San Antonio! Who knew!

In December I got a surprise email from John with an itinerary for a trip to San Antonio, Texas for December 27-29, 2011! San Antonio? What in the world is in San Antonio! SOOO MUCH! We stayed on the 'River Walk' which felt like Time Square! So many things to do and hordes of people to watch with every kind of food and all kinds of shopping, people playing music and selling their wares, plus a river "cruise" that took us all through the area with a guide giving us all kinds of trivia. We liked the cruise so much that we took it twice, once in the day and then at night when all the Christmas lights impressed and delighted us! The video is a smidgen of the boat ride. I have many more videos of it!

 This is the Mexican restaurant that is right across from our hotel and overlooking the River Walk.

 A little taste of the River Walk.

 There are so many cool, old buildings and churches in San Antonio. This is the church of St Mary that was directly across from our hotel.
 Remember the Alamo? Well, it's in San Antonio-the most visited spot in the city! The Alamo is famous because of a battle that took place there way back when (1700's) between the Mexican big wigs and the Texans who were just trying to have independence from them.

 This is a poor visual of the beauty of the Christmas lights on the River Walk. I just loved the lights!

 We spent hours in Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum. World's 'largest' man! (see more below)

 I would have liked to be friends with this 2 ft. lady! How tall would I have felt!

 World's tallest man was 8 feet 11. There was a sign here telling that he was 6 ft by the time he was six!

 Size 29&1/2 in foot!!!

 Ten bowling balls stacked without glue or anything! (I thought Johnny would like this!)

 World's biggest man is 14oo pounds and took 13 people just to turn him over in bed. I don't feel so bad!

 We also went on the Ripley's Haunted adventure which was a walk-through spook alley with weirdos jumping out at us at every turn! The Tomb Rider ride we went on let me out shoot John with a laser gun!

 This place had it all including this lighted carriage.

 The Russian ballet performed the Nutcracker just around the corner from us, but we didn't attend. Like my hat? It is a Dixie hat--Devin and Allison's old husky dog!

 We went to four old missions established in the 1600 and 1700's to teach the Native Americans skills and to convert them to Catholicism. The people were shorter in those days. I must have been born in the wrong century...thankfully! I don't think I would have survived the living conditions!

 Mission Concepcion-one of the oldest original stone churches in the country. It is 250 years old.

 San Jose Mission was established in 1720. These churches are still used today!

 Cool entry way, hand carved, at San Jose mission. This mission is surrounded by high walls. It has small living areas just inside and backed by the outer walls which consisted of 10X10 rooms with a fireplace. These were for the Native Americans while the friers lived in the churches.

 Mission Espada (1690) was the only mission that made and taught brick-making. Another mission, The San Juan looked very much like Mission Espada.

 We drove by cemeteries that blew us away! I had to get out and take pictures. The graves were decorated to the hilt and roped off according to the size of the casket. This is just one grave!

 Market Square is a fun shopping district, kind of like Nogalas, Mexico with many little shops and all kinds of do-dads and non-essential stuff! I bought two fake driver's licenses, one of Taylor Swift and one of Justin Bieber. They had complete personal info as well as addresses of these guys! Also I got a Nacho Libre cape with the mask attached! It was such a fun little trip!  Thanks John!

Forest Gump was just sitting on a bench in the wax museum! What are the odds of running into him?!?