San Antonio baby!

It seems like a lifetime ago when Vicky and I piled into the car on Friday 5th of July to head down to San Antonio, just 200 miles down the road!  To start off our road trip in true American style we got ourselves a drive-thru Starbucks and I visited a drive-thru ATM machine, oh yeah in Texas you don't even need to leave your car to do your banking these days.

To illustrate the two closest cities to Houston are hundreds of miles away!

We loaded up on snacks and Vicky got on the stereo and sorted out the party tunes and we were on our way.  There is very little to see when you are on the highway between two major cities, if it were for the amazing singalong classics that were pumping out the speakers and the sheer volume of caffeine I had consumed I am sure I would have fallen asleep (just a joke!).

Snacking on sweets during the road trip!

  Once we arrived in San Antonio we headed out for some food along the famous River Walk.  The San Antonio river cuts through the city and along part of the river they have developed it into a tourist haven!  There are tonnes of bars and restaurants and you can even take a boat tour down the river (which we did!).  It is very beautiful however, absolutely PACKED (probably as it was 4th July weekend)!  We went to one restaurant and it had a 2 hour wait!  Finally we found an establishment called the Iron Cactus which sold Mexican food and Margaritas and  had a fairly pleasant dinner which was then topped off by a truly unique boat tour of the River Walk area with an incredibly strange tour guide.  I know nothing more about the city than I did before I got on the boat, however I do know a lot about the etiquette of driving a boat tour.

View from the River Walk tour, who needs to know about the city when its just so truly beautiful

The next day we headed off early to the Alamo, for which San Antonio is famous for.  I have to admit, much like the Declaration of Independence, I had no idea about the Alamo's historical significance.  From what I can gather, mostly from a great dramatisation from the US History Channel which was played in the visitor centre, this was where a pivotal 13 day fight was lost by the Texans when they were trying to claim Independence from the Mexicans (eventually they got there).  It was a really beautiful old building and I'm glad we got there early as the crowds drew in quickly around 11am.

Vicky outside the Alamo

After the Alamo, Vicky had found a flyer for a ranch themed park just 30 minutes northwest of the city and we decided that this was the best way to spend the afternoon, and we surely were not wrong.  It was AMAZING! Enchanted Springs is pretty hard to explain this place, I have linked to their website but I feel it just doesn't do the place justice.  We arrived to be greeted by the sheriff who informs us that in the salon we would find Pistol Packing Paula doing her show.  Oh my what a show it was, if you are bored to check her out on YouTube, this lady was even on America's got Talent.  Later on she let us hold her guns and man they were heavy!

Us with Pistol Packing Paula.  Oh yeah and Vicky got her proper cowgirl on with a new accessory!

The remainder of the day included a really staged, yet amazing, stunt show, a tractor drive around the farm to see the exotic animals and wondering around this incredible place.

Some of the buildings from the Enchanted Spring's Ranch, top left is the Church (where actual weddings are preformed), top right is the Sheriffs office and the bottom picture is the salon bar.

To end off the trip at the ranch we took the bull quite literally by the horns!  Naturally this got us in the mood for some steak so headed back to San Antonio on a mission for meat!