San Antonio? More like San An-boring-o

Have you been to San Antonio lately?  No?  Well don’t bother.  Ashley and I went there this past weekend for a little pre-baby getaway.  Now usually I’m a vacation planner but this time I decided to wing it.  Besides, it’s San Antonio, there’s tons of things to do, right?  The Alamo, the riverwalk, umm…  apparently that’s about it.  Oh wait, they have a lot, a LOT of Mexican restaurants.

We got there on Friday and picked up our rental car, an electric blue PT Cruiser.  (if you own a PT Cruiser skip to the next paragraph).  This has to be by far the worst car I’ve ever driven.  No acceleration, no features, no fun.

But it’s just a rental car, no biggie.  So I floored and eventually got it up to highway speed and we were off to Gruene.  I know, we’re supposed to be going to San Antonio but Ashley and I have started a vacation tradition of taking a mini vacation within a vacation.  A couple of years ago we went to Tahoe and decided to go to San Francisco and Napa Valley in the middle of that vacation.  It usually turns out to be the best part of the vacation.  This time was no exception.  We got to Gruene, went to eat at the Gristmill and walked around to all the little shops.  It was a great day and we had great food and a great time.

Now on to San Antonio!  We get to our hotel room and it’s great.  I highly recommend the new Hyatt Place chain.  We had a nice bed, a separate living room area and a huge HD flat screen TV.  But no time for TV!  Let’s hit the riverwalk!  There will be tons of things to do and awesome places to eat and good times to be had!  Or so I thought.  After this trip I’ve decided that San Antonio is a place for one of two kinds of people.  You’re either, in college and want to be drunk alot, or you’re from a town smaller than San Antonio and you think fine dining is the Hard Rock.  Yes, we ate at Hard Rock.  You know why?  Because it was either that or the third Mexican restaurant in two days.  Let me give you a breakdown of what we ate.  Burgers, mexican, breakfast, mexican, Italian (which had mariachi band?), breakfast, burgers and finally Pei Wei.  Yes, Pei Wei.

Dont’ get me wrong, we had good food, but part of the fun of vacation is going to new places and eating new food and all this city had to offer me was either Linguine while listening to De Colores or eating chinese food that I can have any day of the week?  Oh well, at least we avoided Dick’s Last Resort.

Now let me tell you a little story about…The Alamo.  “Remember the Alamo!”  You know why they say that?  Because it’s so boring you forget about the Alamo about 10 minutes after you leave.  Seriously, what’s the big deal?  I’ve been told I don’t understand it because I’m a damn Okie but I honestly don’t get it.  The first time we tried to go there was a crazy long line so we decided to go back the next day.  Next day rolls around and we walk straight in, to an old empty building with a couple of flags in it and…that’s about it.  Even Ashley, a life long Texan, didn’t see what was so special about it.  I know, it’s a big part of Texas history and brave people died there so I understand that part, I just don’t want to go back.  And the part I can’t get over is that they lost the battle at the Alamo.  Why don’t we hold the other places where we actually won in as high regard as the Alamo.  It’s even named after a city in Mexico!  I know some of you think I’m just a dumb outsider who doesn’t get it and you’re right.  I don’t get it.  But I’m sure there’s something about Oklahoma that I love that you would probably think is idiotic.  So let’s call it even.

Long story short (too late)  we had a great time.  But the reason we had a great time was because we were together and we can’t help but have a good time.  I love my boo and it doesn’t matter if I’m in a mexican restaurant, a boring old mission, or sitting in a hotel room watching a nice big TV.  So our next trip will be…anywhere else.  And it WON’T involve us going to a time share seminar.  But that story is for another blog post.