A Day on the Riverwalk with Deb

As we parted company last night, Deb and I made tentative plans to meet downtown and tour the Riverwalk and surrounding area.  The reason for the "tentative" plans was the weather and the strong chance of rain.  Now, we certainly don't want to complain about rain around here as we really need it. So when I got up, it was pouring.  I would have added cats and dogs but that is pretty ridiculous as cats hate it and dogs aren't too fond of it either.  Harley will go out and chase a ball in it but then he is pretty focused on "ball".  Gretchen will run out and take care of business.  Willy will "hold it" until he is about to burst in hopes that it will quit and the ground will miraculously dry right up.  So Deb and I conferred via FB messages and decided to wait a while longer in hopes that it would at least slow down to a drizzle.  The front passed through her area faster than it did here as we are on opposite sides of San Antonio.  Finally, it looked like it was clearing behind the rain showing on the weather maps so we decided to head out and meet up.  I found a fairly convenient and inexpensive parking lot and gave her the address so we could each program our GPSs.  We both found the lot and figured out the machine you have to use, inserted our money, and got our parking slips.  The main river part of the Riverwalk was right across the street.  After walking a block in one direction and turning around when we finally found a map, we were off to the part of the Riverwalk with which most visitors are familiar. And, yes, there was some drizzle still coming down but we didn't care.  Deb hasn't been here since the early 70s so things have changed quite a bit.

Before long, the umbrellas were stowed away.  If you haven't been to San Antonio for a while, the Riverwalk along the main river has been extended for miles in both directions so you can really get quite lengthy walks in.

Once we reached the loop portion, we used the walkway through the Hyatt Regency to get up to street level.  It's a very nice walk inside then outside along a little man-made stream that leads you up to a spot right across from the Alamo.

We went back down to the Riverwalk and completed the whole loop and exiting up through La Villita so we could see Hemisphere Plaza.  Then we walked along the street back to a central part of the Riverwalk.

We decided on Cafe Ole' for a very late lunch.

We were right on the river but under a covered porch "just in case".  I don't think any of the restaurants were serving on the little tables at the edge of the river due to the weather.  The Taco Salads were fantastic and the Margaritas weren't bad either.

We walked around some more after lunch and stopped for coffee and pumpkin spice lattes at McDonald's to warm up before we headed back to our vehicles.  It was a great day in spite of the weather and we were very glad we decided to "go for it".