It had been awhile since we had any family from Boston come through San Antonio and although Kim had been here in the past with Kenny, it was a first for Andy and Kevin!

Arriving early on a Saturday afternoon, the first word out of Kevin's mouth was, "Whataburger!" (He actually said, "Hi, Uncle George" first but "Whataburger" quickly followed.) After a little discussion, however, we decided to try some Texas BBQ. Of course, the first place I thought of was Connie's favorite BBQ place, Rudy's! Plus they had heard of Rudy's from Matthew who extolled the virtues of the place when he visited in the past. We had our fill of brisket, ribs, turkey and sausage plus all the trimmings. Then everyone came home and took a long nap!

On Sunday morning, I recommended heading to the Pearl Brewery for their Sunday Market. They stopped along the way to eat at the Maple Street Biscuit Company first. Although the food was good, Andy said that the most impressive thing there was the $8.00 orange juice! (the price, not the juice...)

The Pearl Market didn't hold much interest for them and so they wandered down to one of San Antonio's most famous landmarks, the Riverwalk! It is a lovely area lined with bars and restaurants and at various times through the year they have Riverboat parades! You also can take a riverboat ride along the scenic waters through the city.

After exploring the area on foot for awhile, Kevin said that they 'stumbled' upon another famous San Antonio landmark almost by accident... The Alamo! It was the site of my first date with Connie over 50 years ago. It has only become more popular since then!



Here are some close up pictures of the statue of Davy Crockett and a selfie by Kevin with the famous building in the background.

That evening we all went to Erica and Andrew's house for an incredible cookout dinner prepared by the two. Of course not shown is a favorite drink that Erica makes for me with caramel vodka and apple juice. It's so sweet and you don't even feel the effects coming on until it's too late. We also had cookies and brownies from a bakery close by called Tiff's Treats.

Above, shows the ribs and brisket that were prepared by Andrew that night. He slowly cooked these on his grill like an art-form over a 12 hour period. His ribs are almost legendary. At the end of the week, Andy said that of all the food we ate during their trip, this was his favorite meal of the week! Although you can't tell by looking, there were three kinds of ribs with a flavoring that went from mild to hot. Honestly, I couldn't tell you which were more flavorful. They were all incredible! The last picture shows Kim with the proud cook. The only misstep in the whole night is that Andrew was wearing a ST. LOUIS tee shirt and not a BOSTON tee shirt. Oh, well. At least it didn't say NY Yankees!

Believe it or not, despite the volume of food consumed at that point, everyone woke up hungry on Monday morning. Kevin said that now we had to try the "best tacos in San Antonio". After googling this, we headed to a little taco place in west San Antonio called "Taquitos". Surprisingly, they had only one menu item, small tacos with corn tortillas, and your choice of about 6 different meats that went in them. I had never been there before, but I have to say, they were authentic and tasted great! By evening, it was apparently time for in-and-out Burgers and fries.

The following day, Cynthia took the family out to a chic breakfast place called SNOOZE. In the first picture, below, Kim is holding a variety of gormet pancakes. That evening, Cynthia and Erica along with their families came over for a fun night of darts, pool, and board games! (I just don't understand why Jordan keeps winning all of them!) We were treated to a home cooked meal by Kim who made cordon bleu, salad and potato salad. The tasty brownies were from Kneader's Bakery.

On Wednesday, it was time to meet the rest of the family and so we chose a favorite downtown Mexican restaurant called La Margarita! You can see from the group photo that most of us were drinking frozen margaritas so it was appropriately named. I am holding a Big Red Margarita. I didn't know they existed until Kevin ordered one. Kevin, the little one --not the big one, Cynthia's youngest child, unfortunately was looking at his phone so you only see the back of his head in the picture. But you get a better look at him in the photo to the right with Kim, George and his older sister, Jordan!

We were serenaded by a couple of musicians in the establishment. We had a special birthday song for Jennifer (shown below with Kevin giving the peace sign), and of course, Kevin was serenaded by the two musicians with a resounding rendition of "La Cucaracha". In the photo on the right, below, is Cynthia, Jordan, Destiny and Michael. Destiny just had a newborn on May 31 (picture to follow).

The following day, we were suppose to go to a bar and grill called El Camino for drinks and a variety of food trucks. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that the place didn't open until 4 p.m. So for a brief period we ended up at at Bar and Grill called La Gloria. Below are some interesting sights that surrounded the place. Of note, pictured here is a standard Tex-Mex dessert, a tres leche cake topped with pecans.



I have no idea what Andy and Kevin are doing in this picture (above, right), but I'll leave it to your imagination.

After some drinks and an appetizer or two at La Gloria, we headed back to El Camino for those bar drinks and the specialty food by the half dozen food trucks that surrounded the place.


But it didn't stop there!

Some of us older folks (not mentioning any names) couldn't hang much longer and so Cynthia, Jennifer and Kevin continued on to the BE KIND AND REWIND BAR. It was a retro bar that had 70's, 80's and 90's decor and music. Looking at the pictures, I almost wish I had gone! It looks like they had a lot of fun!


But trust me, even the younger members of our entourage were feeling the effects that night and the next morning. When I called Cynthia the next day around noon, she was still "out" and sleeping the previous night away.

But on Friday afternoon, we had another gathering planned with the family at a popular Cajun restaurant in the area called Pappadeaux's Seafood Kitchen.

It was about 2-1/2 hours of drinks, toasts and great Cajun food. We also combined the dinner with a small birthday celebration for Jennifer (June 6) and David (June 8), since they both shared a birthday the week of Kim's visit in San Antonio. I want to point out that the first picture is a specialty drink that Pappadeaux has called a Swamp Thing. Many were inbibed that day!

Above, are pictures of some of the San Antonio relatives on Connie's side of the family. David, with his hands on his knees, is her baby brother and Diane, between Kim and Kevin, is a younger sister. In the picture to the right is the newest addition to the family, JULIANNA. As I mentioned before, Destiny just delivered a beautiful, healthy baby on May 31 and here she is being held by Kim.

But it was another memorable trip for them and us. It was great having them visit and everyone seemed to have too much to drink, too much to eat and too much fun during the week.

In the picture above (from left to right): Kim, Jennifer, Erica, Kevin, Sylvia & George, Michelle & Sophia, Michael, Kevin & Andy, David, Connie, Destiny, Cynthia and the small girl in front of them is Stella, Erica's daughter.

(Also, pictured is the to-go food that we couldn't eat while we were there! There was a whole bunch of it!)

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