Listing Through Life

We finished walking the Riverwalk, but I was reluctant to leave. I only get to San Antonio once every 50 years, and I didn’t want to miss anything. I suggested we walk the two blocks to the Alamo and see what it looks like at night.

There were a lot fewer people around, but that’s not to say there were no people around. I set up for the shot I wanted and waited for everyone to get out of the way. This took several minutes. One guy looked at me with my camera and decided that right in front of me was where he wanted to stop to wait for his family to catch up. He turned his back on me, hitched up his pants, and waited.

He finally moved on, and I took several pictures. Then I noticed that every few minutes, the wind would unfurl the Texas flag. I had to wait several more minutes for people to clear out, then wait again for the wind. Everything was finally in place and I took what was my second favorite photo of the trip.

I took these pictures while we were looking for somewhere to eat.

After we ate, we walked up and down the river for another hour or so.

At one point, I said, “I wonder how long you’d have to walk along here before you ran into somebody you know.” About 10 minutes later she said, “We just passed the girl I sat next to on the plane.” I said, “Well, then, the answer to my question is ‘about 10 minutes.'”

I took this panorama at a place where the river goes around a bend. It looks empty, but if you click and then click again to look closer, you can see how many people were around.

The orange structure in the right-hand photo is the Torch of Friendship. It is supposed be two flames intertwined. It was given to San Antonio by Mexico “as a beacon of Mexican/American ties.” The Tower of the Americas in the background was built for the 1968 World’s Fair.

After the boat ride, we wanted to eat. We definitely knew we wanted to eat outside on the river, but which restaurant? My niece recommended The Naked Iguana, but we couldn’t find the place. We went into a hotel to ask, but they didn’t know where it was. (We finally found it about five minutes after we left the place where we eventually ate.)

Most of the restaurants had menus posted along the walkway. We ruled out several because they were either too expensive or too crowded. We finally noticed an empty table right next to the water. I approached the hostess and said, “We’re mostly looking for a place to eat by the river. Can we sit at that table over there?” She immediately ushered us over — we didn’t even know what restaurant it was. The menu was Tex-Mex. My sister ordered a hamburger and I had chicken tacos. We got complimentary chips and salsa too. The food was cheap and excellent, and it was fun watching the boats and people going by.

We found out later the place was called Rita’s on the River. It was a margarita bar. I’m sure we were the only people in the place, and maybe in the entire city, not consuming alcoholic beverages.

From my seat, I could see the Nix Medical Center, the hospital where Carol Burnett and Oliver North were born.

Later in the evening, we walked back and took pictures of the restaurant from across the river. Our table was the one furthest to the left in both these photos.

Of course you can’t go to San Antonio and not visit the Riverwalk. I think it might even be illegal. Rumor has it that it’s the most-visited tourist attraction in Texas. After returning from LBJ’s ranch, we headed downtown and found a $7 spot in a parking garage half a block from the river.

We went immediately for the boat ride. The barges are about eight feet wide and contain four rows of seats. This means that there’s only about a foot and a half between the rows. The only way to fit with the people across from you is to alternate knees. It seems to me that the smart thing to do would be to sit across from the people you’re with so you aren’t subjected to this degree of intimacy with strangers. If you think I’m exaggerating, take a close look at the picture below.

But no. When we boarded, the boat was exactly half filled — the outer half. Everybody sat on the outside seats facing in. We made our way down the narrow aisle and sat down. I looked up to find myself face to face with three women — about two feet away. I said “Hi” — a conversational gambit I find often works at times like these. The women chuckled and said “Hi.” I asked if they were from the area. As soon as I said it, it occurred to me that they might think I was trying to pick them up, but they either didn’t notice or didn’t care. It turned out they were from Ireland, over here on vacation. After a couple weeks in Texas, they were heading for Chicago. We talked for a few minutes about the temperature up north. When I described the color of the fall leaves, they began drooling (metaphorically speaking). I didn’t get a lot of pictures from the boat because in whatever direction I pointed my camera (except for straight up), somebody’s head was in the way.

Our guide came aboard and the tour began. She kept up a constant banter about the history of the Riverwalk and the buildings we passed. There wasn’t really a lot to the history, but she filled the spaces with jokes and banter. For example:

• See that little island on the right? That’s called Wedding Island. Legend has it that if you get married on that island, you’ll have good luck in your marriage. It must work. Two of the guys I work with have been married there three times each, and all of their marriages have gone well.
• The gray stone building was once the office of R.H.H. Hugman, the architect of the Riverwalk. He built down here to convince other businesses that the flooding problem had been taken care of and it was safe to open a business by the bank.
• Oh wow! See that guy in the tan shorts over there? That’s my Uncle Fred. Just kidding.
• Here is the one spot where you can see the bottom of the river. Look over the side, especially on the right side. (In order to do this, I would have had to sit in the lap of one of the Irish ladies, but alternating knees notwithstanding, I wasn’t ready for that.)
• On the left you can see an ice cream parlor at the top of the stairs. That’s where I had my first job.
• Look carefully as we pass the waterfall. You’ll see two strange birds that are a cross between a chicken and a duck. I call them chucks. (They were Muscovy Ducks, which fact she explained to us when we passed the waterfall on the way back down the river.)

It went on like that for the entire half hour or so it took to make the loop. The guide said “just kidding” so often it was sometimes difficult to tell if anything she said was true, but she was entertaining and friendly. Later on, as we walked around, we heard the banter of other guides as the boats went past where we stood. They all said basically the same thing, but not in as amusing a fashion. If you’re ever there and want to find out about the Riverwalk without paying the price for the boat ride or getting overly-familiar with strangers, just stand still while a boat goes by and listen to the guide, then move down 50 feet or so and wait for the next boat. It won’t take long.

At one point, our guide bumped the bank and said “Whoa, iceberg.” She said it so quickly that I wonder if she bumps the bank at that point during every tour