Fiesta in San Antonio

On Thursday we went to visit San Antonio and found ourselves in the midst of the annual Fiesta Days. Fiesta Days is a ten-day, 100-event festival that remembers the Battle of the Alamo and San Jacinto, and honors their heroes.
It was a warm day but with a wonderful breeze. Perfect for the celebration. My children know all about the Alamo, so this was a wonderful reinforcement for them. They also learned so much more. Thursday's main event was the Marine Band. They did a fantastic job. They were sitting out in the main square in direct sunlight. I don't know how their instruments can perform in the heat and humidity.
The five drummers were absolutely awesome.
Here's a different angle of the same band. I wanted to show you a bit of the historical flavor that is evident all around this area. Reminds me of Williamsburg, VA. Afterwards we walked down to the Riverwalk. My children really enjoyed that. They especially enjoyed all the mallards. We tried to ride the riverboats but they were all booked for the day.
Dad took us to lunch at the Rainforest Cafe which is right on the river. It was delicious. Fortunately we had already learned that their portions are big enough for two!
The restaurant is really unique. It is filled with fake animals that come alive every five minutes. The whole inside looks and acts like a rainforest. A real hit with children. Aren't these barstools cute? I tried to show the ducks here. We were asked many times if we were Mormons. We finally caught on that people were looking at us because of the recent Mormon news. This is Mormon territory out here.
I took this picture because I thought it looked odd to see indigenous cacti along with cultured petunias. We also saw periwinkles and blackeyed Susans.

Even the bus service adds to the historical atmosphere.
The original wall of the Alamo extends out into town. We saw this section as we were walking back to our car.
I took this picture because of something funny. The army guys were letting children climb up to try out the big gun. I asked my children if they wanted to climb up. Ha! Every year when they were young, we used to take them to the annual Christmas party in the hangar where they could climb through huge jets and the latest helicopters. Stand on a green truck? Waste of time! On the way back to Corpus Christi we passed several huge refineries. This is what they look like in daylight. Nothing much. But at night they are all lit up and look really pretty! But none of my nighttime pictures turned out. Maybe next time.

We got home at 9:30 pm. What a wonderful day. When we were leaving San Antonio, we heard the mariachi bands playing. Had we known, we would have stayed. Later I found out that there is a Mariachi Band Festival in February in Corpus Christi. That would be worth seeing!

Enjoy your weekend. Many blessings ~ Kathie