The Alamo

Well I’ve been back from my 2008 vacation to San Antonio, Texas for awhile now.  I’ve been super busy since then as I found that a few people were hanging around the Freedom-Uplink IRC servers and decided that we should redo the website and everything.  Thus far everything is working excellent and we haven’t hit any snares and we’re even running our own Internet Radio Station now.  However, before I delve into that, I’d like to share a bit of my vacation here.

For those of you who don’t know, my wife is from San Antonio, TX.  I tend to spend quite a bit of time there every couple years, Christmas 2008 was one of these times.  It’s always nice to get away from home, especially during the cold winter, by going someplace warm.  I really need to do it more often, or simply move to where it’s warm year-round.

The Tower of the Americas

I spent the majority of my time lounging around with my wife’s side of the family.  Whether it was being over at her sister’s or hanging around with her brother from Portland, OR.  We hit a few museums together where I was able to view a few Picasso’s and an exhibit on the Nightmare Before Christmas (My wife’s favourite movie) which was indeed awesome.

I happened to go to this Bass Pro Sports Shop or whatever it was called that has so many mounted animals, it very well could have been a mounted animal nature trail.  From there I was able to not only admire the rifles that cost more than a car, but they had a little infrared shooting range with minor animatronics to make pots spin and doors open etc.  It was pretty cool considering it was a sports/gun store.  I should have taken pictures, it had a glass elevator and lots of stuff, it’s no wonder why Americans loves guns if their shops are that much fun.

I don’t have a whole lot of photos of all the stuff I did, the most exciting bits were near the end and we bought a video camera so a lot of it is on there[Larger Daylight View of the Tower, View from The Tower].  Unfortunately I don’t have the cable nor the time to transfer the video to my HD to edit it yet.  Hopefully in the future.  On the last few days however we to a few places including the Tower of the Americas, The Alamo,  The Mexican Market, The RiverWalk mall and other miscellaneous attractions I can’t remember off-hand.

Grackle Invasion

The Tower of the Americas was pretty amazing, being so high (and getting there in a glass elevator), in a rotating restaurant and man was it expensive!  I snapped a poor picture of it (as well as the Alamo above) as it was dark at both locations and long exposures make it a little blurry as I didn’t have my tripod with me.  Anyway, the tower was pretty cool being able to see all the lights and locations I ahd visited throughout the day.  Luckily my father-in-law knew how to get to the observation deck without having to pay the admission.  For those of you wanting to go, here’s the secret: Ask to go to the lounge, have a drink or two, then they’ll elt you take the elevator up.  It works out to be cheaper or about the same as paying admission, but you got food out of it too!

One rather odd thing I noticed while traveling this time is that San Antonio is have an Invasion of Grackles.  Nobody parks under any trees, power-lines, nothing overhanging because EVERYTHING is covered in hundreds of these birds.  It reminded me of Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds”, although with a lot more fecal matter.  Not sure how I missed this the past few times I’ve been down there, but I guess it shows that there is always something I miss on each trip.

Well, I shouldn’t say that was the only odd thing, while in a Dollar Tree store, (where EVERYTHING is one dollar, no exceptions) I found some pregnancy tests as

One Dollar Pregnancy Test. Only In America...

an IMPULSE BUY at the front till.  I of course had to snap a picture of it, which I’m sure made us stand out, but hey this stuff is interesting.  I think the only way these would work is if you buy enough of them to make a good average of the results and derive from there.  To do this though, you’d probably have to buy 10-20 at least, which means you might as well buy a more accurate one at a pharmacy.  Then again, screw it.  Best two out of three.

One of the best things about America though, is the dirt cheap fast food.  Man, I am in love with America in this regard.  Canadian fast food has smaller portions and costs at least twice or maybe 2.5x more.  When I can go and get a HUUUUUGE milkshake (seemingly equivalent to a litre or two of ice cream) for like 4 dollars, I’m one happy Canadian.  I love how the “large” in America is 2-3 times the size of the Canadian “large”, and how it’s a deformed cup so that it fits in the cupholder, because that is what America is about isn’t it?  Way oversized unhealthy portions that are crazy cheap and fit in your cupholder.  I miss America already.