Thursday January 24, 2008

We woke up to cold, clouds, and wind with a 30% chance of rain so we dressed warmly and pocketed our umbrellas and set out for the day. Our first stop was the Tower of the Americas. It was built for the 1968 world's fair. We got a combo ticket which allowed us to go to the top by outside elevator and take in all the views of San Antonio. Fortunately, it was just cloudy and not foggy like yesterday. We took in the 360 degree views and then descended to the first floor where we went to a 4-D theatre about Texas. We had a lot of laughs as it was more than having the chair move and vibrate. There was one scene at a rodeo where a clown tries to hide from the enraged bull by jumping into a barrel. The bull looks inside the barrel and snorts and at the same time, our faces were misted with water! Another time we encountered a 3-D rattlesnake and as he turned to strike, we had a blast of air hit our bodies. We laughed a lot and had a great time. We walked over to the Institute of Texan Cultures which was a wonderful museum about all of the different ethnic groups which make up this state. They had photos and displays about all of the home countries. There was even one which we weren't familiar with: Wendish which we found was a type of German culture. We spent quite a long time wandering around and then walked through HemisFair Park (again from the 1968 fair) and over to La Villita district which was San Antonio's first neighborhood. The families of Spanish soldiers lived here and now all of the homes are art galleries or small craft shops. We went down to the river from here and ate lunch before exploring the shops. Our lunch was huge: Justine and I each ordered an appetizer since it was so late and neither of us could finish. When we had finished exploring La Villita, we walked back along the river and then back to the hotel where we put our feet up for an hour before heading back out. Someone emailed me and asked if "putting our feet up" meant "taking a nap" and the answer is no. It means we kick off our shoes and read - just a bit of down time. We went out at 6:30 after a granola bar dinner and went to another IMAX show (the second show is half price). We saw "The Mystery of the Nile". Now this is where we know we are getting old as partway through the film we realized that we had seen it before a number of years ago. The good news is that it was excellent the second time also! We then walked over to the Alamo and joined up with a Ghost Tour. The guide was excellent - very funny and entertaining! I can't think of when we have laughed so much. There were only 8 of us on the tour which was wonderful. It was very cold (35), but the walking and the laughing kept us fairly warm. He had a lot of hi-tech equipment: color spectrum glasses, temperature readers, and an infra-red camera. We had a lot of fun and walked back to the hotel still laughing. We got in about 10:30 and then read until our eyes got heavy.