I know it had been entirely toooooooo long since the last time I posted one of these, but I have finally found time to update everyone.
Background: Summer 2011 I will be working summer institute for Teach For America in Los Angeles, CA. Hearing that the city is very spaced out, never having been to the west coast, and wanting to travel more, I decided to drive my car (Shaye, a silver 2009 Nissan Versa… she’s a beauty—gracias mis padres) to the city of angels. One of my closest friends, Karien and I had discussed attending the 2011 Sasquatch music festival in Washington state with some Canadian friends we had met in Baton Rouge the previous November.
Brief story: Three Canadian boys biked from Victoria, British Columbia to New Orleans, LA to learn about the devastating effects of the 2010 Gulf Oil spill on our communities and the possibility of such damage occurring to their beautiful environment via oil catastrophe. They made a stop in Baton Rouge the same weekend as the mammoth sized LSU vs. Bama game to couch surf with my friend Karien. She had to work quite a bit, so I showed them how Friday and Saturday nights in Louisiana go during football season. Needless to say, they soon thought Americans, specifically Southerners, were insane, but a great time was had by all. They are three amazing guys. Go check out their website: http://www.facebook.com/BikingUpTheMess?sk=info
Back on track, I knew I wanted my car in LA, and Karien wanted to join in on the road trip—simple.
On May 20th, Karien graduated from LSU, and I spent my last night in Louisiana at the Minus the Bear concert with some of the best people on this planet: my siblings and cousins.
At six a.m. the next morning, Karien and I headed out west with the sun rising behind us and excitement on our faces—we both had had a very stressful semester. Our ride to San Antonio was filled with great conversation, great music, the license plate game (which I won by spotting an Alaskan plate in southwest Texas, yea), and peanut butter sandwiches.
First place we stopped was none other than San Antonio’s main attraction: the Alamo!
We were so excited. As my grandmother warned, it is surprisingly blended into the city with large buildings making it appear minute. However, once you step onto the historic grounds, you forget that you are in a city at all. Being a huge history and museum buff, I really enjoyed learning about the last stand at the Alamo and seeing the original site. The most interesting aspect was that so many volunteers came from all over the US to aid the Texans. The elderly volunteers were adorable and proud of the site. All in all, a must see in San Antonio.
After this we strolled along the famous Riverwalk, which was pretty enjoyable.
However, I do not know if this is from tourism in general, but the Riverwalk smelled eerily like Bourbon Street. It was hot and muggy along the paths, but there was no shortage of ice cream shops or pubs. Our couch surfing host, Chris, happened to work at a Ben and Jerry’s, so we paid him a visit to say hello and cool off from the heat. We enjoyed a Shiner beer (Texas brewed) at an Irish pub waiting to go to his house.
For dinner, he took us to his favorite local Tex-Mex restaurant: Taquiera Vallarta. Let me tell you, authentic is the best word to describe this place other than amazing. It was cheap but even more important delicious. Karien and I both had “los camerones de Diablo” (Devil Shrimp)—phenomenal.
After we went in search of a bar but ended up at a coffee shop that also had hookah thanks to Karien’s coffee addiction. We ended up staying for a few hours smoking “Kraken” flavored shisha/tobacco and even enjoyed a personal concert via the barista Wesley Claire—a young, rebellious, Tennessee girl.
All in all, I would describe San Antonio as nice because of the quaintness of the city and calmness of its people (also very family oriented with families at every corner).
There is not many more attractions in San Antonio, so one day was all we really needed to explore it. But the visit was a pleasant surprise.
The next morning, bright and early, we left at six a.m. again. The terrain was becoming dryer and mountainous. Our next destination was the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico.
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