First Stop: La Villita

Kate and Meredith and I put our planning hats on last night to map out the week so we can make the most of Kate's visit. Today we elected to take Graham and go downtown and see La Villita and the River Walk. Meredith intended to use the day to pick out hardware and other items for her kitchen, then woke up with a cold, so she and Adrian opted out of the activity.

Having lived in San Antonio for forty-one years, I'm almost ashamed to say I've only "done" downtown maybe four times. It's one of these things you only do when relatives from out of town come to visit! And Kate, being fully interested in all things "Texas", was so excited at the prospect of walking the San Antonio River.

We decided to make La Villita our first stop and proceed from there to the River Walk, lunch, and end at the Alamo. Back in 1968 San Antonio was home to the World's Fair and a huge area in downtown was "revitalized" for the Fair. Most of these houses date back to the 1800's and have been carefully restored. La Villita is a collection of twenty-four of them that house little artsy shops and restaurants. The focal point of the "village" is the Little Church. This is a special place for Kate, as her Mom and Dad were married there in 1986.

Graham and I have been conditioned by our tours with Grand Circle, so we were real troopers making our way slowly through all the little alleys, stopping here and there so Kate could get a look at something while we enjoyed some air conditioning. There are lovely people in the shops who are happy to engage in conversation and we acted like tourists and took in all the lore.

I am separating the pictures and posts since I took lots and lots of photos. Enjoy these and look for more soon. P.S. to Pappaw: this is the tour we would have taken you on, so please enjoy the photos! (Roll mouse over photo for captions.)