San Antonio Alamode (Yes, this is a play on words!)

Today was all San Antonio. We started the day at mission San Jose then moved on to Mission Concepcion. Both old missions had their own charm. We decided to continue with the Mexican food theme and ate lunch at Pico de Gallo. Tim got Carne De Res Guisada (beef tips in a spicy red sauce) and I got puffy tacos. Both were delicioso! All the Mexican restaurants serve flour tortillas that have been made in-house. They're soft and tender. I will never master the art of rolling out dough be it pie crust, cookie, or tortilla. It's probably a good thing.

After lunch we headed to The Alamo. It is what everyone said it was--old, eighteenth century mission sitting in the middle of a big city. It was much more commercial (even on the inside than the other missions we visited, so it wasn't nearly as charming as the others. I do appreciate the significance of the stand that was taken there, though.

After visiting The Alamo, we walked to the Tower of the Americas. It was built for the World's Fair in 1964. When you travel to the top of the tower,  you can see the whole city as well as the flat plains of Texas. After all that walking, we needed a little snack so we stopped at the River Mall, wandered around there for a while (it was air-conditioned), then stopped at Maria Mia for a sopapilla and ice cream. The sopapilla was okay; the ice cream was delicious--Blue Bell vanilla. After a quick stop at the hotel, we headed  back down to El Murcado (the Market), to view the little Mexican shops that were designed for tourists like us. (Don't worry, we didn't buy.) Next on our list was the Riverwalk cruise. It was getting dark so we got to see The Riverwalk at dusk. Tim had been, I had not. Our guide did a great job of giving a little history and a little levity throughout the tour. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Getting off the boat, I asked for dinner recommendations.

We ended up at Budro's for a late-night table-side guacamole and stuffed, grilled quail. Both we're good. We heard the fireworks at Hemisfair Park (where the Tower of the Americas is located), but we're not interested in walking back there since we had been walking all day.