Holly

I wonder if anyone's ever been temped to carve moon letters onto this wall? And then, say "friend," and enter?

Wordless Wednesday: greenery

A royal neighborhood

Nothing beats a walk in a beautiful neighborhood on a warm weekend after several days of cold weather. Add children visiting from out of town, and it's a darn near perfect activity.

The neighborhood in question is King William, an almost surrealistically gorgeous little enclave of Victorian mansions just south of downtown. Our major target there last weekend was the very handsome structure pictured above. 

It's the Villa Finale, formerly owned by Walter Mathis, one of the prime revitalizers of this amazing area. We have not only those efforts to thank him for, but also for the fact that he set up his house, along with his extensive and eccentric collection of art, artifacts, knick-knacks, and otherwise delightful doo-dads, to be a public museum. It has the distinction of being the only National Historic Trust site in all of Texas.

The kids weren't up to an inside tour on such a nice day (although I hope on a future visit to do the full walk-through), so we contented ourselves with strolling through the handsome gardens and grounds. Here are some of the items that caught my blogger's eye during our walk:

the house is well-defended!

a plain stone wall just wouldn't do, would it?

one of a couple of pet cats...

"roof" of the gazebo, augmented by winter trees

an appropriately fancy car for such a fancy house, no?

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Mr. Mathis' house, of course, isn't the only one worth ogling in King William. Here are a few more that we strolled by...

Steves "Homestead," which you can also tour

we know the folks who used to live here; the inside is just as marvelous as the outside!

I love the two-story porches on this King William house

Fantasizing about living in houses like these, enjoying them as works of art, or just soaking up the warm air...a perfect weekend activity.

Wordless Wednesday: reflections

Eating fancy

We don't usually go to high-end restaurants, being basically pretty frugal folks. But sometimes we splurge, especially when given a generous gift card by sweet children to spur us on. And when it's a wedding anniversary, even frugal diners have something of an excuse to go fancy.

Fortunately, San Antonio has been acquiring more and more of these high-end eateries in the past few years, and several of them are highly regarded. So, given all this encouragement, we headed downtown last Wednesday and had a delightful evening at Restaurant Gwendolyn on the River.

The restaurant provided us with an especially novel treat, having a prix fixe menu, which was a first for us. Everything on the menu sounded so good, we opted for five-course dinners, with wine pairing (just for Henry, not me...I would have rolled off the balcony with that much alcohol!). 

The food was delicious, the service was attentive and friendly without hovering, and we felt totally pampered by the experience of taking time with each course.

Most of the pictures I tried to take of the food didn't come out so well, but I was charmed by the way they served their butter, with a peppery crust and sprig of rosemary...

...and the desserts were really scrumptious...

It was such fun—especially given our recent unusually long spells of cold weather—being able to eat outside. Our city's River Walk is always a treat to take in:

We won't be plunking down such serious dinero on dinner again anytime soon, but we think we might try to eat fancy perhaps a little more often. 

Wordless Wednesday: birthday roses

Yee-ha!

Although there's a lot that's unique about San Antonio as a Texas city (I'm particularly thinking of our ever-expanding spring party that's Fiesta), we are still in Texas. And that means that, yes, we do have a rodeo, too.

Here's the event's clever logo, with its hat-shaped "S":

We haven't been to the rodeo in years but it really is a fun event. So we were happy to accept a gracious invitation from one of Henry's work colleagues to share his firm's luxury box for the show on Friday.

What a great view you get from these posh seats! Not only of the real action, but with TWO replay screens available, should you want to see the action even closer up. If you want a taste of this visual overload...

The hallway outside our box looks down onto what is usually the Spurs store. But while the team is on their annual "Rodeo Roadtrip," their home venue is given over for the cowboys. And that includes their gift shop, where, along with the #21 jerseys, they put out a great selection of boots and hats for your shopping pleasure...

But of course the main action is on the court—er, rather, the dirt. I was pleased to see that our fine seats for the show allowed at least half-way decent pictures to be taken. Here's a sample:

a bareback riding contestant

barrel racing is one of my favorite competitions

the calf scramble is also always fun to watch

the scariest event is the bull-riding; the white blob at the end
of the red line is a cowboy about to be flung off the bull.
The clown is waiting to draw the animal off if needed

What a fun way to reaffirm one's Texas heritage!