Hey friends! It’s time for another blog post! This blog post is going to be all about our trip to San Antonio for Labor Day. In this post I will give you an idea of why we took this trip, what we did there, what it was like traveling while 23 weeks pregnant, and how this vegan momma was able to eat some amazing food in the heart of Texas. So let’s get started!
First things first. Why in the world would we take a trip to San Antonio, Texas? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked that question. Well the truth of the matter is that this trip was all about my amazing husband. For those of you who might not know, my husband will be turning 30 on September 29th. My husband is a major history guy. He has his bachelors degree in history and loves to learn all about it and experience it any chance he gets. So for this trip he chose San Antonio. As you will soon see this beautiful city is full of history.
Day 1:
Friday September 1st, 2017. The alarm goes off at 4am. Let me give you some background information about my amazing husband. He isn’t normally a morning person. He normally stays up until about 2 in the morning most nights and then will sleep in until around 7 to 9 am depending on what time he goes to work that day. So when I woke him up at 4am so we could leave the house by 5am, I expected some push back. To my surprise he jumped (well not jumped exactly. I mean it is 4am) out of bed and went straight to getting ready for us to leave. Let me let you in on another secret about my husband. He loves planes!! So no wonder he was up and ready to go on time. We were going to his favorite place, the airport. We leave the house around 5am with muffins from Sprouts and coffee in hand. Those vegan muffins from Sprouts are amazing by the way!! We arrive at the airport around 6am after dropping our car off at the airport lot. Our flight left around 7:40 and we were on our way. Our baby loves planes by the way and kicked up a storm the whole flight. We arrive in San Antonio and take the bus to the downtown area where we will be staying. After checking into our hotel it was time for some lunch. We decided we would head down to The River Walk to check it out and grab some food. Our first restaurant in SA was Iron Cactus. This place was so good! I let the server know about me being vegan and he made suggestions on what I could eat and couldn’t. We of course ordered some table side guacomole as it is one of our favorite things. I then ended up getting some veggie fajitas. We spent the next several hours of the day walking along The River Walk. The River walk was such a beautiful place. We even witnessed a preposal! That night we decided to try out one of their local restaurants that happened to have a vegan menu. So at 7pm at headed over to 5 Points Local for dinner. I got the zucchini noodles with pesto and avocado. Then we of course had to have some dessert. We tried out very first vegan twinkies and they were amazing!!! This place ended up being one of our favorites of the trip. We even went back for another meal on a different day.
Day 2:
Saturday September 2, 2017. We decided to eat breakfast at the hotel this morning. The hotel breakfast is what you would expect. There was a lot of pancakes, eggs, breakfast sandwiches, etc. There weren’t many vegan options, but there was some. They had oatmeal and after checking with the cook I learned that it was made with water and not milk. She also said that they don’t use any butter in it. So I got a big bowl of oatmeal and topped it with raisins, walnuts, cranberries, and banana with a side of oranges. It definitely got the job done. After filling our bellies with some breakfast we decided to head over to The Alamo. Today was going to be a huge history day. We walked over and arrived around 9:30. The walk alone was beautiful. The architecture in San Antonio was truly amazing. The buildings themselves had such beauty, since many of them were built in the early 20th century. We choose to do the Alamo on Saturday because they have an event there called First Saturday at the Alamo. We of course walked around and looked through the museums. Phillip was loving every minute of it. To see him so happy and in his element, truly warmed my heart. Then we went out into the yard area and they were showing the guns they used during the time. We got to witness them flowing through their formation and firing the guns. This was such a neat experience. Next they had tons of booths set up with items from the time that you got to look at and learn about. Phillip was especially excited to learn about the artillery. Around noon we decided to head out and find something to eat for lunch. My husband found a Mexican restaurant called Oasis. There weren’t many options for me, but I was able to get three avocado tacos for lunch. After lunch it was time to head to San Jose Mission. The Mission was founded in 1720 and is still an active Parish to this day, with an active Franciscan friary located on-site. You can attend mass on Sunday’s if you wish. It became known as the largest mission in the area and contained about 350 people at it’s height. This beautiful community was sustained by massive fields and herds of livestock. One of our favorite things about the mission was the church. We got to sit for a bit and take it all it. It was absolutely beautiful! The church bells even rang while we were there. After leaving the mission we headed back to the hotel. We spent the afternoon swimming and enjoying some rest from our pretty productive day. That evening we decided to try another vegan resturant. Once we got there though it had already closed for the day. So while we were trying to figure out what to do for dinner we saw a place called Steel City Pops across the street. This little pre dinner treat was so good. We each got a pop sickle. Mine was an avocado pop that was covered in dark chocolate. Yum! Then for dinner we ended up going back to 5 Points again from the night before. This time I tried something different and got the Karma Bowl which contained quinoa, sweet potatoes, black beans, kale, and cashew cream. We then of course had to get more dessert, because why not?! So we again got some delicious vegan twinkies and vegan German chocolate cake, my favorite cake ever by the way. After dinner we headed back to the hotel to watch the Alabama game. If you know anything about Phillip and I then you know we are huge Bama football fans. We couldn’t miss the game. They pulled out a win for us that night as they played what will probably be their biggest opponent of the season. Such a great way to end the day!
