We wanted to take advantage of the weekend so we decided to go to downtown San Antonio on Sunday.
Our “must do” list was river walk, The Alamo and by my brothers recommendation, the Buckhorn Saloon.
GORIO River Tour
We arrived and first hopped on a GORIO river tour.
The tour was shorter than expected (20-30 minutes) but it was cool to be able to grab an adult beverage and just get acquainted with the area.
The Alamo
Next we walked up to The Alamo. The night before, Kristi found a quick video to explain the history so the kids had context when we went there.
Unfortunately, by the time we got there (3pm) the tour of the inside of the Alamo was already sold out for the day (tickets are free but limited).
However, the grounds of the Alamo (walls, courtyard and other buildings) don’t have limits set.
Mom and Dad both enjoyed the experience. I think Brayden did as well.
Harper isn’t a big history buff unless it involves mermaids or unicorns. Her favorite part was likely the gift shop 🙂
The Buckhorn
This was a surprising enjoyable part of the visit. The Buckhorn is supposedly the oldest saloon in Texas. It was converted to a restaurant and museum of Texas wildlife and Texas Rangers.
Some of the deer had dozens of points.
The furniture and decor was very “Wild West.”
And the Longhorns were indeed long.
The ranger museum and Wild West museum were cool also. A lot of cool exhibits and didn’t take hours to go through. It was a little expensive, in my opinion but there are coupons available online, and it was more authentic “Texas” than some of the other tourist traps in that area.
Tex-mex on the river
We concluded our time with a Tex-mex dinner on the river. We tried to get into Casa Mia, a very old and popular privately owned restaurant. But they has a very long wait and we were very hungry so it wasn’t in the cards.
Instead we settled for The Original Mexican Restaurant just next door. Everything was quite good but the salsa was hot. Harper burned her tongue on it.
HEB
Texans seem to really love this local chain of grocery stores, which makes sense. They are run very well and do a lot in the community.
For instance, the one we stopped at had handicap parking and then a couple of spaces for cars with kids and expecting mothers.
If you are from the southeast, think “Publix of Texas.”
We even found some food allergy friendly treats which was an unexpected score.
Although I don’t plan on moving to the country of Texas anytime soon. One thing I really do like about this state is the pride they have for their heritage.
Restaurants often only serve local food and drinks, just about everything you buy is labeled as local if it is, and kids in the 7th grade have to do reports and visit historic Texas sites as part of their education. Mandatory.
It is a really cool culture when you come from Florida – where everyone is from someplace else.