San Antonio

San Antonio is a city that's come into my life many times.  I have memories as a small girl of seven on holiday with my family, to tasting my first martini on my 22nd birthday with Zak.  Granted those are two very different memories, but they sum up the times there rather well.  Zak actually grew up only an hour away from San Antonio, so his connection to the place is quite similar.

It was a couple of months ago when we started talking about how much we missed San Antone.  We realised the last time we'd been there was in 2009 after graduating uni.  San Antonio has two of the main tourist attractions in Texas:  the Alamo and the Riverwalk.  The Alamo is a symbol of Texas, a beautiful old Spanish missionary that became a fortress in the Texans fight against the Mexicans.  The Riverwalk is a bustling ringed waterway that's lined with shops, restaurants, and bars and sits in the heart of San Antonio below street level. 

After a couple hours of reminiscing, I decided we should just go back to San Antonio.  So last Friday and Saturday, we were there celebrating Zak's birthday (I had to have a reason to part with the cash, so why not make it a celebration?).  For the 26 hours we were there, the weather was perfect.  It was a warm with an early-spring breeze, and not a cloud in the sky.  We spent our time wandering around, visiting little art galleries, stopping for margaritas whenever we were thirsty, and of course we stopped to "remember the Alamo."  Even though it was just a quick trip, it felt like a full holiday just to get away.  Its amazing how quickly you can disconnect yourself from the daily stresses when you're in a great place with someone you love.

the Alamo at night with the famous Crockett Hotel - my favourite shot from the trip

A small art shop in La Villata

Love cactus above the door

The Riverwalk

Boston Bound (in 3 months)

As you all know from my first blog, I love to travel.  Unfortunately, life has not allowed me to do that as much as I would like in recent years.  The last time I went anywhere was in May 2009 to Florida, when Zak proposed.  It was a wonderful trip, but we stayed with his uncle, so it wasn't quite a full vacation.

This year I made it one of my new year's resolutions to have a holiday.  Not just staying with family members, but a full-on sleep in hotels, do what we want on our time, holiday.  In addition to Florida, Zak and I have only been on holiday one other time:  2008 when he met me in Holland (for a day) and then we had 3 weeks in England for him to see my home and meet the relatives.  It was an incredible time, but like Florida, staying with relatives starts to wear on you after a while!

Well as of Tuesday, I am officially set to fulfill one of my resolutions (unlike the others such as drink less wine, not be so sarcastic and judgemental, etc).  In May, Zak and I will have 5 days in New England.  We're flying into Boston and are going to spend our time seeing as much as possible of the region, while also getting to spend a weekend with his brother who's in Submarine School for the Navy.  Both Zak and I are history buffs and so the opportunity to go to this part of the U.S. is really exciting for us.  Also, I've worked out that yet again I won't be able to make it back to England this year and after some research, Boston seems to have a very English look and weather to it. 

We have booked our tickets and told Zak's brother (which made his day), and are looking forward to the next steps:  renting a car and finding hotels.  I can't wait to have the Atlantic sea air in my face, cobble-stone streets beneath my feet, May temperatures in the 50s, and drunk and angry Irish-Americans singing at a pub.  Ahhhhhh, it's almost like being back at home.  :)