Category: Texas Roadtrip

Sunday was our last day in Texas. Sunday a month ago, that is. I’m behind as usual.

 

Our flight was scheduled to leave Austin around 3:30. So we had a bit of time to explore more of Texas. I plotted a route for us that meandered through Hill Country. But first we did a bit of interstate so we could visit Buc-ee’s in New Braunfels, billed on RoadsideAmerica.com as the world’s largest convenience store.

It really was BIG. I’ve never seen so many gas pumps in one place.

 

A friend of mine said river tubing is quite popular in that part of Texas.

 

 

It was a bustling place.

I had to get a selfie, of course.

We drove past The Salt Lick BBQ on the way to Austin, but, sadly, it was closed.

Speaking of selfies…

I thought Hubby might enjoy seeing a bit more of Austin. We visited the Capitol building first. He had to see the pink granite building for himself. Don’t you agree?

According to the State Preservation Board’s Capitol Web site, the granite is red. But it sure looks pink to me. Not in a bad way, though.

Completed in 1888 as the winning design from a national competition, the Capitol’s style is Renaissance Revival, based on the architecture of 15th-century Italy and characterized by classical orders, round arches and symmetrical composition. The structural exterior walls are “sunset red” granite, quarried just 50 miles from the site. Additional structural support is provided by interior masonry walls and cast iron columns and wrought iron beams. The foundation is limestone.

 

It was a lovely, if hot, day. So we explored the grounds a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

We wandered around the inside a bit, admiring the architectural details of the place.

 

 

Back outside, we admired the building’s facade a bit more.

 

 

From there, it was off to Sixth Street, which is apparently THE place in Austin for fun.

I’d been to Sixth Street on one of my earlier visits to Austin in 2012. But I’d only gone for dinner, and hadn’t had a chance to explore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were lots of fun shops, bars, and restaurants, and it was past lunchtime, but we were waiting to eat at the airport. In fact, I was downright looking forward to some airport food.

But first…

We HAD to go see this guy, named Bevo. I’d missed it on my previous trip, and it was just blocks away from where we’d parked on Sixth Street.

After that, we were off to the airport.

That’s why I was excited about eating at the airport. It’s where our love affair with Salt Lick BBQ Sauce began.

Of course, you can’t buy Salt Lick sauce locally in Virginia. But it’s really, REALLY good, so we get it shipped in special.

Hubby and I both were in pulled pork heaven. He’s been digging the sauce for a couple of years now, but to experience the sauce atop The Salt Lick’s own slow-smoked pulled pork took it to a whole ‘nother level. Really.

I know it’s just food, but man, is that stuff ever delicious.

That’s what I call ending a fun-filled trip on a really high note.

Texas is such a big state. We’ve only seen a small part of it. I think Hubby and I will have to go back and see more of Texas one day…

As promised in my last post from our recent work-plus-fun trip to Texas, here are some of my pics from downtown San Antonio.

It really is true that Hubby and I don’t usually vacation in cities. We actually tend to avoid cities. So why go to San Antonio when there’s so much other stuff and places in Texas we could have explored?

 

Before we were married, Hubby had spent a lot of time in San Antonio, as he played a pretty big role in the design of the Marriott Rivercenter hotel. For those who don’t know, he is a plumbing engineer. Architects design buildings, he is responsible for designing the plumbing systems that make the buildings function.

He enjoyed his visits to San Antonio, but had never really done the touristy thing while there. In fact, since he was a single father with two young daughters, he didn’t have much extra time to linger and usually flew down and back in the same day. And he’d never seen the completed project.

He was quite excited to see “his” hotel.

 

We don’t usually stay in big, fancy hotels. We’re more mid-range-accomodation types. But we decided to make an exception for this trip.

 

It really is a gorgeous property. The hotel’s web site describes it as:

…Marriott Rivercenter, a magnificent 38 story hotel on the River Walk…just steps away from the world famous San Antonio Riverwalk, premier shopping, dining and entertainment destination.

The River Walk is rather interesting. The “river” is actually a flood bypass channel. In the late 1930s, folks began to realize that having a sort-of-river that meandered through their city was kinda cool. The River Walk was born. Slowly but surely over the years, the River Walk became a park, and a garden, and, today, is reported to be the number one tourist attraction in Texas. (If you want to know more, you can visit the River Walk web site.)

 

 

 

The park is situated below street level, which is sorta cool. Especially if you know nothing about the city and just happen to be exploring its streets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If there’s one thing I do love about cities, it’s all of the colors, angles, and textures you see.

 

 

Have I mentioned that it was HOT in San Antonio that day? The heat isn’t unusual. I mean, latitude-wise, San Antonio is further south than New Orleans. But it was also humid, which made it gross. There was a breeze, so the air wasn’t nearly as thick as it could have been. But it was uncomfortable. Especially for someone like me who hates sticky heat.

We decided to find a place for lunch. We used our Yelp apps, as we usually do when exploring new places, and settled on Schilo’s Deli, which had a four-star review.

 

Unfortunately, the rating was wrong. We were completely underwhelmed by the food. The root beer was cool and the interior was nice and kitschy, which I loved. But the food was nothing to write home about. It was completely mediocre. We did, however, really enjoy the air conditioning.

 

After lunch, we settled back into tourist mode and headed over to the Tower of the Americas.

 

 

 

 

 

The Tower of the America’s is a lot like Seattle’s Space Needle. Except it’s not as ridiculously expensive.

The view from the top — the tower is 750 feet tall — was nice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just like the Space Needle, there’s an outside observation deck that was REALLY windy. It was much warmer than it was when we visited Seattle in February.

This next series of shots shows what Hubby looked like in the wind.

 

After we enjoyed the view for a bit, we headed back to the hotel. By then, it was late enough in the day that we could check in.

 

 

 

Seemed like a good time for some rest and relaxation.

I’ll close with this selfie captured later in the day as we headed out for dinner.

The final post from Texas will be shared one day…