There and back again

Naturally the drive to San Antonio Sunday morning was gorgeous; we took some back(ish) roads to get there instead of just the insterstate. I'd shower y'all with pictures... but it rained most of the day. As we headed west, the decorative plants of choice slowly changed from banana trees to prickly pear cactapota. (Cactapuses?) Banana trees around the driveway are inviting; the cactii... not so much.

Late morning, somewhere between Eagle Lake and Gonzales, the weather cleared up enough for this exciting picture of open road.



The roads grew increasingly not-flat. I'm not quite sure what it is, but it's not flat. Not anywhere close to Oklahoma's version of lumpy terrain, but not flat. By early afternoon we were on the east side of San Antonio, where I spied this interesting sign on a truck stop/gas station.


(the month)


I certainly hope one of the employees of the month was not the critter in charge of the sign.

Once in San Antonio, we drove around in circles downtown looking at all the lookey things. If you're interested, the San Antonio Tourism Mafia has plenty of websites on the subject. Perhaps they even have decent pictures instead of what I have to offer. I'm sure you're on the edge of your seat in anticipation for what pictures I have from San Antonio.

The view from the window of our hotel room... computer geeks sure know how to throw a party.



We then wandered the nearby tourist sights, most of which were actually gift shops. (I have a good rant working up about the tourism, actually, but it'll have to wait.) Squirrels were going crazy all over the place, digging up holes in the neatly groomed parks littered around the Alamo.



Next we meandered around parts of the Riverwalk. Why this is a tourist trap, I'm not quite sure. It's a passel of shops and restaurants thrown together for the benefit of tourists... but I guess it worked, since we did walk parts of it. The ducks were amusing.



At another point were lights dangling from the trees. Not sure what that was about either. I just have an odd compulsion to take purposefully poor pictures. (Umm... I meant to do that. Riiiiiiight.)



Noisy and crowded. I guess if you want a positive spin on things, call it "energetic and full of life". Yeah, that's it! Lively and bustling. The ducks came back to attack later in the evening. This one was on the opposite side of the river and flew across, nearabouts clocking two tourists. (Go duck!) The duck then walked up to not four feet from where I stood.



Naturally I enjoyed every minute of the day. Monday morning Mom & I headed out early to Austin while Dad stayed there in SA for irksome things like real life and a real job and work-related things. Thanks to creative interperation of the map and spending a bit too long for breakfast - okay, okay, it was mostly me misdirecting Mom map-wise - we didn't get to Hill Country Weavers until past 10:30, where Ana was patiently waiting for me.

You store in Arlington, move over. Hill Country Weavers is Yarn Heaven. No store in Houston has a selection which compares, but the feel was very much like Marie's in Friendswood. (Or perhaps it was because I had an excellent tour guide?) Hmm. I left the camera in the car while fondling all the yarn in the store but did manage an outside shot.



Austin is certainly an interesting city, what parts I saw. Same spot as last picture, different direction -



Oh, a picture of the Capitol. Sorry - a wave of touristiness must've overcome me.

Houston has some charming parts downtown, but nothing quite like this -



Ain't that a gorgeous air conditioner? Cowboy on the jackelope ain't bad either.

The afternoon with Ana and Ceci flew by! (The plan was to head home by 4... that didn't happen.) Do I want to go into gory detail about every moment or be all mysterious-like? I suppose mostly mysterious. They showered me with yarn and licked me... no, that was Tinny. I think I still smell like him.

So we headed home... along the way was this water tower.

Haven't a clue what town. Smileyville?