The Alamo

I learned so much about the Alamo. I think sometime in the past someone must have told me that it is much smaller than you expect, so even though I didn’t think I had ideas about it, the first thing I thought when we went into the church was how much big it was. I actually overheard several different people comment that it was so much smaller than they expected. Huh. I wonder what people expected of a mission church in the middle of NOWHERE in 1836. One thing I was very interested to learn was that the church had no roof until many, many years after the battle. We went at 9am and spent almost 3 hours listening and learning and exploring. As we went wandering away, we very accidently found this amazing Lego recreation of the battle. Super cool.

We intended to take the hop on hop off bus tour, but realized the famous river walk was a very short distance away, so we walked to the the walk. It is a terrific place. Lots of pretty landscaping and cool buildings to look at, restaurant menus to read, boats to watch, and shops to look at. We were on our way to take the boat tour when a guy asked us to go to a time share thing. Of course there was bribery, and for some reason we decided to go. It was actually fun – not a high pressure thing.

We got free boat tickets, as well as a carriage ride around town, and dinner on the river walk. We thoroughly enjoyed the carriage ride and never, ever would have paid for it. 🙂 We picked Tex Mex over brisket for dinner. I ordered the Burrito Giganto – which was the same price as some other less giant named burrito, but chicken instead of beef. Our server asked if we were going to share it. Keith jumped in to order enchiladas. When it came, I understood the name and question. Giant indeed! And delicious. Keith shared, because his meal was pretty regular sized, but I really held my own.

We went on the boat ride after dinner, when it was dark. Several people had mentioned that it was more fun to go at night, so I was happy that it worked out that way. Unfortunately, there was a group of 6 (nurses, I believe) from a convention that DID NOT STOP TALKING the entire tour. Our guide, Ricardo, did his best to keep going, although they were horribly rude. I heard most of what he said and kept my comments about the rude people to myself.

We decided to forgo renting a car – about $500 for the 5 days we are here – and Uber/Lyft our way around instead. In addition to the rental fee, parking around here isn’t cheap, so we thought it might be the way to go. Yesterday was free – shuttle from the airport and then we didn’t go anywhere. Today we used Lyft for under $45 including tips, so it seems like it was a good idea.