San Antonio

This morning I took the hotel shuttle to the airport, and on the way, met Javier. Javier was the shuttle driver and told me a little bit about San Antonio. This had been my first visit to San Antonio, and immediately, I was surprised to find the airport very small for what I assumed to be a large city. Javier said that they were building a new terminal in the airport, because the city had grown so much in the past few years. Just the other evening I found out why the city had multiplied in size recently. Bush. At first I was confused, but then the moment someone said military, I understood. I also noticed how clean the city was, especially since the Final Four crowd left the day I arrived. Javier told me that the city was clean, and really quite safe, considering its size. 

Last night, I and the group from the Presbytery went down to the Riverwalk to enjoy the sights and eat at Boudros (nice atmosphere, OK food, but not worth the $$$). Another hint about Boudros - someone told us on the way in that their signature drink was their Prickly Pear Margarita. So, a couple of us tried this margarita. And after we tried the Prickly Pear Margarita, we made our second round a regular margarita. Go for the regular margarita. Much better. After we ate, we went outside to wait on a couple of taxi’s that someone in our group had called to take us back to the hotel (some distance away). So, we waited. And waited. We watched an enormous number of souped-up cars cruise the strip. (I thought crusin the strip was sort of old school, but apparently I am totally uncool). We also watched an enormous - I mean a truck with ENORMOUS wheels - pass by. At this point, we had been waiting for these alleged taxis to come, so I proposed that we all get in the back of this ridiculous truck and go wherever they were going. 

About the time I was ready to jump out in the street and throw my hand in the air like I do in NYC, Cesar beat me to it. The tricky thing about getting a cab was that all the taxis had lights on the top - but the lights remained on even when there were passengers in the cab. SO CONFUSING. Get a switch, man. 

Last night, my stress levels didn’t have the capacity to be stressed about standing on a street corner for an hour at midnight, but I do feel better knowing that I didn’t need to be worried, since San Antonio is a fairly safe city. Thanks for the reassurance, Javier.