Thursday, March 8th
Mar. 21st, 2007 01:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolariWe really weren't having a lot of luck since the lack of sunlight was really really hurting our tourist trips. So Wednesday Night we both cleaned ourselves up, went to bed, then took off straight for San Antonio as soon as we woke up. We were going back to the Alamo and the Riverwalk and we were going straight there and straight back, sunlight be damned.
First stop - Huebner Park. This is the new park made up from the woods behind my old house [MAP]. We stopped by and walked the actual park portion, which hasn't changed much since the days I walked home from school in them. The creeks are still there, the trails are mostly still there, and in the same spots, the Big Green Electrical Transformers I used as tables to do homework are still there...
We crosswed over Whitby Road to the non-park portion [MAP], and I showed Emily the grotto, which is a portion of the creek where it's just tree trunks and canopy. No brush or scrub or bushes, just flat earth. Ever see that first shot of Frodo in Lord of the Rings, where he's writing with his back against a tree? This was my version of that. We've seen a lot of these pics in AWFW, and I got to show her the real thing.
We ended up moving through the trees and a VERY old still-existant trail to the open area midway through the woods, which has changed a lot. Mainly in that it's all silted up and is about two or three feet HIGHER than it used to be. I pointed out the storm drain I spent a few nights in (no longer passable, because it's silted up badly) and went back into the woods up north which has SERIOUSLY changed since my days up there. After some tromping around, we came to The Circle.
Back in my days at the old house, there was a storm drain going back into the woods and a collection of trails branching out from there. After I moved out, and came back, this area had been cleared out a bit, and then when I came back later, it'd been changed into The Circle.
To be honest, I wasn't sure what it was. It looked like someone had landscaped a large circle out of the ground, either with a small bulldozer or had run ATVs in a circle over and over and over again. They'd also moved a huge gigantic rock from near the storm drain to the center of the circle, which would make a perfect altar. I wasn't surte if I'd walked into a Circle or an ATV track.
Today we walked into it, and saw the circle, and noticed a bunch of leeks stren about. Not wild leeks, but more of kitchen leeks strewn about the rocks and the ground around. Seeing as ATVs tend to not use leeks for anything (unless you're in a Super Mario games) it looks like it was probably an actual circle I'd walked into, instead of a ATV track (and I'd have a better confirmation on Friday about this).
It's kind of nice, to be honest. These woods WERE magical for me, although in a secular enjoying-the-forest kind of way. I'm glad someone else is enjoying the woods, and even more so in a way I couldn't enjoy it.
After a short walk back to the truck, we went straight from there to the Alamo [MAP][INFO], where we toured the grounds for a few hours, and then the Riverwalk, which we walked all the way around [MAP][INFO].
While we didn't really go to many of the clubs or bars or restaurants on the walk (I kinda had my heart set on Casa Rio), we did see the Arneson River Theater among other sights.
This was pretty much the whole day, but, frankly, the Alamo and Riverwalk take the whole day. May not sound like much, but it was enough to knock the wind out for a few minutes! :D
FRom there, we called up the folks at home, and visited the parents for a while. Mom made a great Mexican Dinner for Emily, Carne Guisada, Tortillas, and Rice and Beans. The rest of the evening was showing Emily around the house, Mom's Spurs Tahoe and how I fixed a computer with only a pair of scissors.
Despite it being very late when we left, I did show Emily around my old stomping grounds. The dirt road leading home, my school, the comic store, King of Lemon Chicken (RIP), my old house, my first apartment and whatnot. It meant a lot to me showing her my old stomping grounds, because these places were such a big part of my life, and I wanted her to share them, even if most of them have gone....
First stop - Huebner Park. This is the new park made up from the woods behind my old house [MAP]. We stopped by and walked the actual park portion, which hasn't changed much since the days I walked home from school in them. The creeks are still there, the trails are mostly still there, and in the same spots, the Big Green Electrical Transformers I used as tables to do homework are still there...
We crosswed over Whitby Road to the non-park portion [MAP], and I showed Emily the grotto, which is a portion of the creek where it's just tree trunks and canopy. No brush or scrub or bushes, just flat earth. Ever see that first shot of Frodo in Lord of the Rings, where he's writing with his back against a tree? This was my version of that. We've seen a lot of these pics in AWFW, and I got to show her the real thing.
We ended up moving through the trees and a VERY old still-existant trail to the open area midway through the woods, which has changed a lot. Mainly in that it's all silted up and is about two or three feet HIGHER than it used to be. I pointed out the storm drain I spent a few nights in (no longer passable, because it's silted up badly) and went back into the woods up north which has SERIOUSLY changed since my days up there. After some tromping around, we came to The Circle.
Back in my days at the old house, there was a storm drain going back into the woods and a collection of trails branching out from there. After I moved out, and came back, this area had been cleared out a bit, and then when I came back later, it'd been changed into The Circle.
To be honest, I wasn't sure what it was. It looked like someone had landscaped a large circle out of the ground, either with a small bulldozer or had run ATVs in a circle over and over and over again. They'd also moved a huge gigantic rock from near the storm drain to the center of the circle, which would make a perfect altar. I wasn't surte if I'd walked into a Circle or an ATV track.
Today we walked into it, and saw the circle, and noticed a bunch of leeks stren about. Not wild leeks, but more of kitchen leeks strewn about the rocks and the ground around. Seeing as ATVs tend to not use leeks for anything (unless you're in a Super Mario games) it looks like it was probably an actual circle I'd walked into, instead of a ATV track (and I'd have a better confirmation on Friday about this).
It's kind of nice, to be honest. These woods WERE magical for me, although in a secular enjoying-the-forest kind of way. I'm glad someone else is enjoying the woods, and even more so in a way I couldn't enjoy it.
After a short walk back to the truck, we went straight from there to the Alamo [MAP][INFO], where we toured the grounds for a few hours, and then the Riverwalk, which we walked all the way around [MAP][INFO].
While we didn't really go to many of the clubs or bars or restaurants on the walk (I kinda had my heart set on Casa Rio), we did see the Arneson River Theater among other sights.
This was pretty much the whole day, but, frankly, the Alamo and Riverwalk take the whole day. May not sound like much, but it was enough to knock the wind out for a few minutes! :D
FRom there, we called up the folks at home, and visited the parents for a while. Mom made a great Mexican Dinner for Emily, Carne Guisada, Tortillas, and Rice and Beans. The rest of the evening was showing Emily around the house, Mom's Spurs Tahoe and how I fixed a computer with only a pair of scissors.
Despite it being very late when we left, I did show Emily around my old stomping grounds. The dirt road leading home, my school, the comic store, King of Lemon Chicken (RIP), my old house, my first apartment and whatnot. It meant a lot to me showing her my old stomping grounds, because these places were such a big part of my life, and I wanted her to share them, even if most of them have gone....
