Anniversary Staycation

June is usually a busy month for us, with the end of school and all the swim meets, so it's not easy for Patrick and I to get away. Starting last year, we decided to start "getting away" to the Riverwalk here in town for our anniversary. Often, on my days off, if it's nice weather, we will go to the Riverwalk to have lunch and to walk around. There's so much to see and do. We wanted an extended version of that. Last year, we happened to go on our little staycation on the day the hometown Spurs celebrated their fifth NBA Championship, so getting to our hotel was a journey that took two hours. Our trip took far less time this year.

On the downside, Anthony is not here this year. He is staying up in the Boston area for the summer, so he can hang out with his college friends and get a career-related job (which he may have finally secured--yay!). He stayed with his siblings last year, and his ability to drive them around enabled us to get away for a couple of days. This year, we only have Alex, who can't drive yet, so we didn't want to leave them alone longer than about a day. The other downside was that it's been raining here quite a bit this year, and thunderstorms were forecast for this trip.

Yesterday, we checked into our hotel and went to lunch at Boudro's. It wasn't too hot outside, so we sat outside next to the river. We enjoy looking out onto the river at the barges going by, and people-watching. It started raining, but the umbrella over our table did a great job keeping us dry...until the downpour started. Patrick took this picture just before we moved inside. The rain was fine when it was pouring straight down, but it started blowing side to side, and that was just not going to be pleasant. We were able to relax, comfortably seated (and dry), and watch the rain from inside the restaurant for the rest of the meal.

We're staying at the Grand Hyatt on the Riverwalk. We decided on this hotel because I wanted to eat at the Ruth's Chris Steakhouse that is located in the lobby of the hotel. We ate there last when my friend Nam visited San Antonio last December, and I've wanted to go back since then. Patrick wanted to have steak, of course, and I was really thinking about those Seared Scallops I had last time. Yum! Besides the good food, we were very happy that we decided to stay at the Grand Hyatt. A couple of hours before our dinner reservation, the rain came down hard again. Our room is on the 21st floor, so we had an awesome city view, except that the heavy rain obscured that view. We were happy that all we had to do was walk downstairs to dinner, and then walk back upstairs to go to our room.

We did have some rain-free time to walk around, thank goodness. After lunch and then again after dinner, we walked around the Riverwalk. These last two photos are from our walk to the Tower of the Americas grounds. It's just nicer than walking around our neighborhood, even with the dark skies.

During our walk last night, the skies started getting darker and darker, and thankfully, we were only a short distance from our hotel. We just made it back under cover in time for the rain to come pouring down again.

Despite all the rain, we've enjoyed our little Anniversary Staycation. We'll definitely do this again. By the time this posts, we should be back home to our dear "little" ones.