San Antonio, Day 4 our Final Day

It has been such a fun weekend. We miss our kids terribly, but have loved being just the two of us. Today is our final day in San Antonio as we will head back to our kids and reality.

We made our way down to the lobby for some breakfast and then headed out towards the River Walk for one last look. In the process we were trying to find a souvenir for our kiddos back home.

We made our way back to the Alamo and decided to walk through the building and grounds.

 Our hotel.

 Finally on our way back to the airport Jeremy wanted to see if he could remember where he lived when he was serving in San Antonio and sure enough his memory came back and we found it.

I can't wait until our next vacation, hmm I wonder where we should plan to go next?

San Antonio, Day 3

Day three we headed North towards Austin as Jeremy served a lot of his mission up there. So on the way we stopped at a BBQ Restaurant called Rudy's.

You pay by the pound of meat. You can order sides, then they give you a loaf of white bread to use how you want. 

 On the way to Austin we went through another small town called Fredericksburg, TX which is another place Jeremy served. Driving through downtown reminded me a lot of Park City/Midway where its a touristy town for people to eat and shop. Along our drive we found the LDS Church that Jeremy attended when living there. The church had grown. When Jeremy served there it was a one room building which they used for everything, now it is like a normal ward building.

As we continued to drive through town Jeremy slowly started to remember where they lived. So we followed his memory which then led us to this cabin, where Jeremy lived while serving in Fredericksburg.

Finally we were off to Austin. We visited the Capitol Building.

 Drove by and around the Longhorn Stadium.

Then headed to another small town called Driftwood which is a suburb of Austin to try another delicious BBQ place called The Salt Lick. The only thing they accept is CASH. They have ATM's on site just in case you forgot the green stuff.

After our delicious dinner we headed back to San Antonio for our last night. 

San Antonio, Day 2

We woke up, got dressed and headed down for some breakfast. At our hotel they served a really nice breakfast. I explained to Jeremy that my job was to get him to San Antonio, get us to the temple to do a session and then the rest of the trip was up to Jeremy.

So after breakfast we got our rental car and headed south toward Pleasanton, TX where Jeremy served.

Since we weren't really sure where we were going and it has been 20 years since Jeremy has been back we entered in the coordinates into my phone for directions. It took us straight to the High school. 

Once we made it to the High School things started looking a little familiar for Jeremy. We found a neighborhood that Jeremy visited on the mission and then we found his apartments. 

Across the street from the apartments was the LDS Building that Jeremy attended when serving in this area.

After driving around for a while and seeing all that has changed we discussed on where we should go next. Jeremy mentioned that Corpus Christi wasn't in their mission, but he always wanted to visit, however it was pretty far. After looking it up is was only about one hour and a half. So we kept on heading South towards Corpus Christi.

We arrived at the North Shore and it was quite windy.

We then decided to head to Padre Island (which on the internet said that is where all the spring break timers go) so we decided to check it out. However we stopped in at this restaurant called DOC's Seafood Restaurant. I pulled this pic from the internet (but doesn't this look like a party place?)

It was really quiet and the food was delicious. It was kind of weird to get to it because you are on the bridge and get off on a ramp exit to then drive on a dirt kind of road only to be surrounded by water on each side with a little driving path to lead the way. Totally WAY worth it.

We then continued our way into Padre Island.

After driving around and seeing the deserted sights we decided to head back to San Antonio. In 1968 San Antonio hosted the World's Fair in which they built the Towers of America. A few years back they renovated the top part and turned the lower two decks into a restaurant and the top deck into an observation. We decided that since TODAY was Jeremy's birthday to have dinner at the Tower of America's Restaurant the Chart House

Across the street from the Tower of the America's is the Alamodome.

 

The food was delicious (we shared the prime rib and potatoes) and the view was gorgeous and we were able to see a panoramic view due to the revolving restaurant.

In the end I told our waiter that it was Jeremy's birthday and so he told us he would do something special. Here it is. Our waiter even wrote the Happy Birthday on the plate with a chocolate pen. It was awesome!

Happy Surprise Birthday Jeremy!!

So this special year 2015, my main squeeze turns the big 4-0. So what do you do when you have already thrown him a surprise birthday party? You surprise him with a trip to where he served his mission 21 years ago.

Yes that is right... After a year of planning I surprised my hubby on Friday November 20th and took him to San Antonio, Texas for his birthday.

Throughout the week I have him little treats and notes leading up to the big day. When Friday morning came I told him the plan and he didn't quite understand. However after some convincing and verifying with his boss that I had already scheduled him off of work we finished putting our things in our suitcases, dropped the kids off at school and headed to the airport.

After landing, getting our car rental we headed towards the San Antonio Temple. It was built after Jeremy left his mission. On the way we were hungry so we stopped for some lunch at this little pizzeria. 

After filling our bellies we headed to the Temple to get a session in. 

 

After doing an endowment session we got in the car and headed downtown towards our hotel. We changed out of our church clothes and into some more comfortable clothes to then find our way to the River Walk. 

Not really knowing where to go we followed the sidewalk to this bridge where there were steps that led you down to the River Walk. It is an amazing site. Lights, Music, Food and Laughter.  

We found a boat ride that took you around on the river and they would point out and tell you about some of the sites, buildings, and history of San Antonio.

 

After our fun little boat ride we decided to get us some San Antonio Mexican food. We found this restaurant and sat right on the river walk and enjoyed a nice little meal.

 

As we enjoyed our delicious dinner we were visited by some little friends.  It really started with just one and this one little duck would pull on the zipper of my jacket, scaring me. So we started throwing chips into the river walk and soon some more friends decided to visit.

After dinner we walked to a hotel the on the other side was the Alamo.

 

The Alamo was closed for the evening so we decided to walk around a little bit longer. We then found our way to our hotel.