¡ Viva Fiesta !
The rallying cry of San Antonio’s Fiesta Festival tells you all you need to know about this 134-year-old tradition …. Viva = Long Live, Fiesta = Party! Long live the party life, throughout the city, for 11 days of events.
With over 100 happenings (including three major parades), Fiesta San Antonio commemorates the Battle of the Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto, two important events leading to the independence of Texas from Mexico in April of 1836. Blah, blah, blah, history-blah, battle of whatever, throw on your party hat and let’s get this going!
The Battle of the Flowers Parade started with participants throwing flowers at one another from passing horse-drawn carriages, honoring the memory of fallen heroes of the battles of Alamo, Goliad and San Jacinto. It’s still a doozy of a celebration, taking at least three hours start to finish, as hundreds of floats, bands and vehicles wend their way through the city.
By far the best float was this one, “Remember the 60s.” It was made all the more poignant when we noticed it was by a Memory Care Facility for the Elderly! So, the 1960s were maybe the best years of their lives! AND …. wait for it … if you look closely, there are a bunch of their cute little white-hairs stuffed inside that float! Awwwwwww!
A parade tradition involves the crowd yelling to float royalty, “SHOW US YOUR BOOTS” which Philip mistakenly heard “Show Us Your Boobs” so you can only imagine his disappointment. This ain’t Mardi Gras, buddy! All the lovely ladies sport gorgeous cowboy boots under their gowns, and were only too thrilled to repeatedly oblige.
Fun fact: Battle of the Flowers is the only parade in the U.S. produced entirely by women, all of whom are volunteers!
But First … ¡ Viva Friendship !
This San Antonio visit was made special by the presence of long-time friends, Don and Nancy, and Beth and Sean. We go way-way-back (cuz we old) and there is nothing like the ease of friendships that span the decades. You’ll spot them in many of these photos, but suffice to say it was a blast to be together here!
¡ Viva El Alamo !
No visit to San Antonio is complete without a visit to The Alamo, established in 1718 and one of five missions located here. In the heart of downtown, this mission and battle site is one of Texas’ most-visited history museums.
The birthplace of the phrases “Remember The Alamo!” and “Victory or Death!,” its a place beloved to San Antonio citizens. They have guided tours, “augmented experiences” (which sounded expensive), living-history re-enactments, and a fancy new museum funded and propagated by none other than Phil Collins, the famous Brit singer. Go figure!
Next to the Alamo, the Menger Hotel Bar is where Teddy Roosevelt set up a recruitment table in 1898 to gather 1,250 men into the Rough Riders, the most popular volunteer regiment in the history of the world. It’s the site of more cattle deals than any other place in Texas (or so they claim — but how do they know?) and is one of the Top 10 most historic bars in the US. Step in and ask the bartender to show you the bullet holes!
¡ Viva San Antonio !
Elsewhere around the City, the historic Pearl District is an up-and-coming hotspot, with a bunch of open space, hip restaurants, cute shops, hotels and more.
Thanks to our good friends Randy and Caly, publishers of RV Destinations Magazine, we were steered straight to Southerleigh Restaurant, located in a historic brewery building — where I had the best fish dish of my life!
Also at the Pearl, we dropped into the Pullman Market to check out their gorgeous food offerings, in order to host our friends with a feast at the RV in the Alamo KOA campground.
San Antonio Market Square is a three-block outdoor plaza, the largest Mexican market in the United States. It has been a favorite of locals and tourists for generations! We didn’t make it here this time, but here’s Philip drooling over the Market Square Mexican pastries in 2010!
¡ Viva Riverwalk !
One of the most beloved parts of San Antonio is the Riverwalk, a below-street-level waterway lined with buildings, restaurants, trees and plants and more. A fleet of riverboats offer fun guided tours of the sights along the way.
Not far from the Rio riverboat ticket booth, the Kallison Love Lock Bridge is jam-packed with evidence of lovers who have sealed their fate forever, having thrown the key to their locks back over their shoulders into the San Antonio River below. We’ve left personalized love-locks (easily available on Etsy.com) all over the world, but this was Don and Nancy’s first. Love-lock virgins, no more!
¡ Viva Tejas !
If you don’t go to a rodeo, are you even really in Texas? Of course not! We dropped by a classic Texas live-open rodeo in neighboring Bulverde, Texas. Tejas Rodeo also has a steakhouse, country-western dancing, activities for the kids and more on Saturday nights. It was a rootin-tootin good time!
And, because everything is bigger in Texas, a stop at the World’s Largest Cowboy Boots was in order. These faux ostrich-skin beauties are 40 feet tall and were at one point inexplicably used as the DJ station for the San Antonio Rodeo.
Later on this trip, we’re visiting a small town which has the world’s largest collection of the world’s largest things. Stay tuned for an enormous pencil sharpener, golf tee, mailbox, mousetrap, windchimes, rocking chair, yardstick, ear of corn …… Quiz time: do you know where it is?
¡ Viva … Waco ?!?
Yah, ya got me, Waco is not really in San Antonio. But after leaving San Antonio, we spent an overnight in this city to the north by a couple hundred miles. HGTV-watchers and fans of the TV show “Fixer-Upper” know Waco as the revitalized epicenter of the Chip and Joanna Gaines mega-empire known as Magnolia. With a fleet of TV shows on their Magnolia Network, the glossy Magnolia Magazine, and tons of Magnolia-branded merchandise, they also have this fun adult playground with shops, food trucks and more — called, unsurprisingly, MAGNOLIA, built in a Waco district of old silos.
We took a tour of “The Castle,” one of their most beloved restorations and the focus of a multi-episode season of the Fixer Upper tv show. The previously abandoned and graffiti’ed, century-old property is beautifully redone, with lots of special features. Best of all, on this tour you’re encouraged to open doors, look inside things, sit on furniture, basically enjoy it as if it were your own home!
Even our campground sported the chic Magnolia vibe, with super-clean black-and-white everything, including their striped pool floats and the crazy-modern (for a campground) bathrooms. The name? You guessed it — Magnolia RV Resort.
If home renovation and/or The Gaines’ aren’t your jam, Waco has two other very-different possibilities for you: The Waco Mammoth National Monument (with fossils of 24 Columbian mammoths), or the Dr. Pepper Museum (paying tribute to the Waco pharmacist who dreamed it up). Waco — its more than just Magnolia!
Okay, those giant boots are a thing of beauty…..I can’t get over them!
Goodness gracious girlfriend,
I was with you for most of these events and I feel like I experienced it on a whole new level with your blog!! You truly captured Fiesta and San Antonio with your amazing pictures and truly witty comments. You brought your magic to our little ole Texas state and now it’s empty once again without you!! May you have giddy-up dreams cowgirl!! Love you!