More Sunday sports

Yes, it seems odd, since we usually take in our sports from the comfort of our own TV room, that we've actually been to live sporting events two Sundays in a row.

Some of you might have read about our attendance at a Spurs pre-season game last week. Then a few days ago we were out again.

Our much-decorated women's national soccer team played Australia in a friendly match right here in San Antonio! (Here's the article in Monday's paper about the game, with much better pictures than you'll see here, I'm afraid.)

It was very exciting to get to see these real international stars in action, and they didn't disappoint. Here they are, just after celebrating the second of what was eventually 4 goals scored against the hapless Aussies.

But the real treat in seeing such a match is getting to watch the players you are used to seeing in a mediated fashion (i.e., on TV) right there in the flesh. Pretty cool. 

Especially the really big guns...

super-super-star Abby Wambach warming up...she scored the 3rd goal later

a somewhat blurrier super-star, Alex Morgan...
moving too fast for my lens!

Here are some more scenes of the occasion. Don't worry, I'm not including any more in-game shots. My little camera just isn't up to that challenge. Unlike the ones these guys were sporting, along with their endline credentials which gave them a much better vantage point:

I didn't realize that our own national federation is celebrating its centennial this year...

The beginning rituals of international matches are always fun to watch. Here the flags are being carried out onto the pitch in advance of national anthems and team introductions:

And here are the starting teams entering the field:

You can see by the upraised cell phones in the foreground that I wasn't the only person trying to get good pictures here with inadequate equipment.

The fans themselves are another big attraction at soccer matches. This group of very enthusiastic and tireless amateur cheerleaders (the best kind! you don't need amplified prompts or scantily clad dancers when you have these folks with their drums and chants!) kept up the spirit level non-stop. It was fun cheering and clapping along with them...

I'm showing you this particular shot our of the many I took of this group because of the sign near the left edge: "Keep Calm, We Have Hope." Which could be just a nice philosophical epigram, but it actually refers to our goalkeeper, Hope Solo, who did make some pretty spectacular saves in the first half to guarantee our clean sheet.

Henry was kind enough to take this picture of me with the field in the background before the game started. Honest, I didn't know that the Aussies would be wearing Houston Dynamo orange when I selected this t-shirt to wear...

It might look like there aren't too many people in attendance, but that's because this isn't really a soccer friendly venue (in fact, it was a fine crowd, of over 19,000, the largest to see the US girls at home this year).

The rather inappropriate site for the match was our (ridiculous) Alamodome, which is vacant most of the time, and therefore available for this match. It should never have been built, at least not where it is, thereby taking the space that should have been saved for a Spurs arena. But that's a topic for another discussion, and probably a different blog.

It is a somewhat attractive structure, though, especially with the gorgeous blue sky we had Sunday as a backdrop...

Since it was such a lovely day, we didn't mind avoiding the extortionate parking charges and walking from a free spot several blocks away. I took these pictures on my way out.

Live sports! As much a treat as live music, and we don't take in either of these entertainments as often as we should. 

The boys are back in town!

Long-time readers of this blog will know that our family are big Spurs fans. Some of us are even partial to another Spurs team, but most of the time when we hear that name, we think of our boys in silver and black, our town's only big league franchise.

We've been fans of the team for many, many years. In fact, we remember seeing each and every one of the retired jersey numbers when they weren't retired...

The 2013-14 regular season hasn't started yet, but pre-season has, and we're big enough Spurs geeks to be very excited to be able to attend one of these practice games. Thanks to a friend who passed along some tickets, we were able to see our guys in action in person last Sunday.

And I was pleased at how well some of my pictures of the game came out. Here's a sample:

view from the cheap (i.e., free) seats

our great mascot, the Spurs Coyote

big dramatic introduction of the players, even at a preseason game

You develop appreciation for how long a second is when you watch a basketball game

it has been a while...just sayin'...

Wordless Wednesday: Skyscape

A bloomin' autumn

As some of you might have seen in last week's Wordless Wednesday post, there's a lot of flowers blooming around south Texas these days.

I know that in most parts of the world, "fall color" means turning leaves, and spring is the season for flowers. But since we usually come up short in the turning leaves department, we're sometimes rewarded with colorful blooms instead.

Our super hot summers don't exactly encourage flowers to bloom. Thank goodness we have crape myrtles and bougainvillea (two of the types of blossoms in the Wordless Wednesday photo). But they're among the only things that can take the heat.

When the nights start getting a little cooler (and especially if we have some occasional rain, as we've been lucky enough to get lately), that's when the colors really come out. I've been noticing some great displays around town the last week or so and thought I'd share some of them with you.

The pink beauties above are along that wonderful fence I've mentioned before, that's on the way to my new bus stop. And the neat red fruit-ing things (can no one tell me what they are?) are still on display there...

