One of my favorite weekends of the year is Martin Luther King Jr weekend. For the last few years, I have had this Monday off and it is always a good time to catch up with my girl friends. With the Christmas holidays, you get tied up spending most weekends with family. So I usually try to plan a girls weekend this same weekend ever year. The location changes based on who ends up going with me, where we have been before and if I can get complimentary rooms somewhere (thank you job perks). This year we headed off to San Antonio. Why did I pick San Antonio? I had never been to this city as a grown adult and I thought it would be warm and it is relatively affordable. AND having a free place to stay was a factor. So my friend Bethany and I set out to tour the town....mainly with our stomachs.
When we landed, we immediately headed over to Lee's El Taco Garage for our first Tex Mex in the great state of Texas (well and a flight of margaritas). This was the perfect way to start off the weekend. We both ordered puffy tacos and completely indulged in salsa and queso. What's a puffy taco you may be thinking? It is a homemade tortilla deep fried. Yes, that's right. Deep fried. Needless to say, this first meal was a huge success and a great welcome into the great state of Texas. For the first two nights we stayed at the Hyatt Hill Country Resort and Spa.
Saturday night we headed out to a Spurs game. Neither one of us are big basketball fans but the tickets were cheap (because we were legit the very top row at AT&T Center) and it was a live sporting event so, why not!? We went into this weekend with no particular plans but to explore and I believe we did just that. After the Spurs game, our Uber driver suggested we check out 151 Saloon. We both said okay and walked into what could be described as the biggest line dancing bar I have ever been to in my life. We didn't have the boots, hat, or belt buckles to fit in but we sat on the sidelines and watched the cutest military guy swing this adorable girl around the dance floor for hours! They looked like they had been together for years and we later found out they met two weeks ago. I hope we get invited to the wedding one day because they were precious!!
We made it back to the resort for last call at Charlie's Long Bar, the longest copper bar in Texas, and had what may have been the only food we ate that night; guacamole and jumbo pretzels. While we were eating, we met some other girls from San Antonio that then proceeded to teach us how to do a little line dance of our own. At 3:30am we finally got back to our room and crashed.
The next day we moved into our hotel on the Riverwalk. We had our two relaxing days in Hill Country and now we wanted to explore the heart of San Antonio. We checked into the Hyatt Regency San Antonio Riverwalk. Literally right on the Riverwalk. They have an elevator in the lobby that takes you directly to it. We were steps from all the action and steps from The Alamo. And if you are in the Alamo state I guess it is considered a must-do to check out this old piece of history. There was not much to see or do but we got our picture taken and then we were ready for more food.
We were really hungry and wanted some more Tex Mex. The concierges recommended Boudro's where I ate the best Chicken Enchilada Verde of my life. After lunch we wanted to explore this cute part of town a little more. What better way to do that than to sit on a patio, people watch, and drink a Big Red Margarita? After eating Tex Mex for lunch, we wanted to switch it up with some Italian food for dinner. It just so happened the bar where we had the massive margaritas was also connected to an Italian restaurant. We then went back to our hotel (which was steps away) got ready and had dinner on the freezing patio of Michelino's. Their serving sizes are meant for a small village. We both ordered a dish and split them and we definitely could have gotten just one dish. It was soooo much food but delicious American style Italian food.
When I found out the city had a dueling piano bar, it was a guarantee we would end up there. Howl at the Moon did not disappoint. We ordered a Texas mule at the bar with this guy and before we could even find a table, the same guy who made our drinks was standing on the piano playing his electric guitar. They played a state favorite for one of us (the wrong state... Tennessee, blah!) and we danced until they kicked us out. We had met some other people familiar with the area who said well you have to go get tacos now that the bar is closed. My first thought was "It's 2:00am!" and then my second thought was "Tacos sound really good right now!" So we found the first place open on Riverwalk where we ate quesadillas and fajitas and then walked the little distance back to our hotel.
The convenience to access the Riverwalk was awesome. There was so much to do in such a condensed area that you really did not need to go anywhere else. But the locals told us otherwise. Monday we did as the locals do because at this point we were basically local... just kidding but we were over our touristy things and wanted to see somethings off the Riverwalk.
First on the list that EVERYONE told us to go to was Pearl Brewery. It was an old brewery that the city restored and turned into this cute little spot for locals to dine and shop. The name made me believe it would be a brewery that you could eat at and drink local beers. Cool. But we soon realized it was similar to Atlanta's Krog Street Market. There were shops, outdoor space to run around on, tons of restaurants, a historic hotel and the Culinary Institute of America in San Antonio. We of course tried the local brew, Pearl, and because we were there on MLK day, beers were half off....The beer was $1.60! I felt like I was in college again. I had Tenko Ramen for lunch and Bethany had Fletcher's Hamburgers but we both had a milkshake from Fletcher's which was delicious!
While we were at Pearl we wandered over to Hotel Emma were I was completely blown away with this hotel. I did not get to see any of the guestrooms but the lobby and lobby bar were stunning. And the history of this place was really neat. It is a must see if you get over that way. By Monday the cold front had official set in and we were embarking on a winter advisory that was due to hit Tuesday... aka, the day we were supposed to leave. We stopped into the hotel bar, had a warm cup of Joe, bought a fuzzy vest and headed back to the hotel to pack. Because the ice storm was coming in we changed our flight to leave at 6:15am on Tuesday. We were not going to get stuck there.
For our last hoorah, we did not want Tex Mex and a few of the places we had on our list from friends that had recommended spots were closed due to the holiday. But another spot the locals told us to check out was Southtown. We made it there after dark but we ventured into Stella Public House for fresh oven baked pizza and more craft beers. While we were sitting at dinner we both decided we have eaten (and drank) anything and everything and it was time to get back to our routines.
We made it to the airport by 4:20am and our flight was due to take off at 6:15am. Flight was still showing on time, we boarded at 5:45am and the pilot said, thanks for boarding so fast. We should push back here any minute. After some technically difficulties and two deicing treatments, we were up in the hour at 9:45am, the time we should have already been back in Atlanta with our bags on Marta. BUT we made it back. Safe and sound. Just a long travel day.
Overall, San Antonio was a blast. The food was delicious, the weather was a slight disappointment, the people were interesting but the city was adorable. It is definitely a place I could see myself going back to visit and who knows... maybe living there. I might need to learn a little bit more Spanish and buy some cowboy boots, a belt buckle and some plaid but I would definitely be up for the adventure.
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