I want to thank everyone who was kind enough to respond to my request
for ideas on what to do and where to eat when I was in San Antonio. I
got home yesterday. I had a fantastic time!
The primary reason for this trip was to attend the Bat Mitzvah of a
cousin's daughter. The Bat Mitzvah was wonderful. The service started at
9:00 in the morning and it ran to noon. The Bat Mitzvah girl did a
fantastic job. The honoree's mom is Education Director at the synagogue
where the Bat Mitzvah took place, so they had a rather elaborate
service. I did not get any photos of the ceremony, but the synagogue's
men's club has a video camera set up, so they were able to program it to
record the entire thing to DVD. I have a copy of that DVD on my laptop,
but I haven't watched it yet.
The Bat Mitzvah was followed by lunch in the synagogue's social room. My
cousin told me that she thinks 350 attended. Lunch was nice. There were
some salads, a big bowl of tuna. My cousin's sister from New Jersey
brought in loaves of chalah, pumpernickel, and Jewish rye from a bakery
near her because that sort of bread is not available in San Antonio.
They also served a delicious sweet kugel and some sort of egg casserole,
which I thought was just more kugel until the next day when someone told
me it what it was. There was also a dessert table, which I did not go
near.
There were friends and family from all over the country at the Bat
Mitzvah. Lunch lasted until 3, then I got directions from one of the
locals on how I could drive to the Alamo. I drove there and I spent an
hour shooting photos of the area before I returned to my hotel room to
rest up.
The Bar Mitzvah girl's mom through her a big fiesta that night. I was
invited over their house for dinner before the fiesta, but I screwed up
and I got lost and I didn't make it in time. I did manage to try a
hamburger from Whataburger and it was very good.
The fiesta was held at the synagogue and the place was packed with
friends of my cousin, her daughter, and family. I honestly think the
entire Jewish population of San Antonio must have been there!
The fiesta included an open bar with different kinds of bottled beer and
margaritas, plus soft drinks. Tex Mex food consisting of some sort of
Spanish style rice, cheese enchiladas, refried beans, guacamoli, and
some other items were served buffet style.
They had two clowns to entertain the kids, then a DJ for dancing. The
party was indoors and outdoors. She had two photographers there; one
taking photos of the people in the crowd and the other was stationed
inside and was taking photos of people posing in front of a fiesta
backdrop and each person's photo was printed there. I was there right at
8:00 and I stayed until around 11:00 when I got tired.
Afterwards, a dessert table was set up that included a wonderful
homemade cake for the guest of honor, plus a fantastic fruit cake, and a
chocolate fountain with slices of bananas, pretzel rods, strawberries,
and graham crackers to dunk in the chocolate.
Unfortunately, I got lost on my way back to my hotel, but I was not in a
big rush, so I ended up taking 2 hours to find the Days Inn where I was
staying!
The following day, my cousin hosted a brunch for all the out-of-towners
at her house. Brunch was smoked fishes, bagels, the usual Jewish sorts
of stuff and an egg strata, plus a big fruit salad.
Brunch started at 10:00 and most of the people left around noon. My
cousin's 18 year old son suggested I hang out and watch the Spurs play,
but for some reason, several of my cousins and I decided to go out to
Rudy's barbecue to get lunch. My cousin's son went with me so he could
tell me how to get there.
I ended up having some brisket and two pork ribs for lunch with some of
Rudy's creamed corn. It was fantastic! After lunch, we all piled in our
cars and we went to La Cantera, a big shopping mall nearby where my
cousin's son watched the last quarter of the Spurs game and I wondered
into the Apple store while the others went their way.
So later that day, I went back to my cousin's house and we the four of
us just sat and relaxed for a bit. Then my cousin invited me out to
dinner, but I was stuffed from lunch so I declined.
the next day, I decided to go back to Rudy's for lunch to try their baby
back ribs. That's all I got was a few of the baby backs, and they were
delicious! I then went on a tour of Cascade Caerns where I shot a lot of
photos, then I went to Friedrich Park where I walked around and shot
photos for around 90 minutes.
I then went back to my cousin's house and we ate left over food from the
fiesta for dinner and we sat and watched TV and I had an opportunity to
print m boarding passes for my flight home the next day.
My flight home wasn't 'til 6:00pm, so I spent a few hours Tuesday at the
Hemisphere Park and I went up to the observation deck of the Tower of
America. I shot al ot of photos in that area.
You are all welcome to see my photos. Feel free to write to me and I
will tell yo how to access my web site if you want to see the photos.
Thanks to everyone wo made suggestions to me on what to do in San
Antonio.