...joined lately by some really interesting flowers that, one assumes, will eventually make more fruit...

Then, clear across town, I walk by this very well-tended yard every morning and afternoon on my way from the bus stop to the library. The stars of the show there last week were these fabulous yellow blooms:

I often see the man who lives there working in the yard, and am glad I get a chance to compliment him on his work. I'm not sure what these gorgeous yellow flowers are called, but I've seen other good examples of them elsewhere on my rambles, too. 

And there's more yellow near St. Mary's. This ridiculously handsome golden raintree is along one of the back roads bordering the campus.

this would be a better picture if the utility lines were buried in this town!

These guys put on a show all through the fall, because after the blooms are gone, they're replaced by copper-colored brachts. I'm hoping since we have such a great show with the blooms this year (again, all over town) that good displays of brachts will be coming up soon, too.

We have one of these in our back yard, and it's also busting out with blooms. However, our back yard arbor management leaves a lot to be desired and there's too much other stuff in the way for a good picture to be taken. But I'm still quite fond of the tree, since it was a volunteer that sprang up in my mother's back yard many years ago and we transplanted it to ours. Her tree gave her a lot of pleasure and mine does the same for me. At least when I can see it. But I almost feel like all the raintrees around town are all of ours anyway, since they put on their shows for free. All you have to do is remember to look!

Wordless Wednesday: take a seat

Extending our Reach

Some of my faithful readers might remember when we attended ceremonies celebrating the first big extension of the San Antonio River Mission Reach. Then, during this year's Fiesta, we were able to paddle all the way down to Espada Dam.

Yesterday, the final section of the hiking, biking, and paddling trails were dedicated. Now you can paddle, with minimal portages, from just below Blue Star to Mission Espada, outside of Loop 410! (And walking and biking require no portages. )

Here's an example of some of the fine (not to mention extensive) channeling works that have been accomplished on this stretch of the River. (I took the picture below while walking along the bike path. There's another shot of it that was in this morning's paper, illustrating their story of the opening, complete with paddlers—#3 in the slide show is a shot of Henry and me in our canoe!)

This is the bridge just below Espada Dam on "opening" day. Note the large red balloon marking a spot across the river from me. It was calling attention to a food truck that I wish I'd had money with me to patronize.

Let me tell you how I got here, and why I was so hungry!

---

Our paddling group planned to do a 4-mile stretch, from VFW Boulevard to Mission Espada. This route would include 2 miles we'd done before plus the 2 new miles below the dam. That sounded like too much for me, since I've been nursing a bad back. What I could do was go park the car at the Mission, catch the handy shuttle bus we'd read about back to Espada Dam and meet Henry there. He was in a tandem canoe, so I could join him there and take in the new section of the river.

After a fruitless half-hour wait for the shuttle, I decided they weren't coming (and they weren't, not for another couple of hours!). So there was nothing for it but to explore the new section of trail on foot.

This morning, as I write this, the temperature is pleasantly in the 60's; if the weather had been like that yesterday, it would have been a great walk. But as it was a very un-October-like low-90's yesterday, it was rather a slog!

Still, it was nice to get to examine the walkway's lovely features close-up. Like the attractive bridges over tributary creeks. One example of this nice stonework is just above.

Here's another, first up close on the path...

...then, later, from the river vantage...

Some of the creek channels were impressively, and attractively, engineered:

And, for a while, the path follows the Espada Acequia, one of several ancient irrigation watercourses built in our area...

Walking under the 410 set of bridges showcases a more recent example of impressive civil engineering...

....as well as providing some welcome shade. Speaking of shade, there are a few spots like the one below along the path. But not nearly enough, especially on a hot day.

I did eventually make it to Espada Dam, somewhat sweat-drenched and very hungry. And just in time to meet my friends. Unfortunately, I hadn't thought to put a bill in my pocket when I left the car, so I had to forgo what smelled like delicious pitas (not to mention cupcakes!) at the food truck stop.

Which meant 2 miles of paddling (admittedly, a good bit of the time was spent just sitting and letting Henry paddle) with no noon sustenance. The new paddle chutes were fun, but there were stretches of low water that necessitated a chivalrous husband getting out and pushing/pulling. 

So we were both pretty pooped and ready for re-fueling when we reached the end of the Mission Reach paddling trail, just above the Mission Parkway crossing.

Henry, no doubt suffering a little from sun-addled brains, thought it might be fun to try and go under the crossing. But since what you see above is what would have greeted us on the other side (and that's if we'd been able to slide under it) I'm glad this was just a passing thought.

In spite of the heat, sweat, and tired feet, we're glad we participated in this celebration of our city's River, its history, and this wonderful unengineering-engineering marvel. But we'll probably wait for a cooler Saturday before we hit it again.

Wordless Wednesday: fall color