Five Fry's: Remember the Alamo

In April the hospital where I work send myself and another colleague to San Antonio for this years ASPAN Conference. We had a great time, learned a lot AND I was able to visit with some of my family that live there. But really, the best part was it was all paid for. The hotel, flights and I was even comped for food. The only thing I had to pay for was the fun stuff like shopping and entertainment.

ASPAN Conference - The reason for the entire trip

This is some of stuff from the conference: my name badge, ribbons, schedule and the tickets to get into the classes we signed up for.

The Second Reason-Family

This is my Aunt Debbie's family. She is my dad's baby sister and I have only seen her twice since 1990. It was so good to reconnect with all of them and meet the once I hadn't

Lance (cousin), Amber, Meghan, T.J.(cousin), Uncle Pat, Aunt Debbie, Brittney, Jonathan(cousin)

Kids in back: Taylin, Ryan, Austin

My other cousin Jordan is currently deployed in Afghanistan so I didn't get to see him.

Debbie picked Sunny and I up at the airport and took us to our hotel to get checked in. Afterwards I went to her house to meet everyone, have dinner with them and get caught up. It was a great night. This is the view from their back patio. I was so amazed at the trees. We don't see trees like this in Idaho!

Hotel- The Hyatt Regency on the River walk

This was on my TV screen when I got to my room. So cool, but yet so creepy at the same time. I have NEVER had a hotel room to myself so that was even weirder to me.

This is the view from my hotel room. The entire wall was glass (with thick curtains). The atrium was 16 stories tall, it was pretty amazing. The elevators were also all glass and I thought of the old school Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory every time I rode in them.

This was looking left from my window out onto the River walk.

This started outside and ran into the pool/pond inside our hotel

This was a glass shop in the hotel and it made me giggle every time because it looks like a huge uvula to me.

Market Square

We stopped here on the way to my aunt's house and it was crazy busy. It was the last day of the fiesta so they had vendors all over and 4 or 5 different bands. It was fun, crazy and so colorful!

Debbie and I

We went back on our last day so Sunny could see it, but it wasn't nearly as exciting as our first trip

Sunny, Debbie and I

Debbie and I

Sunny and I

The Alamo

Sunny and I

We didn't have classes until noon on Monday so we walked (across the street) from our hotel to the Alamo and played tourists for the morning.

Weird fact: There were signs all over that said,

"Don't touch the walls"

and the security guards made sure you didn't.

The Alamo

Alamo Barracks

These were outside of the Alamo. The blossom of the flowers were almost the size of dinner plates. They were huge and beautiful

The trees in Texas amazed me. They were all so HUGE and the branches were out of control crazy. In Idaho it seems like they all just grow up, but there they would grow out and up.

The building behind it is the library

Alamo Hall

Gift Shop

The Alamo is literally right in the middle of downtown, it really doesn't fit in at all. The tall building in the background is the Emily Drake hotel, to the left is the U.S. Post Office

Downtown

These were in the lobby of a wax museum. I had to take pictures for my boys.

A really fun candy store. Places like this made me wish that my kids were with me.

These are real and the cashier told me that people actually buy them TO EAT!! UGH!!

Real ants in a sucker, sounds super delicious right?

This was at a quaint little deli that we ate at one morning. There were pictures of the Alamo all over it

This was in the convention center were the classes were held. It was made out of soda cans and was HUGE!

Sunny is from Texas and a big Dallas Cowboys fan so she was super excited when we stumbled upon this store at the mall.

San Antonio River Walk

Our trip was kind of planned at the last minute so when we booked it the rooms at the Grand Hyatt where to convention was were all booked. We ended up staying at the Hyatt Regency which was about a 5 minute walk so everyday, twice a day this was our view on the way to "work"

The river looks dirty, but it's really just moss because it's so warm and humid

This use to be a boys school that was turned into a hotel

Seriously!! How lucky were we to have this as our daily commute?

This was the view from our table for dinner Monday night. My Aunt Debbie met up with us and the three of us had dinner together.

These ducks kept pecking at Sunny and then they moved on to pecking my pockets before we finally shooed them away.

Not sure what happened to this little guy, but his neck is permanently like this. We kept seeing him on the River Walk all week long.

This is part of the convention center where our classes were held.

Riverboat Ride

Me, Debbie and Sunny on the River Boat.

From this angle it looks like the building is just one huge wall, but it's really just an optical illusion, it has 3 other sides

This is the river view of the restaurant where we had dinner.

The mosaic on this building, The Gonzales Convention Center, is the largest in the world. The tall building to the left is the Grand Hyatt where the rest of the convention was.

Saint Anthony

There were faces all over this building and they were all different. I loved all the architecture that was everywhere you looked.

This is believed to be the oldest tree in San Antonio, approx. 117 years old

Tower of the Americas

We took this glass elevator all 750 feet up to the top of the observation tower to see the views

If you look right in the middle of the picture where all the green trees are that's the Alamo smashed right in the middle of downtown

San Antonio Bus Tour

Sunny and I front and center on the top of the double decker bus

The (Haunted) Menger Hotel

Alamo Cenotaph

Emily Morgan Hotel

Love the detail in the architecture and love ghost stories even more. Google "Emily Morgan Hotel Haunting Stories", but only if you dare

Emily Morgan Hotel

Museum of Art

VFW Post 76

Majestic Theater

Empire Theater

Aztec Theater

San Fernando Cathedral

It is said the term "bury the hatchet" came from here. It also holds the burial tomb of Davy Crockett, William B. Travis, and Jim Bowie

Hilton Palacio del Rio

This 500 room hotel was built in 202 days for the World Fair in 1968. All the rooms were completely booked before they even broke ground. The rooms (each cube) were built somewhere else and then shipped to San Antonio and stacked together. When they were delivered each room had carpet, curtains, the beds were made and there were even bibles in the night stand drawers. To read more about it click here.