San Antonio

Luck hasn't been with us at the casinos, but she decided to join us in San Antonio! As soon as we pulled up and plugged in to our RV park, a quick glance at the newspaper told us that the Mardi Gras float parade was happening right then in the Riverwalk. We locked up and headed into the city. We had no idea what the Riverwalk would be like, and were amazed to step off the downtown streets and down into what used to be a rat infested drainage canal, now a beautiful canal flanked by restaurants and hotels. People were lined up on the side of the canal with their beads on, but told us that we had just missed the parade. So, instead, we bought two glasses of Texan Cabernet and hopped on the canal tour boat for a little ride around.

It was a beautiful ride in the sunshine, sipping our wine, and then, don't you know it, here comes the parade, back through the canal! Playing music, dancing, throwing beads from their barges to all the people standing on the side, and to us! Well, since we clearly had the best beads, from New Orleans, they didn't throw them specifically to us anymore. And, since the traffic was so heavy, our 30 minute boat ride took one and a half hours.

The next day, we went to remember the Alamo. And, wouldn't you know it, they happened to be celebrating the 175th anniversary with reenactments, complete with authentic costumes and cannon blasts and weapons demonstrations.

So then, we tried to find the best happy hour in town, but after wandering around for a few hours, just couldn't seem to find the perfect spot. So, we decided to try Chef John Besh's newly opened Luke. Well, wouldn't you know it, but it was happy hour at Luke! We had $5 specialty cocktails, $5 a pound spiced and steamed crawfish, $.50 raw oysters, and an Alsatian tart (thin crusted onion tarte with bacon, caraway and Emmenthaler cheese). We made friends with Greg, a young chef from Kansas City, who came for Besh's monster grilled ribeye with maître d’hôtel butter, sauce béarnaise, or sour mash steak sauce. It was perfectly cooked, and he shared the deliciousness with us. Then, he ordered Brendan’s bread pudding with vanilla bean ice cream and hot buttered pecan sauce, for all of us to share. We were having so much fun sharing our stories and talking food with Greg, we carried on together the Riverwalk for some shots of tequila and then to a sport's bar for watch the end of the Dallas Memphis game. We bet on the game and I lost, of course, and had to buy the last rounds of tequila. Wheeeee!

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