Roadtrip | San Antonio TX. Pt I

After moving to Austin last October, Will and I very quickly discovered there are many amazing places in every direction, all within a short drive from the city and once we had the furniture arranged, found our bearings and were somewhat settled; we set ourselves a new year's resolution (hate the word, let's say) goal to go on a roadtrip once a month to explore these places.

San Antonio was #1 on Will's roadtrip list but somehow every time we headed down that way, we stopped short... the first time spending an entire day at the outlet malls in San Marcos... the second time veering off to New Braunfels instead.  Last Friday however, with my family visiting from overseas, it was the perfect occasion to finally visit the city and experience firsthand the history of Texas at the Alamo.

It was at the Alamo that our visit began, as every first trip to San Antonio should.  This was everything you'd expect such a momentous battle field to be: informative, eerie and incredibly well preserved/ maintained.  Entering the Shrine was a very moving experience - despite visiting on a school day with excursion groups of children who were too young to appreciate the magnitude of what had occurred there: acting all noisy and restless - I could feel the very presence and desperation of those who huddled within its walls, hoping to be spared from the famous massacre.  Those walls, more than half of which are the original structure, have survived and witnessed so much turbulence!  I was astonished to see some of America's oldest graffiti upon them, from a time when the United States Army used it as a storage facility: initials and dates from the 1800's!  I feel certain that had I been alone within those walls, they would have spoken.   

 One thing I wasn't expecting at the Alamo was the beautiful garden that surrounds the fortress, where everything living thing is giant: from the cactus clusters and live oak to the goldfish, swimming lazily around the pond. We visited on an overcast day, so everything appeared dark green, lush and serene - as if in reverence - which took me by surprise since I'd only ever seen pictures of the Alamo online, where in my mind it was located in a desert.

I never knew San Antonio was such a big city until we left the Alamo and walked around its downtown district, where just like all American cities: history is blended with modernity.  I was expecting to see more Spanish influence in the architecture but then again, seeing the varying European styles all around the city make the fortress and her Shrine even more sacred - as an homage to the last time Texas was under foreign rule.  

For me, the highlight of our walking around the city was when my cousin Rita got a bag of nuts out of her handbag and taught me how to feed wild squirrels at the city park!  It was so much fun that I think I'll start carrying nuts around too, just so I can do it again!! ... It's little things like this that will always bring me the most joy <3