Spring Break Part 2- San Antonio, TX

 When we decided that we wanted to go somewhere for Spring Break, I started searching for someplace warm that we could fly to for a decent price. Using Google Flights, we ended up with fairly cheap tickets from Vancouver, BC to San Antonio, TX. ChatGPT gave us a few recommendations for things to do in the area, we found an AirBnB with a pool and we were set!

We flew out early Tuesday morning, and arrived at our house just before dinnertime. We were excited to take a quick swim before finding dinner but, unfortunately, found a very dirty pool and a non-functioning hot tub. After a quick conversation with the owner, plans were made to resolve both of those issues the following day and we headed out for some Texas BBQ for dinner!

Wednesday we headed to Government Canyon State Park. We'd learned of a neat 5ish mile hike that went to some dinosaur tracks and an old house. The hike was beautiful and the weather was perfect.

Looking down at the tracks

The overlook was a sheer cliff!

Random house...no one knows why it was built here!

And naturally, ever hike on a warm day needs to be followed up with an ice cream stop!

We were glad to discover that the pool had been cleaned and a new hot tub set up when we returned to the house. It took awhile for everyone to decide it was worth getting in (because the water was not warm) but eventually everyone made it!

The next day we headed downtown. Our plan was to check out the Alamo and grab lunch along the Riverwalk. The Alamo was much smaller than we anticipated, but they had a good history video that explained the significance of the Alamo, as well as a musket shooting that we were able to watch. 

Inside the Alamo

The hospital room

From here, we were able to walk along the Riverwalk, which is one of the things that San Antonio is known for. The part downtown is lined with restaurants and, while it was pretty, it wasn't something that anyone feels the need to go back and do again!

After lunch, I wanted to head to a different part of the RiverWalk and also visit one of the old missions. We ended up at Mission San Jose and never made it to the river. We all enjoyed visiting Mission San Jose more than the Alamo and thought that there was more to see here. It was established in 1790 and took nearly 20 years to build. By the time it was finished, however, it was no longer used!

They were setting up for a wedding, but all of San Antonio was decorated in bright colors for the upcoming Fiesta (which is a citywide event that was taking place the following week!)

This is still a functioning Catholic Church.

Friday we decided to go for another hike. We found a small park that had some pretty views, packed a lunch, and off we went. We saw a small snake and some giant blue bugs that sounded scary but are harmless, and an old, creaky windmill. 

The girls wanted more time to swim, so we spent the rest of Friday at the house, swimming and playing ping-pong. They also wanted to keep our Friday tradition of watching a movie and were very excited to see that we could watch Pirates of the Caribbean!

We went on a neighborhood walk and saw over 40 deer!

Climbing the tree in the front yard

Quick rain shower!

Playing a game/acting like an animal

New inflatable hot tub!

Saturday morning came quickly and it is hard to believe that it's already the end of the week and time to go home! We packed everything up, but had a little bit of time between when we had to be out of the house and needed to be at the airport. Naturally, we found another park. We thought this one was close to the airport because all of the comments online said you could watch planes landing, but it turns out it wasn't near the airport at all. But it still gave us the chance to walk around and get some fresh air before travelling. 

From this point on, all our plans changed...we returned our car, found out the second leg of our flight was cancelled and were automatically rebooked on a flight early Sunday morning. The first flight was on United but they weren't very helpful since the cancelled flight was operated by Air Canada. They just told us 'there's no room on any flight out of San Antonio today.' Apparently, in the short time that we'd learned of the cancellation, the first leg had also been cancelled and filled with someone else! 

Kyle was able to find a hotel nearby that came and picked us up from the airport. Even though it was too early to check in, they did let us swim in the pool until our room was ready. We ordered Dominos for dinner and called it an early night, because we had to be out the door by 4:30am for our flight.

This also did not go as planned because at 4:15am I got another text saying this flight was cancelled and we were rebooked on an afternoon flight, leaving at 4:45pm! After some more time swimming and exercising, we headed back to the airport at 1:30. Kyle was able to get us on a flight that left at 2:45 instead! After sitting on the plane at the gate for 30 minutes waiting for thunder and lightning to pass, we were finally on our way! We made it to our gate in San Francisco with 10 minutes until the next flight boarded...and a 20 minute walk to get there! 

But the good news is we made it home! Everyone had fun, we got some sun, and overall, the trip was a win! We learned that an UberXL doesn't mean it can fit 5 passengers plus luggage, airport parking that has a complimentary shuttle can decide to charge per person (despite everything saying complimentary) and trying to get compensation for delays is still ongoing.