility, but the Pearl Brewery in San Antonio was closed in 2001. So the closed brewery was a good backdrop for a fancy eating district and a hotel. Alice, Hailee and I got an Uber and went to check it out. Hailee was starving so we looked for food and had a hard time finding something open and not so expensive. Most stopped serving food at 4:00 pm then reopened at 5. Everything in that area was very expensive. We stopped at Bakery Lorraine and got a cheese sandwich, a Cuban sandwich, 1 beer, 1 mimosa and a cup of coffee for a cost of $70.00. There is a brewery there called Southerleigh Brewery so Hailee and I got a beer, total $20.57. The bartender told us to take the hallway at the end of the bar to see the hotel Emma. It's named after the wife of the head brewer back in the early 1900's and when he died, she took over and saved the brewery through Prohibition. The lobby of the hotel was very fancy and the people there all looked very proper and well dressed. I asked the front desk what a room would cost for a Friday evening and he replied "$800.00". I half expected to see some celebrities but didn't see any. After walking around the grounds outside along the San Antonio River we Ubered back to our hotel to get ready for the evening.
Joe has a friend from school, Bill, that lives in Austin and he was coming to visit and spend the night. Joe and Andryc went to meet him while Nissa and Markey napped. Plans were made to meet Bill and his family for dinner later but first we had to take a boat ride around the River Walk and do the tour thing. Go Rio is the company to use and Alice made it clear that she wanted to go on the ride after dark. Our tour guide was a nice young Hispanic lady and our 3.5 mile tour was fun. I had trouble understanding her sometimes between her accent and my hearing loss. Hailee could understand her perfectly and relayed for me. There are lots of bridges crossing the River Walk and I had to kiss Alice under each and every one. As we got off the boat Bill and his family met us. Hailee and I wanted to go to the Esquire Tavern, the oldest bar on the River Walk. The Stumps went to get ice cream while Bill and family followed us to get a drink and food at the tavern. The bar is 109 feet long, the longest in Bexar County, Texas. The Stumps came in and after a couple drinks we all headed for our hotel rooms, us to watch the World Series.
Saturday October 29th I was awake at 5, 6, and finally got up at 7. The girls didn't get up until 8. It's a free morning with no plans other then Hailee flying out. She had to leave a day early due to club volleyball tryouts on Sunday back in the OH state. After showers, plans were made to have lunch at Casa Rio, the oldest and first restaurant on the River Walk. They also had the most colorful umbrellas on the R.W. The Stumps and us met outside the hotels and walked to the restaurant where Bill and family met us. We had a nice lunch then all parted ways. Bill was leaving for home and Alice, Hailee and went back to our room to watch "The Ohio State Buckeyes" play football. Hailee was also packing and at 1:30 she called an Uber for the trip to the airport. We all said our goodbyes as she rode off then Alice and I walked the shops for souvenirs. We stopped at the Harley Davidson store, Hard Rock Cafe and some type of gift shop. We found out later that Hailee had a delay in Detroit before flying to Columbus but she finally made it home.
Back at the hotel Alice and I went to the lounge for a beer and to watch more college football and we met a couple that were hilarious to talk to. The Stumps met us at the lounge, then we all walked over to Hemispheres Park where all the Day of the Dead festivities were taking place, also called Los Muertos. Today was the big celebration in San Antonio and Dante's band was playing. The place was packed with people having painted faces and costumes and just having a great time. It was the 10th annual festival. There were 2 stages with music and we where watching an all female Mexican band that sounded wonderful. Nissa put headphones on Markley to protect her ears then Markley fell asleep in my arms. After Dante's band played we tried to walk around and get some festival food but it was so crowded and the lines so long that we just gave up. Walking back to the rooms we stopped at a McDonalds, got some food and took it back to the lobby in the Marriott to eat. Walking back I commented about all the people on the streets and all the cars and limos we saw. Come to find out, Elton John was in concert half a mile away at the convention center. 50,000 people were there to see him. It was good to get off the streets as it was hard to push Markley's stroller through the crowds.
Sunday was our last day as we all were flying out. Nissa wanted breakfast but Joe and Andryc didn't so Alice and I walked with Nissa to Schilo's but the wait was way too long. We found La Villita Cafe and ate on their patio enjoying the morning knowing we had to leave town. We walked the River Walk one last time back to the room where everyone packed. The Stumps had to leave an hour before us so we said our goodbyes at 11:30 am then got ourselves ready. We left at 12:30 using an Uber and we rode in a Lexis. The Stumps got stuck in a Chevy Malibu with Andryc saying he has never been in such a small car before. Alice and I got through TSA and found our gate, A4. We had to fly to Minneapolis. The Stumps were at gate A14 and their plane was late arriving so I briskly walked down to see them one last time then got Alice and I each a beer. I almost shit because a beer was $12.00 each, Ouch. We had lift off at 2:36 heading to Minnesota for a 2 hour flight. We had an hour lay over but the Minneapolis airport is much larger than I thought so by time we got to our gate, we didn't have to wait long. Another 2 hour flight and we were in Columbus getting luggage and driving home. After not driving for 5 days it was strange to be behind the wheel. We stopped at Josh and Melissa's to get our dogs then we were home with the San Antonio vacation now a memory.
All in all it was a great trip with great sites to see and there were no family problems while being together.
Alice had a wonderful idea for a family vacation and now another trip has been crossed off the "bucket list."
View All Pictures From San Antonio
Video Clip of Alyssa & Nissa Dancing