Café Con Monica

Travel Days: A Day in San Antonio

We recently decided to take an afternoon drive to San Antonio. Of course, Austinites are constantly telling me how awful I-35 is they were not mistaken. All the construction makes for slow moving just to get out of the city. Not to mention we live north so had to drive across the city first.We didn’t have a plan for the day other than food (of course) and exploring.

Brunch

So we started with brunch at Grayze on Grayson St. Where we had a delicious brunch with an all toooo easy to drink bloody mary. If we hadn’t driven there we probably would have had had 3+ each and then you know…stumbled out.  

Historic Market Square

After that we drove over to explore the area. I had read that there was a labor day fest going all weekend so were greeted with a VERY hot and busy place. We walked around the indoor market a bit which felt so much like being in Mexico since a lot of their stuff is from there. Then we walked around the outside area. As soon as I realized I could walk around with a drink in my hand I got a mango margarita in a fun cup and kept browsing!  

The Alamo

From there we leisurely walked over to check it out. Since it is free to get in we just hopped in line and got to walk around. I freaking hate people who take photos when it is clearly stated that you shouldn’t take photos so I only took photos of areas where it was clearly allowed. Sometimes I think places are better left seen in person anyway. I was told by quite a few people that The Alamo is “underwhelming” and while it wasn’t amazing (I’ve seen quite some cool places in my travels) I still thought it was a nice visit and I appreciated learning more about what took place there. Also the original area was way bigger than it is now. They had some lines painted into the roads to show you were parts of it actually ended and it was cool to see how much bigger it was, especially with all the buildings and roads around it now.  

San Antonio Riverwalk

 From there we decided to walk the riverwalk. There was an entrance to head down right across from the Alamo. There is so much going on down there it was great people watching. It is so hard to get over the fact that the water is right there and with the crowds one wrong move and your swimming. Luckily it looked pretty shallow. So many restaurants and touristy shops and vendors. It was fun. We were told it is about 4 miles long but we walked about 2.5 miles of it..maybe a bit more.  

Extras…

We were pretty much wiped out by the sun and all the walking so we headed back to the Market Square and decided we deserved some of the well known sweets from the Mi Tierra Bakery(Panaderia) and omg…we may have walked out of there with like 2 bags full. Who wouldn’t?

Then off back to Austin we went! It was a great afternoon of sweating, exploring and shopping! We will definitely go back again soon!

Have you been to San Antonio? Any recommendations for next time?

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High Five for Friday!

It has been 3 months since my last High Five for Friday! Yikes, that went by so quickly!

I haven’t been blogging regularly enough so I am going to do my 5 favorites lately! 
– Warm Weather
Listen. I know some of you are excited for fall and over the heat but let me tell you…I love it. I love all the 100+ days of heat since I got to Austin and I don’t want it to end. I drive everywhere with my windows down, I walk over to the pool in our complex twice a week (sometimes more) I just want to be outside sitting and feeling the sun on my face 


– Making our apartment home…
This is very much a work in progress…and I have found that I do not enjoy spending my time searching for home stuff. I thought I would but nope…I want it to look like home and not have to spend anytime shopping for anything. BUT we are making progress! 

– Exploring Austin
We have one friend here and he has been here 3 months so he is showing us all the fun spots he has discovered and we are going out and exploring new places with him! 

– Work, work, work….
I took a position in administration at a private school in Austin and while it is MUCH different than what I am used to I am loving it. I can’t say a ton about it but the school is 3x bigger than the one I was at the last 5 years and so it is taking some getting used to but everyone has been so kind and helpful. Getting to work is much longer than before. Austin is not a public transit city so I have to drive to work and its about 25 mins from home. One of the ways takes me up and down some gorgeous hills and scenery so I can’t complain too much!
Meetings and coffee is my new life 
– Books, Books, Books…
Oooh A had no idea how much I read when we moved in together. Over the months before we moved to Austin I started to bring my kindle and books over to his place and sit and read while he did things. But he definitely did not know that I could sit in a comfy spot and read for 5 hours uninterrupted if no one stops me. I got a new Papasan chair and working on making a cute little nook for myself so that I can spend even more hours reading! 
So those are my five on Friday! I am excited to go read all of yours!!

Yay Big News!

I have been holding on to some big news for a couple months know, waiting until my family knew before I told the blogging world. But now I get to tell you all that thenewguy and I are…
It has been about 8 months in the making…going back and forth and really trying to decide if this is something we are prepared/able to do and we made the decision right when we got back in April. Then it was just a matter of working out the hows and telling family. Chicago has my heart…and I imagine I will likely move back when I am finally ready to own a home and settle in but for now we will continue exploring together and try a new city. So T-65 days!! 
Figured this is a good way to link up!!
 

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