We had dinner the night before Thanksgiving at a neighborhood Italian restaurant called Il Posto.  Note to self: the kid’s cheese pizza is the same size the adult pizza.  Also, the meat pizza has tons of meat!

The leaves actually change color in Napa!  How lovely.

We ate Thanksgiving lunch with D’s family at Embassy Suites in Napa.

They were already ready for Christmas!

The kids had fun playing with their cousin S.  Good times.

k presented “Give Thanks” with our church’s gospel hula team for Thanksgiving.  I really enjoy watching her and the team bring glory to God through dance.  As a side note, I like to call k “Keiki” as a nickname since it is close to her name. 

This is what playing soccer during a drought looks like!

n played both spring and fall soccer this year.  After the fall season ended, I was totally burned out.  Two practices during the weekdays plus game every Saturday was too much for this mama to handle (along with all the other kids’ activities).  n did have a good season, though.  He scored two key goals, one that helped his team go into the top division.  The second was a last minute tie-breaker to win their first tournament game.  (They also ended up winning their second tournament game).  His team received both a participation trophy and a championship medal for their division (#2).  I am sure we will sign him up again for next fall, but I am taking a break next spring!

One thing that San Antonio does not lack is restaurants.  Walking up and down the River Walk, there is a seemingly endless chain of restaurant after restaurant.  D and I made mental notes of what was there and I researched them on Yelp during my downtime.  For dinner, we settled on The County Line.

For checking into Yelp we received a free appetizer plate of sausage.

We also ordered a side of the homemade wheat bread which was quite good.  However, we needed to save room for the main event, the bbq!

We ordered the five meat platter, which included brisket, sausage, turkey, a beef rib and baby back ribs.  I realize this picture is not very appetizing, but it was pretty good.  I should also mention that our waitress was particularly nice which made the experience even better.  However, the mosquitoes also had a feast on my legs while we dined outside, so that was not fun. 

View from our hotel room.

After D fulfilled his work duties the next day, we went to an area of San Antonio called The Market Square, which has a bunch of Mexican restaurants and shops.  I would not recommend walking there at night, as it is a bit sketchy, but during the day it was fine. 

We ate at Mi Tierra.  I ordered the lunch special of chicken with zucchini, rice, beans and a side of tortillas.

D ordered the beef enchiladas.

D also felt the need to order this red soda.  I forgot the actual name, but when D asked the waitress what it tasted like, she said it was like “Big Red”.  That was not helpful since we were not familiar with Big Red either.  I had one sip, but was not a fan.  I think it is like cherry Dr. Pepper. 

The restaurant had a lot of atmosphere, and we could not believe what a bargain the food was!

Of course, we had to make a stop at the bakery counter afterward. 

San Fernando Cathedral…more on this later.

This is the courthouse. 

Chillin’ out with our guava and lemon pastries—yum!  For dinner, we went to the Awards Banquet at the Wyndham.  We excused ourselves to make the 9:00 p.m. showing of The Saga, which is an art installation by Xavier de Richemont which is projected onto the façade of the aforementioned San Fernando Cathedral.

This is what it looked like at night, before the show began.

The show lasts about twenty minutes, and there is music to accompany the lights, which tells the history of San Antonio.

The production, which is free to the public, is so amazing!  I am glad I was able to convince D to go.  It was a wonderful way to wrap up our trip!

In the morning, we had a nice breakfast and D manned the Mazda table. 

In the afternoon, we took a short narrated cruise on the Riverwalk.  This is a must do when visiting San Antonio!  Well worth the $8.25 admission.

One interesting tidbit is that the river is only 3-4 feet deep in most parts.  Also, the majority of the river is natural, with just one bend being manmade!

There are some intricate mosaics integrated into the architecture. 

There were some Christmas decorations up, but we missed the lights on the trees along the Riverwalk.  I bet that looks spectacular!

Gargoyles!

We were also able to visit the Alamo during our first afternoon.  It was nice being able to walk everywhere.

The garden of the Alamo has koi fish!

We caught a short recitation by a school group in front of the Alamo.

However, the real crowd started gathering to see this guy:

Ozzy Osbourne!  Apparently, he was making a public apology for urinating on the Alamo a while back.  Classy.

