our trip to san antonio

We just recently celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary with a long-weekend trip to San Antonio. This city has been on our bucket list of places to visit and I am so glad we did. It is such a clean city full of history, culture, beautiful scenery and amazing eateries. 

We arrived early on a Thursday morning and found out that their biggest event of the year was going on that weekend. It is called Fiesta and it was their 300th year celebration so the entire city was decorated for the event. We knew the crowds would increase by the weekend so our first stop was the Riverwalk boat tour. It was such a great way to get an overview of the city. 

We ate lunch at Casa Rio which is the oldest restaurant on the Riverwalk. Yummy Mexican was the perfect first meal. 

After lunch, we decided to go ahead and walk to the Alamo. The grounds are lovely and we enjoyed learning more about the battle at the Alamo. 

Our first night, we ate at Supper which is located inside of Hotel Emma. This hotel is incredible. It is located in the Pearl District of San Antonio which is their newest district. It is not centrally located on the Riverwalk so we did take Uber to get there.  The architecture and design of the hotel is breathtaking. This was probably our favorite dinner of the trip. 

After dinner, we had reservations at Jazz TX which is a great spot for spirits and live jazz music. We had to purchase these reservations in advance. We got lucky because The Four Freshmen happened to be performing the night we were there. The atmosphere is swanky and fun and the music was off the charts good.  

Day 2 we woke up, grabbed coffee to-go and started walking to the King William District.  This district is full of beautiful historic homes. The walk was maybe 2 miles from our hotel, but we thoroughly enjoyed the walk and seeing these lovely homes. Confederate jasmine lined many of the fences so the aroma was just lovely.  

Located on the Riverwalk within the King William District is The Guenther House. This was our breakfast stop. We had heard wonderful things about this restaurant as well as heard the coffee was worth a stop.  The breakfast was so amazing we came here twice during our stay in San Antonio. The atmosphere is quiet and peaceful and the food is just so good. They are known for their biscuits and gravy, pancakes and their Founder's Choice house blend coffee. The original owner of the home opened a flour mill that currently still operates today and sells their flour to McDonald's for their hotcakes. They have a really nice gift shop inside the home too. 

More of the loveliness within King William District. You can go on guided home tours, but we opted to just walk around the area alone. 

Our next stop was Tower of the Americas. I feel like if you are in San Antonio you might as well go up in the needle. It was neat to see the city from 800 feet in the air and watch a 3D video about Texas. 

Most everything is walkable from the Riverwalk so we walked back and grabbed burgers at San Antonio's famous Whataburger while watching the tail-end of their Fiesta parade. 

After all that walking it was time to relax. We stayed at Hotel Contessa which is located right in the middle of the Riverwalk. It also had a rooftop pool which was lovely. I can't remember the last time I sat by a pool and read a book:)

That night we dined at Boudro's. A Tex-Mex restaurant was a must for us and this one did not disappoint. The prickly pear margarita's were tasty as well as the guacamole and chips. 

On our last full day there, we decided to explore the far south end of the Riverwalk. We walked about 4.2 miles to the Japanese Tea Garden. The entire Riverwalk is so very clean and the landscaping is so lovely. 

The garden was beautiful. You can eat lunch there as well. We did not do that because we were there pretty early in the morning, but you can order Japanese bento boxes and eat on their grounds. 

Our feet were feeling tired so we took an Uber back to the Pearl District and grabbed some snacks and took a rest. 

After lunch, we rested by the pool more and then got ready for our last dinner. We ate dinner on the river at the Iron Cactus and then walked to Ocho for drinks.  

We had such a great time together exploring the beautiful city of San Antonio.