Quality Sister-time!

Solar-powered.  If the sun is up, shining and heating up the day, then my sister and I are up, shining and heating up the day!  Once darkness falls, or the temperature drops however, so do we.  Monica and I share a lot of characteristics, the most significant of which is that we both love the heat, and despise the cold, in a way that we are unable to articulate.  Temperatures below 70 degrees is meant to be spent inside fantasizing about what we will do once the mercury rises!

Fortunately, when Monica arrived in San Antonio on Friday afternoon, the city was in the mid-80s and beckoning us to outdoor dining and drinking.  We started a progressive dinner of fish tacos and margaritas at Rosario's, followed by dessert and drinks back on the Riverwalk.  Great company, food, drinks and stories left us with our faces hurting from laughing so hard!

Though Saturday morning greeted us with chilly temperatures and overcast skies, we were undaunted on our quest to visit the Riverwalk again for photo ops and a visit to the Farmer's Market.  The Farmer's Market is located at The Pearl Brewery, which originally opened in 1883 on the site now just known as the "Pearl" along the San Antonio River.  Although Pabst took over the brewery in 1985, it shut down operations at the Pearl in 2001.  Twelve years later, the site is a hip area of stores, restaurants and tenant buildings.  Its diverse list of tenants include the Culinary Institute of America, the Aveda Institute, the Boiler House and Green restaurants as well as a bunch of eclectic shops. 

There is a B-Cycle bicycle rental station where you can rent bicycles for a few hours or the whole day on which to explore the Riverwalk and Pearl area.  With so much to see and do, we started off at the Farmer's Market and worked our way down to the fish art exhibit under the overpass.  The fish were damaged in a violent wind-storm that passed through San Antonio last month, but the original artist came out and fixed them last week.  The Riverwalk really is a beautiful path to stroll, run or ride a bike.

Spring is definitely in the air as evidenced by all the ducklings!  We stumbled upon this momma with about eight little ducklings soaking up the sun.  It took all morning, but the sun finally burned through the overcast clouds hanging in the sky.  After a little pastry snack at the Culinary Institute of America's cafe, we pointed the car northeast and headed towards winery country. 

It really is amazing how much the landscape changes and unfolds as you drive north from San Antonio into hill country.  Although I didn't see fields of bluebonnets like I had hoped, there were several small patches along the way that made a beautiful showing.  We followed the rolling hills past Canyon Lake to visit Duchman and Driftwood Wineries.  We enjoyed lunch at the Italian restaurant and beautiful Italian landscaping on the grounds of Duchman more than we enjoyed the wines, so we moved on to Driftwood for the remainder of the afternoon.

As you can see from the great view in this pic, the Driftwood Estate Winery tasting room overlooks the vineyards and neighboring farms, including a herd of goats that provided hours of entertainment as they moved from one end of a field to the other.  After a few glasses of wine, the social structure and leadership of a goat herd can take on the qualities of a sitcom!  I do have to confess conjuring up images of last weekend's cabrito burger as I watched them :-)  We enjoyed the wine and scenery for much of the afternoon in the company of lots of other folks doing the same.  Next time I know to bring a blanket and picnic lunch for the outing.

Sunday morning greeted us with temps in the 40s and a wind that made it feel in the 30s.  I know I'm getting no sympathy from my friends up North and to the East, but after the 90 degree Saturday spent soaking up sun in flip flops, it felt absolutely arctic here!  Propelled by grumbling stomachs and desire to experience a new restaurant in San Antonio, Monica and I braved the cold and made our way back to the San Antonio River for brunch at Guenther House.  Listed on the Registrar of Historic Places, Carl Hilmar Guenther, the founder of Pioneer Flour Mills, built this landmark home in 1859.  It's been beautifully maintained and the restaurant associated with it routinely shows up in any "best breakfast in San Antonio" list.  Although the wait was a bit excessive (due to seating mix-ups as much as capacity), when we finally got breakfast, it satisfied our taste buds and appetites.  What did we have for breakfast at the restaurant of a flour mill?  Why, big, fat, fluffy biscuits, that's what we had!  I've only had decent biscuits and gravy once or twice in my life, but this place certainly did it up right. 

Unfortunately, Monica's weekend with me came to an end as I dropped her off at the airport after breakfast.  Hopefully it was just the first of many visits to San Antonio for her (hint, hint!).  Oh, and the pic of me waiting for our table at the Guenther House is for my Dad, he wanted to see my new cowboy boots :-)

Savor the day everyone!! 

Leisurely TX weekend

No, I did not deface the cactus, it was already like that!

Periodically, both enlisted and officers go through professional development courses throughout their careers.  On Friday, I "graduated" from a nine week company grade officer leadership course.  Fortunately for me, this course was here at Fort Sam Houston, so I didn't have to live in temporary lodging while attending.  Although not particularly arduous, I had to substitute a good portion of my recreational reading with required reading for the program.  So, to celebrate the return of leisure reading of my choice, a friend and I headed to the hill country for a little exploring.

Yesterday was a beautiful 80 degree, cloudless sky event.  We couldn't have asked for better weather for the 6 mile hike through Hill Country State Natural Area in Bandera County. There weren't many flowers blooming yet, but the stark scenery was still beautiful and inviting.  Although we hiked the limestone trail at a leisurely pace, we still worked up an appetite and thirst for our next stop- Mac & Ernie's Roadside Eatery.  This little kitchen shack located on FM470 has been featured on The Food Network and the Travel Channel. 

Guy Fieri ate here (and apparently left a sign- see pic) for his show Diner's, Drive-Ins and Dives as did Andrew Zimmern for Bizarre Foods. I'll admit that goat isn't a meat you regularly find on American menus, but to this Cajun girl, the Cabrito burger I ate there didn't seem very bizarre at all.  In fact, it was quite tasty and provided the perfect accompaniment to my Shiner Bock brew.

Mac & Ernie's had a great local feel to it.  The lime green table tops, lemon yellow 1950s style dining chairs and order ticket conveyor belt, featuring a yellow goat dropping the order ticket off to the cooks, just made the whole place feel fun.  The fact that the food and service was great was just lagniappe!

As we continued down 470, we spied some interesting sites along the road.  We did a double-take and actually turned the car around to go back and take a picture of this scarecrow maw and paw farmer hay bale holder.  Teamwork! 

The other interesting site was a couple of different locations where coyotes hung from fence posts along the road.  We wondered what they meant.  Was there a competition amongst ranchers for who could kill the most coyotes?  Was this a way for the county to keep track of the coyote population and kills?  The all-knowing Google revealed that ranchers kill the predators after they've attacked their livestock and then hang them upside down on fence posts in the area as a deterrent.  Apparently, other coyotes come and sniff the carcasses and realize that this may not be the best place for them to seek their next meals.  Whether it works or not, I'm not sure, but the suspended, decaying carcasses certainly make for interesting road side sites.

 

The final stop of the day was wine tasting at the Bending Branch Winery.  We couldn't have asked for a better setting to imbibe some great local spirits.  We sampled wines under shade trees on an outside deck while being serenaded by a local musician playing acoustic guitar.  The breeze and warmth made the whole experience feel absolutely decadent.  Of the whites and reds we sampled, my favorites were the Vermentino (white grapes of Mediterranean origin) and the Tempranillo (a red reminiscent of my favorite Spanish Riojas).    As daylight drew down, we pointed the car towards San Antonio feeling satisfied with the physically active, yet gastronomically rewarding day.