At the beginning of this month, I tagged along with D on his business trip to San Antonio.  We left on a Wednesday morning and returned Saturday evening.  The kids were happy to have an extended sleepover at Baba and Zaza’s house. 

D and I took separate flights from John Wayne airport.  Using his American Airline points, D was able to get me a free flight, but I had to take a circuitous route through Chicago!

One perk of stopping in Chicago was being able to taste this glorious torta from Rick Bayless’ Tortas Frontera.  It had pork and bacon and cost about $12, but I dare say, it was worth it!

We met up at the airport in San Antonio and checked into our hotel, the Riverwalk Marriott. 

Next we walked to the Wyndham hotel, which is where D’s conference was being held.  There was a light dinner reception with beef tacos, black beans, queso and guacamole.

D also checked to make sure his cars made it to the hotel for the conference.  They were already parked in valet, looking nice and shiny. 

After dinner we had our first look at the Riverwalk.  The weather was so warm and humid…felt like Hawaii.  At first we were walking along a “dead” part of the Riverwalk, which felt like it could be a setting for a mysterious crime novel.  However, we soon encountered the “happening” part, and it looked like everyone was having so much fun!  We were tired though, so we just had some gelato and went back to the hotel. 

We brought sandwiches for lunch and ate them in the park.  After lunch we stood in the labyrinth that is the Jungle Cruise line.  n paused for some meditation. 

Cutest question of the day.  n: “How do they train the tiger to stay so still??”

Favorite treat of the day: Dole Whip float at the Tiki Room.  The line outside, along the fence was long, but if you go to the show waiting area, it is much shorter.  Thankfully, n was able to partake since it was pasteurized pineapple (not fresh). 

We were able to get a Fast Pass for the Halloween-themed Haunted Mansion, so that saved us a lot of time.  Bummed that we were not able to go on Pirates of the Caribbean, though. 

At about 2:45, we checked into our room at Springhill Suites, which should be only about a five minute drive.  However, there was construction going on, and traffic was bad, especially when trying to get back to Disneyland Friday evening.  We should have known to just park in the off-site parking, as Mickey and Friends was full!

We picked up some sandwiches at Earl of Sandwich in Downtown Disney and ate them in line for Space Mountain.  Yes, we are crazy, and waited in line for about 1.75 hours!  The problem was that Space Mountain was shut down the whole morning, and by the time we checked the Fast Passes, they were being handed out for 10:00 p.m., which is way past our bedtimes!  However, I think it turned out to be the kids’ favorite ride, so it was somewhat worth it. 

The finale to our day was watching Fantasmic.  This show always brings back memories of when I worked crowd control at Disneyland.  Who knew that about twenty years later, I would be watching it with my husband and kids!  We also stayed for the firework show, immediately after.  n was able to stay up for Fantasmic, but conked out during the fireworks.

It was nice to be able to take a short ride to the hotel, and crash.  The next morning, we impatiently waited for the hotel breakfast bar to open, scarfed down some food, and then arrived in time for n’s soccer game at 7:30 a.m.!

Disneyland is notoriously expensive and discounts are rare, but we had coupons for two free admissions, so we decided to have a staycation.  The kids had the Friday before Halloween off, and D took the day off work.  We arrived early, so we were able to park in the Mickey and Friends lot.  Taking the tram is a ride in itself!

Our first stop was to get Fast Passes for Fantasmic.  The first ride we tackled was Thunder Mountain.  n looks so happy in this picture!  I guess that is why parents are willing to continue to shell out the big bucks to go here.  We also went on the Matterhorn in the morning, which is a good idea since there are no Fast Passes.  I thought n might be scared, but he took it in stride. 

For some reason, I took a lot of pictures of n’s right profile. 

The lines in the morning were not bad, but by midday, it was pretty congested.  Reading helped pass the time!

To be continued…

The kids did not have a Halloween celebration at school this year since Halloween was on a Saturday.  Therefore, I did not feel any pressure regarding costumes.  We kept it simple—Captain America and basketball player.  Because the weather was so hot, Captain America needed to wear shorts, and could only wear his sweatshirt for photo ops.  Also, we have yet to carve any pumpkins with the kids.  I always want to, but things always get too busy!