San Antonio Sights: The Pearl

The Pearl is an old brewery near downtown San Antonio (they used to brew....wait for it...Pearl Beer). It is now a mixed-use shopping, dining, and residential development along the San Antonio River and it's awesome.

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Chris and I went there when we first came down here last year, but we went back in February with Bob and Pam after visiting a couple of the nearby Missions.

We ate at La Gloria, a Mexican restaurant with cool steel sculptures out front, reminiscent of Mexican folk art. The food was ok. I'd like to go back and try a different dish than the "Mexican pizza" I tried that was really just a big tostada loaded down with way too much shredded lettuce. The patio seating is awesome, though, because it's right on the river and it's dog friendly.

We then got delicious ice cream at Lick. It's based out of Austin, but they have a store at The Pearl. The ice cream was extremely expensive, but super tasty. I'd say worth it because you don't have ice cream of this caliber every day.

Hill Country Sights: Bandera

This is a post coming at you almost 6 months late! I've been reluctant to spend time uploading photos, but I finally got a little un-lazy. Way back in October 2015, we went out to Bandera, Texas with our friends Bob and Pam. Bandera, a small town northwest of San Antonio, is the self-proclaimed "Cowboy Capital of the World."

So we saw cowboys (and Bob got to play dress up with them!). Surprisingly (to me at least) there were tons of international visitors. At the cowboy show, we were practically the only people from Texas. There was a family from Sweden and a huge group of Brits, plus Americans from Arizona.



We saw some extremely classy bars...

And even snuck in a bit of culture, passing by their pretty courthouse (Bandera is the county seat of Bandera County) before eating comfort food at the Old Spanish Trail Restaurant.













Oh, and of course, there was a horse "parked" on the street with the motorcycles. Because, Texas.

It was a fun day.

Hill Country Sights: Guadalupe River State Park

On Saturday, we went to Guadalupe River State Park, about 30 minutes from Boerne. We sat our chairs in the river and just drank beer and stared at the amazing cliff walls and water running by and kiddos jumping off the rocks. It was so relaxing and fun. I wish every day was Saturday.

San Antonio Sights: Mission San Jose

San Antonio has five Missions that were established in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, with varying numbers of their original structures still remaining. These Missions, which include the famous Alamo, have been preserved and are now important cultural and tourist sites in the city.

On Sunday, Chris and I visited the largest one, Mission San Jose (Saint Joseph).

It is so, so cool. It was established in 1720 and there are so many of the original structures remaining. It is actually still an active Catholic Parish (except for the Alamo, they all are). We've made it our goal to see all five Missions. One down, four to go!

Home Sweet Home

This is our home-away-from-home right now. It's so stinkin' cute. It has a full kitchen and bathroom (shower, no tub), a full-sized bed in the back bedroom, a couch that converts to a bed that could sleep two, but really only one comfortably. Same thing for the dining table. We've got internets (obvi) and a little tv with our Roku set up, so we can get Netflix (phew!). We're bringing our grill down next time we go back to East Texas, so that will add more usefulness to the outdoor living space. 

No matter what, how can you complain when this is the view you look out at?!