Weekend in San Antonio

Mission Concepción

Last weekend I drove down to San Antonio. I've always enjoyed visiting the city, but I usually only make it the Alamo, the River Walk, and a few other sites. For this trip, I decided to focus on some of the less-touristy areas. The Missions and the Museum of Art aren't exactly off the beaten track, but they were definitely less crowded than the more well-known San Antonio sites.

My first stop on Saturday was the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. I went to Mission Concepción first. This is the best preserved of the missions, and I loved looking at all of the ornate details. The blue sky in these pictures was just great.

After leaving Mission Concepción, I drove a few miles over to Mission San José. The National Park headquarters are here, so it was definitely the most crowded of the missions. It is also the biggest site with the church and several surrounding buildings.

The other two missions — Mission San Juan Capistrano and Mission Espada — were much smaller than the other two and less crowded. I loved how striking the white building at Mission San Juan Capistrano looked against the sky. I received the best compliment of the day at San Juan as well. A woman asked me if I was a professional photographer (probably because I was juggling three cameras throughout the day). I just smiled and said I was an amateur who loved the hobby.

Mission San Juan Capistrano

Mission Espada

I finished visiting the Missions in the mid-afternoon. I made a brief stop at a Walgreens for water and Jelly Bellies, visited the Goodwill next door, and drove on to the Museum of Art. By this point, I was a little tired of carrying around my big camera, so the rest of the pictures are with my iPhone.

I think an "M" is missing.

The museum is located in an old brewery, making for a fascinating visitor experience. Everything is more up and down rather than spread out like other museums. I really enjoyed looking at the Greek and Roman art as well as some of the modern art. And of course, I saved the best for last: American art. I was excited to see paintings of the four missions I visited earlier that day. It was a great way to tie the two experiences together.

Family pictures

Once I left the museum, I went to the Alamo Quarry Market to eat dinner and shop for a bit. I ate dinner at the Canyon Cafe and practically devoured the chips and salsa. After dinner I walked around for a while and then treated myself to Amy's for dessert. I started for my hotel once I finished there, and despite a small detour because of the GPS on my phone, I made it there safe and sound.

The next morning, I woke up early and spent a couple hours relaxing around the hotel. Once I got out, I went to Trader Joe's and then headed to San Marcos. I spent a little over an hour at the outlets and left before they got too crowded. I made it back to Austin around lunchtime and decided to eat at Mandola's down south. Later I stopped at Paper Source, Anthropologie, and Book People before driving home.

I've been looking forward to this trip for several weeks, and I'm glad everything worked out for me to go. It's great to live in such a wonderful city (Austin) and have another great city (San Antonio) nearby.

You can see more of my San Antonio pictures by going here.