A Gruene Day

Deb hopped in her truck this morning and headed around San Antonio towards my house.  I gave her some shortcut directions to avoid the construction on 1604 and I-35 and she arrived without any problems.  Our first stop was Ft Sam Houston.  Deb was in the Army for a couple of years and spent some time there so it was a nostalgic visit.  Ft Sam is one of the Army's oldest installations and has been around since 1845.  It was designated a National Historical Landmark in 1975.  There are a lot of very old buildings including the Quadrangle; however, there have been a lot of new buildings built in the last three or four years.  It is now part of Joint Base San Antonio along with Randolph AFB and Lackland AFB.  Consolidation of services can be a good thing but the government's renaming fetish is a royal pain for most people so we still refer to the individual installations by their names.  We spent some time driving around and Deb was able to spot the area where she lived and trained.

Next we hopped back on I-35 and headed north to Gruene....right on the outskirts of New Braunfels.  Before we got there, we stopped at Buc-ee's.  The one in New Braunfels already had more gas pumps than you can imagine and they are in the process of adding another whole group of them.  This place is a destination stop for travelers.  Check one out if you go past one.  They have everything you can imagine and more.....food (cooked and fresh fruit and vegetables), souvenirs, awesome restrooms.  Here is Deb checking out some Louisiana type spices.  They have Texas covered too.  Want to have a picnic?  You can pick up food here.  If you want to cook it yourself, you can get a grill or dutch ovenware.

From there, we meandered out to Gruene.  I pointed out the Gristmill, Gruene Hall (the oldest dance hall in Texas), and all of the other sites Gruene has to offer.  I've posted pictures before so check here if you want to see more.  It's always nice to see all the flowers blooming.

We ended up at Adobe Verde in Upper Gruene for lunch where we both had the Enchilada Verdes special.  It was delicious and I had already eaten one of the enchiladas before I remembered to snap a picture.

We went in a few of the shoppes.  If you see Deb, you'll have to ask her about the book she bought.  It will be a definite conversation starter if she eats out alone.  The fluffy red feather book marker alone will incite interest.  It's tucked inside here.

She passed on this sign though.

We headed back to my house and visited a while longer so she would miss the evening rush hour traffic.  I was sorry to see her go but glad we had this time together.  Until we meet again Deb!

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".