Sunday, February 1, 2009
Lone Star Corral SKP Co-Op, Hondo, TX: Jan 13-17
The main reason for this stop was to visit downtown San Antonio, which neither of us had ever seen. After planning our visit, we discovered that friends Larry & Claudia King had recently gotten a lot at this co-op and would actually be there when we were. We hadn't seen them for several years, so that was an added pleasant surprise. We had visited this co-op once in 2000 and for some reason found it unfriendly and just didn't like it at all. This visit we found people quite friendly and many things likeable about the park (not that we're longing to live here or anything -- just a much more favorable impression). It was great visiting with Larry & Claudia and learning more about their lives and their future travel plans. We were also pleasantly surprised at how good the line dancing classes were here. We were able to attend two of them.
We went to downtown San Antonio for one day, planning to return another day if we felt so inclined. We headed for the central area where we could park and walk around and see lots of places. We started at The Alamo and continued on to the Riverwalk area. Most people already know the story of The Alamo, which Texans rightly regard with unabashed pride. It was impressive to see the actual site. Also, for us "desert rats" the vegetation throughout the city was quite impressive. 
The Riverwalk was created in 1968 for a World's Fair, and has been maintained as a tourist attraction ever since. It is NOT just a mall beside a river, which is what we were expecting. It is an entire sunken area, lower than the main streets, with canals throughout & walkways on both sides. Foot bridges cross it, stairways go up to street level, streets cross above on bridges, and there are lovely boat rides. Restaurants of every variety and price range overlook the canal. Lights hang from all the trees -- it must be really lovely at night. Since we don't like navigating in unfamiliar places after dark, we didn't stay for that. 
With the help of numerous tourist maps, we were able to go up to street level to view several historic cathedrals and government buildings (San Fernando Cathedral, Bexar County Courthouse, St. Mary's Cathedral and St. Joseph's Cathedral). We saw the Hemisfair Park, with the Tower of the Americas (similar to the Space Needle in Seattle) and the Torch of Friendship statue. We wandered through La Villita, where historic houses have been restored and are now art galleries & shops. It was a very pleasant & interesting day, but we were not ready to take the 100-mile round trip & brave the traffic again in any of the following days!On our last day here (Saturday) the local fiddle club had a fiddle fest at the clubhouse. This consisted of a "backup group" (players from the fiddle club) and various people (of varying talent levels) playing their instrument and/or singing. There was a break for a delicious pot luck lunch, followed by more singing & playing until everyone ran out of songs. Since the backup group was so talented, even the inadequate singers were enjoyable. It was one of those occasions that makes Willie want to get out her violin and learn to play fiddle!
# posted by Doug and Willie @ 7:39 AM 
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