San Antonio APR 17-20 2024

[2024 April 17-20 San Antonio, TX, US]

I received an email from Chart House that said they were having a four course dinner with “The Prisoner” wine pairing. It was from the DC Chart House – where I always visit my intrepid friends. However, I wanted to go somewhere else and looked up all Chart Houses there were and picked a location where I never have been. I always wanted to go to San Antonio but never made it thus far, so I charted a course there.

Stayed at the Omni La Mansión del Rio which was a super nice hotel. From there went to the “Tower of Americas” for the Char House Dinner and “The Prisoner” Wine Pairing event. The wine was great, the food was great, and the atmosphere was great!

The Alamo

Then made my obligatory visit to The Alamo. Actually, nothing is really left of the Alamo – it’s surrounded by the current modern city. The main building there is the only thing left and that isn’t “a correct rendition” of the remains. During the time period of the infamous battle, that building was already an abandoned ruin. The current building standing there was reconstructed after the battle from the ruins.

If you go into the museum, you can see a scale replica of the “fort”. And to call it a fort is a misnomer. It was a complete and utter ruin. Even with a fully armed proper regiment or two, it was an indefensible position – how they figured a group of a hundred rag tag hooligans can stave off an attack is incomprehensible.

History time: The Alamo was in Mexico, in Tejas. The intruders wanted their own country by taking it away from Mexico by force. They should have surrendered, but self-proclaimed “Lt. Colonel” William Barret Travis, the renegade commander of the so called “Texian Army”, figured he’d be executed by Mexico anyway since he clashed with them previously in an attempt take territory away from Mexico during the “Anahuac Disturbances”. So he decided to make his stand (as he would rather die in battle than a hangman’s loop), callously refused to surrender, basically signing death warrants for everyone in the fort – and it did: resulting in the the deaths of his entire force. Yeah, nothing to remember about that selfish ingrate.

Later, “Texas” became an independent republic from Mexico in 1836. The story gets a little weirder. During their brief “independent country” status, they opened an Embassy in London. I visited there and took a picture of the plaque back in 2017:

You can read about the Embassy on Atlas Obsura if you are so inclined.

Enough talk. Picture Time!

Click on the picture below (or the link below the picture) for all of the pictures from (a) the Chart House The Prisoner dinner event, (b) The Alamo, (c) downtown San Antonio river walk plus “river boat”, and (d) a bar/restaurant I was not expecting: Waxy O’Connor’s in San Antonio! Waxy’s is my favorite when I go to London so of course I went in had their fish & chips 🙂 The one in London is massive, if you ever visit or live around there, go visit: Waxy O’Connor’s in London. Again, click on the picture below to go to the San Antonio album:

San Antonio Riverwalk

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