TEXAS TRIP: COOL GREEN WATER

From Austin i went, on Monday, to San Antonio - the place i was born, and still one of my very favorite places.  it's one of those American cities that feel like Someplace Else, not cooky-cutter nor stereotypical.  of course, most of our cities at their hearts reveal their innate personality.  Chicago is not Boston is not San Francisco is not Kansas City.  it's the suburbs and outskirts of all of them where chainstore/fastfood/monolithic culture and patterns take over.  If i were driven blindfolded into any city or town in this country on an Interstate, I'd have no idea where i was.  okay, the landscape would give some of them away.  but not the architecture, the brand names, the neon signs.  Anyway, i digress.  These things are even true when you drive into San Antone.  but once you get past the Wal-Marts, McDonald's, car dealerships, Targets, you could just as easily be in a tropical country as in the USA.  there has been so much rain this spring, the wettest June on record, that everything is lush and thick and green.  the neighborhoods are bursting with gorgeous flowers, the crape myrtle has never bloomed so hot and vividly. 

while there i watched a lot of Rob's soccer practice and scrimages, a pleasant way to while away some afternoons in a camp chair in the shade of old pecan trees.

 Rob, hot and tired after a day of soccer camp. i don't know how they maintain life functions after hours of exercise in the south Texas sun.  they do swim in the middle of the day, but....still.

  i caught up with my sister, lots of time to just talk - it's been two years since we've seen each other.  the highlight of the days spent there was our afternoon at Guadalupe River State Park, about 40 miles north of the city.  Rob grilled ribs for us, we brought salads from Central Market, A (my sister) baked chocolate chip cookies for our desert (yes, i ate some, South Beach be damned.  she makes great cookies.)  again because of the heavy rains the river was running very fast, and Rob and I spent considerable time zooming down it, sometimes on boogie boards, sometimes just body-floating. 

these are the bluffs overlooking the river, close to our picnic sight.  this park gets a lot of day use from people in the city, but there are also campsites for longer stays.  there weren't many people there that evening, we pretty much had the place to ourselves.  the river is wide and green and cool, the current is strong, it's altogether a peak experience to plunge in and go downstream.

This is one of the bald cypresses that line the river on the side where we were.  they are pretty impressive bits of creation, if you ask me.  without these trees i don't think i'd be here now writing in this journal.  i'd probably still be whirling down the Guadalupe River, or bashed to death on rocks downstream.  it was only by forcibly heading to the side of the river and grabbing hold of cypress roots that i was able to stop my downstream surge.  even where the water was shallow enough for me to stand up, the current was so strong it would immediately knock me off my feet and keep sweeping me along.  scary, exciting, exhilarating, breath-taking, all at once.  i'd really love to tube this park, start as far up the river as i could get, and go as far as i dared.  with someone there with a vehicle to pick me up at the far end, of course.

I couldn't resist adding another one.  They grow like this all along the side of the river across from the stone bluffs.

my other important activity in San Antonio was eating.  remember peace, love and fajitas?  i had them all.  wonderful fajitas at La Fonda, followed by my share of a piece of dulce de tres leches, the best cake in the entire galaxy, i promise.  we shared it three ways, and it was small to begin with.  i also had snapper veracruz while in Dallas - so my Mexican eating was entirely within the limits of life on South Beach, amazingly enough.  the ribs that Rob barbequed for us at the park were, however, perhaps the best thing i had to eat the whole trip.  the kid wants to be a chef, and he's well on his way to learning his craft.

I'll finish this trip recounting with my stop in Austin at Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center tomorrow, or Sunday.  or maybe even Monday.  lots of political activity planned for this weekend, so I don't know if i'll have much computer time.