We stayed two nights at the San Antonio / Alamo KOA Holiday. I normally avoid the KOA Holidays since they tend to be more expensive than most other campgrounds. This one was huge, with 300 sites, and had amenities that we did not have time to enjoy. But reviews said it was in a safe, non-sketchy neighborhood and I didn’t want to risk other locations in the larger city. It ended up being gated and in a pretty convenient location, so I felt it was worth the extra money this time. We only had one full day in San Antonio, so we had to prioritize what to do. Since we had toured the Alamo area a few years ago, we decided to roam around a couple of the San Antonio missions this time: Mission San José and Mission Concepción. We did guided ranger tours at both, which made them more interesting.
We started at Mission San José, which is the largest of the missions and has been almost fully restored to its original design. We learned a lot about the mission’s history and purpose (to integrate the Indians by introducing them to a Spanish people’s religion, farming, and settled communities). The tour guide had an impressive amount of knowledge about that time period and did a good job talking about it. After the tour, we were able to go inside the outer wall to see the tiny rooms where they lived while staying at the mission. Part of the church building had collapsed and was rebuilt, but a Sunday service was being held there, so they asked for tourist not to go in and interrupt. We considered going in and staying for the service, but then learned it was all in Spanish, so decided against it. There was also an old gristmill within the mission that was cool to see.
We laid out our picnic blanket under a shade tree and ate lunch at the Mission Concepción. It’s the oldest unrestored stone church in America, dedicated in 1755. Even though the outside designs have worn away, we saw some of the original frescos that are still visible in several of the rooms. The guide here was not as engaging and we definitely felt like we had heard enough about Spanish missions after visiting them both.
We stopped by the Japanese Tea Garden next, which was very pretty. I liked that something so peaceful could be in the middle of a city. I imagine it’s a spectacular setting for taking senior portraits or prom photos. It’s not very large, so it took less than 30 minutes to walk around, enjoy the view and take some pics.
From there we found a place to park near the Riverwalk then walked up and down looking at shops and people watching. We happened upon the Love Lock Bridge, which I thought it looked pretty cool even though some people think it’s an eye sore (especially in Paris, where they closed theirs down due to the weight causing structural damage). I got tired of walking around, so we sat down to rest. Turns out we were near where a guy was dressed as a bush (the Texas Bushman), jumping out and scaring unsuspecting people. It was pretty dang funny to see the startled reactions and it entertained us while we waited for a table at the nearby restaurant. I’ve included a couple of the funniest ones that Randy caught on video below. Pretty soon, our table was ready at the Iron Cactus, where we met a couple of Randy’s college friends for dinner. If you ever find yourself Iron Cactus, you should definitely save room for their donuts for dessert. Yum!
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