Seeing San Antonio and a Taste of Cajun Country

Ever since my first sensational trip to Texas in 2010 I have wanted to visit San Antonio.  We'd missed a few chances coming and going west, but we hardly knew how to tackle such a big city.  We were just waiting for the invite we received this summer in Oregon.  Our August campfire buddies, Ken and Karen, live in San Antonio and asked us to come visit for a few days on our way home.  They are volunteers at the Alamo and the Missions and offered to give us the 'inside' tours.  How exciting!!!  We eagerly accepted the invite!

So here we are at the premier site in Texas.  I was absolutely awed by being there.  Ken and Karen helped us see the Alamo connection to so many other states and the history of Texas in a way we would not have grasped on our own.  This made it so much more than a 'been there' visit.   The gardens were an unexpected delight too-worth the visit.    And ---we got to park across the street in the 'staff' parking lot.

We walked from the Alamo to the River Walk to take the historic boat tour on the river and canal system.  I had no idea that the River Walk waters were designed and channeled in the 1940's to prevent flooding in the downtown area.  I thought it was all just a fairly recent  'tourist attraction'!  After a very informative and entertaining boat ride we had lunch at the oldest riverside restaurant which opened in 1946!  Amazing!  As you can see the boat ride was quite scenic too!

Ken and Karen were great guides for the Missions.  They are located in a maze of old neighborhoods on backstreets of the city.  We would have been lucky to see one or two on our own but they whisked us to each one.  Our first stop was Mission Concepcion, the largest and best preserved.  Ken operates the Gristmill here as a volunteer.  It is being repaired now, but we got a personal tour and explanation of the water storage, sluice and grinding process.  The other missions are much smaller like the one pictured, Mission Espada.  Each Mission is very unique and I loved getting to see them all.  Here is the interior of one, Mission San Juan, I think.  Such beauty in simplicity and age.

We had a wonderful time in the city and loved Karen and Ken's home and neighborhood.  Terry was ready to buy a house up the street and he didn't think he could ever live in Texas!?  It was hard to say goodbye, but the Bayou country was calling!

We found a fantastic campground set on 5 fishing ponds near Lafayette in Breaux Bridge.  It was owned by the Poche family whose meat market and restaurant about 2 miles down the road is the real deal for Cajun food.  Our lunch there the next day became 3 meals of the first crawfish I had ever eaten.      
I had Crawfish Ettouffle and Terry had a huge Stuffed Pork Chop that made 2 meals for him.  We spent just long enough in the area to know that we need to devote about 2 weeks to culinary adventures around here.  Look out 2016 for our return!