Day 3:
Sunday September 3, 2017. I went and grabbed a bagel from the Starbucks by our hotel and then came back to meet Phillip for the hotel breakfast. This morning along with my bagel I again had oatmeal that I topped with almonds, walnuts, raisins, cranberries, and banana. The event this morning was more of a Cynthia kind of morning even though Phillip ended up loving it. We went to the San Antonio Botanical Garden. This place was huge! It expanded over 38 acres. It was absolutely beautiful. My nature loving heart was extremely happy to be spending the morning outside with nature. We learned a ton about the different types of plants they had there. One of my favorite parts was this line of tress that produced all kinds of different fruit. After exploring the gardens we came across this little village called La Villita. We had lunch at their cafe where I was able to get a hummus and veggie wrap. We then walked around the town and looked at all their super cute shops that had a lot of home made items in them. There was also a Mexican Christian band playing a concert that we stopped in on. After a few hours here we went back to the hotel to get ready for our night out. I had plan a reservation for this night at Cart House that is located at the top of Tower of Americas to celebrate Phillip’s birthday. First we arrive there a bit early to enjoy some drinks (Mocktails for this momma) at the bar that is located at the very top. Then we headed to the dinning area for dinner. The restaurant is located in the 750 foot tall tower. As we ate dinner the restaurant rotated 360 degrees to allow for some spectacular views of the entire city. I was able to find some vegan options at this well know steak and seafood restaurant. I had an amazing salad and a plain baked potato: my go-to any time I am treating Phillip to a nice dinner. After dinner, as the night was coming to a close, we went to the observation deck and looked out on the city. It was an amazing and romantic way to end our last night in the Alamo city.
Day 4:
Our last day in San Antonio, September 4, 2017. I wanted to surprise Phillip so I got up early and went out to get us breakfast and brought it back to the hotel. I headed over to Greens Vegetarian Cuisine. If you have never tried this place, then it is a must!! You walk into the door to be greated by a huge dessert and pastry counter. All vegan!! So I couldn’t help myself. I ended up getting the Vegan Breakfast Bowl for myself which contained a whole wheat tortilla bowl with scrambled tofu, grilled veggies, beans, and tots. Phillip got The Mexican Omelette (vegetarian not vegan) which was an three egg omelette stuffed with chorizo, peppers, tomatoes, onion and cheese. Then we got to share some vegan blueberry pancakes and some vegan chocolate chip pancakes, pound cake, and a home made breakfast bar. Needless to say we were stuffed after our huge breakfast and needed to walk some of that off. We headed back down to The River Walk where we spent most of the rest of our day. We did find another beautiful Catholic Church along the way: the San Fernando Cathedral. This Catholic Church is the first church in the city and was founded in 1731. I must say, I was amazed by the amount of Catholic Churches in San Antonio. They were all so beautiful! Our flight left at 6:45pm that evening headed back to Nashville. We learned on the plane before take off that we were the last people to ever fly on the plane we were on: it was being retired after our flight. That was a pretty cool end to our trip.
Over all this trip was truly amazing. The history there along with the beautiful architecture and stunning churches left us feeling like we had walked in and experienced a piece of the past. I would highly recommend this town to anyone looking for a weekend getaway.
Baby Dust To All,
Cynthia
Joy Comes In The Morning 