Playing Tourist In Our Hometown

We lived in San Antonio, Texas for almost 20 years before we began fulltiming this past October.  We didn't go downtown to the tourist attractions very much for all of the reasons people give - wanted to avoid crowds,  we've seen it before, but mostly life just gets in the way of doing it.

So, we decided to be sure and see the downtown sites before we leave Texas the end of April.

Today, our first stop was the Tower of the Americas. It was built for Hemisfair in 1968 and growing up in San Antonio, it was a very big deal as it was being built.  It has recently undergone a complete renovation and we had not been there since it had been completed.

We parked at the  tower parking lot and took the walkway leading to it.

We walked around the base getting our bearings and looking at the pictures of San Antonio during the time the tower was built.  We took the elevator up to the observation deck to see the view.  It was a beautiful, clear day.


Here's a view of the Alamodome.

Next, the other side of downtown. La Villita is where the trees are and the La Villita auditorium is the round building with the sunflower on top.

Here's Jim with the obligatory, "I was there," shot.  :)

We then thought if we were this close to the river, we would walk on over to the Riverwalk.  It was lunchtime, so we ate at the Republic of Texas.

We had a nice, leisurely lunch

while enjoying watching the mama duck keep up with all of her peeps.

Next, the Alamo, we hadn't been inside for probably 25 years.

Finally, we took the river barge ride.

We wanted to take the trolley ride around downtown,

but, it was getting late, we'll leave that for another day.

It was a beautiful Texas spring day!