San Antonio Riverwalk at Christmas and The Tower of Doom
Most of my adventures and travels center around seeing those weird and the wacky sights you can only find in America. But every now and then I come across something wonderful in my travels, such as the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
While San Antonio’s Riverwalk and the Tower of the America’s may not be as awe-inspiring as the natural beauty and grandeur of the Grand Canyon, they still took my breath away.
Once again, my photography skills won’t do justice to the scenery, but the San Antonio Riverwalk at Christmastime is stunning. All of the trees are vertically draped with Christmas lights. More lights decorate the floating gondolas and the bridges.
But wait! Just when you thought my crappy photos were all you had, my friend sent this great photo of Santa riding in a boat on the Riverwalk…
The Riverwalk sits below street level. The river itself is bordered by sidewalks, great restaurants and bars. There are a few stores, and some sidewalk vendors. During the holiday season you can dine on the gondolas as they float along the river.
People-watching is always entertaining and the Riverwalk doesn’t disappoint in that arena, either. Like much of Texas, and particularly like the rural area I’m in at the moment, the people weren’t very dressed up. Most wore jeans and a casual shirt, and flat shoes. We were there at night, and many of the restaurants are high-end. Yet, almost no one was dressed for a nice dinner out — but the restaurants were crowded. Unlike San Francisco, we couldn’t easily pick the tourists out of the crowd. The only exception to the casually dressed set were several 20 to 30-something women, all dressed identically: mini sweater dress, high heels. These ladies were in little groups, not all together. But they all got the memo.
The Tower of Doom, aka The Tower of The Americas
My friend, the one with the better photography skills, was terrified to go up ‘The Tower of Doom’, as he calls The Tower of The Americas. He’d been up once before, and was quick to tell me about the glass elevator in an effort to deter me from wanting to see the 360-degree view of San Antonio.
This only made me want to go all the more. (He’s new to this blog and Kernut’s Own Little World.)
I was kind, only teasing him mercilessly rather than taking a fuzzy photo as he flattened himself against the back wall of the elevator. *chuckle*
There’s a rotating restaurant up there, but we went to the observation deck. Of course the view was wonderful, and this was my favorite photo… You couldn’t see the word when looking directly at it from the tower, but it was easy to make out in the photo.
I wish I’d had more time in San Antonio to enjoy the Riverwalk back when. But I couldn’t drag myself away from whatever other distraction I was engaged in. 🙁
Hey, you never know… I’m sure it’ll be here for a while. 🙂
Hi, Sweetie,
I’m late I know, but now here I am.
Refering to the San Antonio river, I was stationed at Lackland Air Force Base in late 1960 and early 1961. Back then the story was that they dragged about 8 or 10 bodies out of the river every week. When I saw the river back then, it was just a muddy trace running thru down town San Antonio. It had muddy banks covered in a couple centuries of trash. I had the opportunity to see it again in early July, 2010. (There was a very large party being held in San Antonio then, as you probably know.) As you have pictured above, it was an entirely different experience from 1960. Of course, San Antonio itself was an entirely different experience, also. I don’t remember it being much more than a dusty cow town back in 1960.
Ahhhh, memories,
Dennis