Wednesday, December 27, 2006

History, art and B-ball


Some days we can't remember our names but, we ....... "Remember the Alamo"



Somewhere waaaaaaay down there, there is a basketball game going on. No nose bleeds though!!



San Antonio is a unique city. Neither of us can recall being in a North American city so intent on preserving its historical buildings. Most of the major downtown hotels are located in former factories, warehouses or office buildings which have been beautifully refurbished and improved. The “River Walk” is another of those places listed in “1000 Places to See Before You Die” and, with good cause. The San Antonio River winds through downtown, with walkways on both sides, lined with galleries, restaurants, bars and hotels; all beautifully landscaped and brought together as if planned to be combined. And…….. this all happens one story below street level!

Texas has flown the flag of 5 nations (one being Texas), making for interesting history lessons. With characters like Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, Sam Houston and Santa Ana thrown in the mix, it’s enough to make any kid pay attention in grade 5 history class. The Mexican influence is everywhere including the San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA), which has a large Mexican and Central American collection. And, to reinforce an earlier point……..it is located in a huge, beautifully restored “Lone Star Brewery” building complete with stables and warehouses out back. Many of the original Spanish missions, the primary tools employed to colonize south Texas, are still in existence. They are more fortresses than churches, with hundreds of indigenous people having lived at each mission, creating small, self-contained communities. The Mission San Antonio de Valero (the Alamo) is certainly the most famous.

We enjoyed a quiet Christmas made all the better through technology. We gave our son in Toronto and his girl-friend a web-cam and, treated ourselves to one too. We enjoyed the better part of a couple of hours getting caught up on line and in video. Great stuff! ALMOST like being there. Now we know what our “grandparent friends” have been so enthusiastic about

Getting last minute tickets doesn’t necessarily mean getting great tickets. We were able to score a couple of tickets to tonight’s San Antonio Spurs NBA game, which was a sell out. Great game, which sea-sawed a couple of times and almost went right to the wire, until the Milwaukee Bucks “turned it on” at the end and sealed the game. After the game, we got out of the parking lot in about 30 seconds!!! No maddening waits like one experiences at the Corel Centre / Scotia Place or whatever it’s been renamed since we left. The police control all traffic direction for many blocks around the arena, with no turns at one intersection and, all left turns or all right turns at another. The result is that traffic just disappears. Listen up Ottawa!!

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