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A quick trip to the Alamo
Feb. 26th, 2014 10:32 pmThis week, there's a regional entomology meeting happening in San Antonio. One of my intrepid undergraduates has been wanting to present her research, so this meeting seemed like it would be a good fit. She spent a solid chunk of time putting together a poster for her presentation, and we got ourselves all situated to go on Monday. Tuesday morning, we set out for San Antonio at 5 am, driving until the sun came up and until we reached San Antonio, a 3-hour drive away.
The conference happened at El Tropicano Riverwalk Hotel, right along the San Antonio Riverwalk. The El Tropicano is worth checking out, if you find yourself in the area. It has some unique atmosphere - it does a great job of emulating qualities of many a fine tropical hotel (live birds, mingling of indoor and outdoor spaces), but it simultaneously feels historic and contains a lot of interesting folk art. We spent the day inside at the hotel, attending talks and chatting with other entomologists, but wrapped up the conference portion of our activities by 4:30 pm and had a bit of time before we'd arranged to meet up with someone for dinner.
And so we found ourselves with about an hour and a half to explore San Antonio. I've heard many people talk about visiting San Antonio and doing the touristy San Antonio things, which consist primarily of walking along the Riverwalk and visiting the Alamo. But I hadn't realized that the Riverwalk would feel much more like what I'd call a canal walk. It's nestled in a dense part of downtown San Antonio, so tall buildings loom up on either side of the canal, which is lined with two narrow footpaths and which has many bridges that arch overhead. For the non-ambulatory, there's a water taxi for a mere $13; we declined that option and enjoyed stretching our legs instead.
When we walked down to the riverwalk walkway, we found a map that indicated that the Alamo was within walking distance, and thus, we found ourselves walking over to the Alamo, too.
I'm far from a Texas history buff, but I'll tell you that there's probably something interesting for everyone to see at the Alamo, and it's a fun place to visit because it makes you think about Texas's switch in loyalties between Mexico and the US, something that has strongly influenced Texan culture.
Also, there are some great trees and gardens there, and bunches of cannons. I only took a handful of photos, which you can explore further if you click through.
After dinner, we made the long drive back up to Bryan, and I think I fell into bed sometime around 11 pm. Now I'm back to work in the lab for today and the rest of the week, shoehorning in work on leafcutter stuff in whatever spare time I can rustle up.
The conference happened at El Tropicano Riverwalk Hotel, right along the San Antonio Riverwalk. The El Tropicano is worth checking out, if you find yourself in the area. It has some unique atmosphere - it does a great job of emulating qualities of many a fine tropical hotel (live birds, mingling of indoor and outdoor spaces), but it simultaneously feels historic and contains a lot of interesting folk art. We spent the day inside at the hotel, attending talks and chatting with other entomologists, but wrapped up the conference portion of our activities by 4:30 pm and had a bit of time before we'd arranged to meet up with someone for dinner.
And so we found ourselves with about an hour and a half to explore San Antonio. I've heard many people talk about visiting San Antonio and doing the touristy San Antonio things, which consist primarily of walking along the Riverwalk and visiting the Alamo. But I hadn't realized that the Riverwalk would feel much more like what I'd call a canal walk. It's nestled in a dense part of downtown San Antonio, so tall buildings loom up on either side of the canal, which is lined with two narrow footpaths and which has many bridges that arch overhead. For the non-ambulatory, there's a water taxi for a mere $13; we declined that option and enjoyed stretching our legs instead.
When we walked down to the riverwalk walkway, we found a map that indicated that the Alamo was within walking distance, and thus, we found ourselves walking over to the Alamo, too.
I'm far from a Texas history buff, but I'll tell you that there's probably something interesting for everyone to see at the Alamo, and it's a fun place to visit because it makes you think about Texas's switch in loyalties between Mexico and the US, something that has strongly influenced Texan culture.
Also, there are some great trees and gardens there, and bunches of cannons. I only took a handful of photos, which you can explore further if you click through.
After dinner, we made the long drive back up to Bryan, and I think I fell into bed sometime around 11 pm. Now I'm back to work in the lab for today and the rest of the week, shoehorning in work on leafcutter stuff in whatever spare time I can rustle up.
