This week has been pretty quiet here on Padre Island, so I thought I would give you the details on our mini trip to San Antonio from last weekend as well as answering some questions from you!
San Antonio
We visited San Antonio a few years ago, but only for a few hours. Consequently, we decided that just an overnight trip might be ok. It would give us a chance to explore the city a bit more without it being overkill. We were also working with a small window of excellent weather and we wanted to be back “home” before the super cold weather set in.
We started the trip by taking the scenic route through the countryside to Seguin, Texas. “What’s there?” you ask. Barbeque, of course. Lauren told us about a BBQ place there called The Burnt Bean, so of course we had to be in the neighborhood so we could try it. We waited (in the cold) in line to get into the restaurant, but it was worth it! It was definitely the best brisket we’ve ever had. They also make a mean brisket taco. The ribs were good, but our beloved Q39 in Kansas City is better (are you sick of me talking about KC BBQ yet?). Seguin is also a really cute town. Then we drove on to New Braunfels, which is a bit of a tourist town with German roots between San Antonio and Austin. It was cute and is probably fun to wander around, but it was cold and unexpectedly rainy, so we just moved on to the city.
We started by wandering from our hotel to do a walking tour. We checked out some of the buildings and areas of interest and ended up, as you do, at the Alamo. We had already done the whole tour there before, but the info they have outside in the plaza was interesting to read this time. We had dinner at a great place on the Riverwalk. We had taquitos, a burger, and fish tacos with a giant brownie sundae for dessert. Then we wandered down the street to see a local production of The School of Rock. They are a San Antonio theater company, augmented by actors from New York. It was a really good show but suffered in the tech department a bit. We had a good time!
The next day, we drove to Mission Concepcion because we wanted to see the other four missions in the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. The Alamo, or Mission Valero, is the one that everybody knows about. But there are four others that are linked by a great river trail and we planned to bike the whole thing. There are bike-share stations all along the trail, so we got ourselves some wheels and went from mission to mission. The weather was perfect and we really enjoyed pedalling along the trail and learning more about the missions and their communities and how things have changed over the last 300 years. I highly recommend exploring the park. We ended our visit to San Antonio with (what else?) some tacos! Nathan found a place with the most authentic al pastor tacos outside of Mexico City. It was a great little mom & pop place that was super clean and the food was out of this world.
This week has been mostly uneventful. We stayed cozied up in the house a bit, but we also got out for a few nice walks. We ventured out to Port Aransas for some meals out and a change of scenery. I also finished the knitting project that I started six months ago. I knitted a sweater for each of our grandsons and a sweater dress for our granddaughter. It was a real learning experience! I’m pretty happy with how they all turned out.
And now, for your pressing questions…
For Emily…
Emily has a trip to Toronto planned and she wondered if we have been there and, if so, if she should get excited about her trip.
We really liked Toronto! And I’m saying that having visited at the height of Covid and in a chilly November! I think you will have a good time in the city. A lot of things in the city weren’t open and we were avoiding people for the most part, so we did a lot of wandering around the city. I’m sure there are tons of things that we missed because of the circumstances. One thing you will probably love, though, is the Toronto Music Garden. Check out the tunnel system under the downtown area (PATH), built so the residents can avoid the cold winters. The city is nice and Lake Ontario is beautiful. I think we enjoyed Montreal and Quebec City a bit more, but Toronto is definitely worth a visit.
For David…
David asked about telephone plans in Europe.
All of the things I am going to talk about here are dependant on what your phone will support. With that being said, I’ll dive in. There are many more options, of course, but here are some ideas to get you started.
When we have traveled in Europe in the past, we have just used the phone service and data provided with our regular U.S. phone plan. We have our plan through TMobile and they have agreements with phone carriers in other countries, so we don’t pay extra for data roaming. However, in some countries we had nice high-speed data and in others, well to put it mildly, it was terribly slow. It just depended on which country we were in. We can also use our normal plan to make phone calls, but we are charged by the minute for those calls. Mostly, though, we weren’t using data or making expensive phone calls because we were using wifi and wifi calling.
When we were living in Germany, we needed a German phone number in order to get a DHL mailing account, so Nathan bought a SIM card at Lidl (a grocery store). It was quite inexpensive and worked just fine with Nathan’s unlocked phone.
I know that there are services that provide eSims for people who travel. One of those companies is called Airalo. You can find their website here:
https://www.airalo.com.
They have lots of different options for data-only plans starting at around $5. If you want to make calls as well, they have options for calls, texts, and data as well. I’m sure there are plenty of other services for this.
Here’s a YouTube video by travel vlogger GenX Gypsy where she walks you through the process with Airalo:
https://youtu.be/7lbW8yq-mv0?si=VEzb08NXBCT_XYcR
Good Luck!
For Jana…
Jana asked what we’ve been into lately…books, podcasts, music, food.
I didn’t get Nathan’s input this time, but I’ll answer for me.
Books:
I’ll put a plug in here for the Salt Lake County Library System, for those who live in (or pay taxes in) Salt Lake County. It is a fantastic library system with lots of excellent resources, especially their electronic offerings. We have also used our library cards to access language courses, arts and crafts courses, Consumer Reports, concert films, along with other services. I didn’t sock away as many books last year, just short of seven dozen…so anyway….
I’m still making my way through the “Longmire” book series. I find the stories set in rural Wyoming to be interesting. I’ve watched some of the TV episodes, but th books have a wry, cowboy kind of humor that is missing from the show. Sometimes Walt Longmire reminds me of my Wyoming uncles. 🙂
Nathan and I listened to the entire 54-hour audiobook Truman by David McCullough. It was so informative and there are parts of his life and presidency that still feel surprisingly relevant.
We found Miracle and Wonder: Conversations with Paul Simon to be a pleasant audiobook to listen to while we were driving across Texas.
I enjoyed Martin Short’s autobiography I Must Say.
Maybe TMI for some, but a really useful book: The New Menopause by Dr. Mary Claire Haver.
Nothing to Fear by Julie McFadden, RN is an excellent book about the natural and inevitable process of dying.
Not the End of the World by Hannah Ritchie for a less “doom and gloom” perspective on climate change.
Podcasts:
I still listen to my favorite podcasts:
Daily or almost Daily: Everything Everywhere Daily, Come Follow Me – Daily Dose, Late Show Pod Show, The Gist
Weekly: No Such Thing as a Fish, Dear Hank and John, Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me, Cautionary Tales, What’s Your Problem?, Re:Thinking with Adam Grant, This American Life, Follow Him, Hark Fork, Freakonomics Radio, The Happiness Lab
Occasionally: Travel with Rick Steves, Amateur Traveler, Wiser Than Me, WikiHole, GastroPod, The Daily Show Ears Edition, and podcasts that put me to sleep (in a good way): Get Sleepy, Sleepy, Sleepy History
Music:
OK Go has a new song with accompanying music video, “A Stone Only Rolls Downhill”. If you have somehow come through the last 20 years without enjoying their music videos, you should check them out on YouTube. I recommend the OG “Here It Goes Again” and my favorite “The One Moment”, but there are many. May you enjoy the rabbit hole that you are about to dive into! 🙂
Larkin Poe–we saw these ladies in Austin in 2017 and we’ve been fans ever since. They won a Grammy last year and they have a new album coming out, “Bloom”.
I haven’t got much more in the way of music at the moment.
Food:
Well, I might just have to do a separate post for that one!
Have a great week, everyone! We will talk to you next week from a new city! Any guesses?
