Mini Vacation in San Antonio

Jeff and I recently had our whirlwind trip to San Antonio. We spent the first 2 days taking care of business and looking at housing….and the last day, we crammed in all of the “touristy” things that we could. First, we were off to the Alamo! I was excited at the prospect of seeing a piece of our American History. I was actually pretty disappointed once we got there. I was absolutely amazed at how crowded and packed it was. The lines were so long when we were leaving – it made us grateful to be early birds that were there just before opening. I shot some pics of a really neat trellised walkway while we were waiting to get in.

I was all excited to get to photograph a piece of American History….and then I saw the sign at the entrance. No camera photography. Period. Not just “no flash photography” (which is what I had anticipated). Boy was I bummed. I still had my hopes up to find Pee Wee’s bike in the basement. Then I found out there is no basement :)

The inside of the Alamo was a disappointment. It was a bunch of plaques on a wall that we couldn’t even get close enough to read because of the large crowd at this point. There were also some flags and a 3-D mini diorama. That’s it. So we wandered around the square, and I shot some more pics. I loved this psycho bird, he was crazy.





We sat down to take a break and pondered our next move – to find the Riverwalk we had heard was quite beautiful. A nice guy overheard us and pointed us in the right direction (which was basically, across the street). The Riverwalk was a welcome attraction after the Alamo! We enjoyed a few hours of wandering around, seeing the sights. The Riverwalk has a lot to offer – shops, coffee houses, restaurants, bars/pubs – even a water taxi tour down the river.






During our wandering we stopped @ the Hard Rock Café for lunch. After lunch, we came outside and were amazed – the crowds had tripled! Apparently everyone else that had been at the Alamo wandered over to the Riverwalk, lol. The crowds were a big deterrent to us, so we headed off to the car. Last stop on the whirlwind tour o’ San Antonio was the San Jose Mission. I was shocked when we got there to find I had actually killed off my double-batteries and had to swap out to a fresh spare. I was also slightly concerned with the fact that it was a really really bright, sunny afternoon – harsh bright light and heavy shadows means tough photography conditions. I experimented with some different settings as we wandered around, and got a few great shots.




I had fun playing with the compositions, angles, and various places here. I could go back and spend a whole day just here, I think……there were several other photographers at work here, as well – someone doing family portraiture, a wedding, and a couple of other pros wandering around with some really expensive equipment. It was very nice to see other photogs utilizing such a beautiful place! This shot, I waited about 5 minutes for – I think it was worth it, even though by this point Jeff was starting to lost patience and wanted to head back to the airport to catch our flight out. I’m still glad I insisted on waiting for the annoying girls to get out of this shot (it was right by the restrooms). I rested on a garbage can to get it!

All in all, it was a whirlwind day of activity, lots of walking, and well worth the effort! I got to spend some quality time w/Jeff, see some American history, and of course…..play with my camera!