Downtown San Antonio & the Texas Cavaliers Parade

On Monday, we took the bus back downtown to San Antonio to do a little more sightseeing and to go to the Texas Cavaliers Boat Parade on the San Antonio River.   We wanted to take Ken and Bonnie to see some of the things that Terry & Gloria and Warren & Joslyn had taken us to when we had visited San Antonio previously.  Our first stop was the Buckhorn Saloon.

The Buckhorn Saloon is the oldest saloon in Texas and was known to have been visited by Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders.  I think a few of them might have been here today!  :)

Our next stop was the Menger Hotel.

The Menger Hotel is a beautiful old hotel.  This is a three story lobby area is one of my favorite parts of the hotel with its ornately-trimmed balconies.  It is decorated with lots of antiques.  The steps creak when you walk on them and it even smells old. 

The hotel surrounds a nice quiet veranda and garden area.

Can't you imagine what it would have been like back when Teddy Roosevelt or Babe Ruth visited here?  Is that Babe down there in the lobby with his Cummins-Onan ball cap on?  :)

We walked through the hotel and stopped at the saloon which was famous for being another place visited by Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders.

As we left the Menger Hotel, we noticed a parade beginning near the Alamo.  During Fiesta, it seems like parades happen just about every day. 

When we crossed over the Riverwalk, we could see all the chairs lined up for seating to watch the boat parade this evening.

Our next stop was the Tower of the Americas.  It took us longer to walk there because of the construction going on in Hemisphere Park but as soon as we got there, we hopped on the elevator and rode all the way to the Chart House Restaurant at the top.

The view from the top was as spectacular as ever.  Thankfully, the storms had passed and the skies were clear. 

We relaxed and ate a dinner of appetizers including some prime rib sliders that were delicious.  After dinner, we rode the elevator back down and got a couple of last pictures of the Tower of the Americas.

We walked through La Villita which is supposed to be a big party place starting tomorrow through the rest of the week.

We stopped and talked to a Texas Cavalier who gave us some honorary medals. 

Then we walked to a bridge over the Riverwalk on Presa Street and found a good place to watch the parade from the middle of the bridge. 

Since the parade was not supposed to start for another hour, Bonnie and I walked to a Ben and Jerry's a few blocks over and got some ice cream and brought it back for all of us to eat while we waited for the parade to start.  A little before 7:30, the parade boats started coming through. 

Do you recognize someone pretty famous on the boat?

Emmett Smith!  Hey Emmett!

The parade continued with boat after decorated boat and most of them playing and singing music.

We left the bridge around 8:00 pm to walk over to the bus stop in time to catch the bus back to the campground.  We could see more of the parade from the bus stop which was at another bridge over the Riverwalk.

Thousands of people turn out to watch the parade from every place along the Riverwalk and from any and  every place they can both high...

...and low.

By now, our feet were getting pretty tired.  Don't those look like some tired feet?  :)

The #42 bus arrived around 8:20 and we headed back home to Travelers World.  We talked to some fellow campers who had just come from Big Bend and they said they loved it.  We're looking forward to seeing Big Bend in a couple of days but what an exciting day we have had in downtown San Antonio again!