Since we were up late last night in Austin and were planning on being out late for the fireworks tonight, we decided to sleep in a little and relax by the pool before heading into San Antonio for sightseeing. Once we got downtown, we made a beeline for the Alamo. Apparently so did a lot of other people because it was very crowded. (A 55,000 AA convention was in town.) It's very different from the movie because a large portion of where the battle was actually faught was not preserved. Only the church and and a portion of the barracks still stand. The majority of the fort no longer exists.
After touring the Alamo, we went over to the Tower of the Americas which was built for the 1968 Worlds Fair. It's still significantly taller than any other building in San Antonio. In fact, it's more than 60 feet taller than Seattle's Space Needle. We rode one of the external elevators up to the observation deck and got to watch out the window as we traveled to the top. The views from the top were amazing; we could see over 25 miles in evey direction and got to look down on the top of the Alamo.
From there, we strolled over to the Riverwalk, which is 20 feet below street level and wandered along the paths that line both sides. The Riverwalk is truly amazing and is so much more than we thought it would be and is also much older than we realized. It began in the 1940's as a flood control project for the city. Now it's a miles-long canal with beautiful tree-lined pathways on both sides, interlaced by dozens of foot bridges. The pathways are lined with buildings housing an amazing number of local restaurants (no chain restaurants), some that have been there for 50 years. Craftsmen and artisans of all types have set up small booths and tents along the pathways to 
sell their wares. We could have walked for hours but instead chose to take one of the tour boats that points out sites and explains the history of the canals and buildings. The kids had a blast on the ride, there was a huge amount to see. We were hoping to eat dinner along the Riverwalk but due to the convention, the restaurants all had huge lines. Instead, we left San Antonio to see fireworks at the Six Flags which was closer to our campground (and had dinner from Subway-bummer). Fireworks display was ok but much shorter than we're used to.
Tomorrow, we'll get an early start and head for Carlsbad Caverns.
San Antone's a beautiful place. You could spend weeks and not see it all. :)
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