Battle of Flowers Parade!

One of the much anticipated parts of my trip to San Antonio was the Battle of Flowers parade. This is an integral part of FIESTA and is a big deal - they even cancel school on Friday of that weekend each year so the kids can attend the parade and celebrate.

We had some seats along the street to watch the parade and thankfully, the sun hid behind the clouds so it didn't get too hot! I thought the parade was great!

Here are those beautiful Budwesier Clydesdale horses! I love them!

A mariachi band and dancers on a float:

A rodeo-themed float - LOVE it!

Pretty flowers...

Ummmm...a Hawaiian float??? It was cool-looking!

And a geisha/asian float - just what I would expect to see in San Antonio.....hahaha

And here is a float that has some of the coronation girls. Right after FIESTA each year, applications are taken to be in the 'court' at coronation for the next year. The dresses are commissioned right away after FIESTA so that they can be ready for next year. The 'trains' on the dresses are hand-beaded and are very heavy and labor-intensive. They are also very expensive and the financial commitment you are making by applying to be one of those girls is $40,000+. INSANE!

While they are on the float, the girls are actually not 'attached' to these massive beaded trains. It would be too heavy!

It was a fabulous parade and we had lots of fun!

Alamo Fun

During my San Antonio trip recently, we got a little dose of a lot of stuff - the big parade (see tomorrow's post), the Cornyation show, and some Alamo/Riverwalk history! San Antonio was the first place in Texas that I ever visited. I flew down there to meet my parents for a weekend in February 2002 and absolutely fell in love with Texas right then and there. It was fun to be in downtown San Antonio last weekend and see those sights that I saw that very first time. There were also new things I learned and saw!

Here is a hospital that sits right on the Riverwalk - it's where Carol Burnett was born!

Here's the beautiful, fabulous Riverwalk. The weather was breezy and perfect, so we hung out down on the Riverwalk for part of the afternoon - I loved it!

This is a mosaic wall that depicts historic buildings/sites in San Antonio:

This is one of the entrances down into the Riveralk - right at the Hyatt Hotel, I think...

And, of course, here's the Alamo!

For those that know the story, here's the 'line that was drawn in the sand' - literally. It's marked with a metal line in the stone with a plaque. Those that were on one side of that line chose to stay and face certain death defending what they believed in. (A lesson that everyone in this country needs to remember).

Even though the Alamo is kind of a tourist area now, there are still rules to show respect for what happened there. All hats off, no pictures at all, they ask for quiet in there. If you've never been there, I highly recommend it. There are such neat memorials in there (and I can't take pictures of them to illustrate!), as well as original artifacts from Crockett, Travis, etc.

Something that is absolutely insane to me is that the State of Texas owns the Alamo, but doesn't contribute ANY money towards its upkeep, restoration, etc. WHAT?! This country is passing bills that include research on ridiculous things and balls of twine museums....and NO tax money is going to upkeep one of the MOST important symbols of the American values that this country was founded on?! That is HORRIBLE.

This is a super cool tree that is on the grounds of the Alamo, alongside a well that was installed way back then. They chose to have the well inside the walls of the Alamo grounds, even though the river was very nearby - just in case they were forced to stay within the walls during a siege. Man, did they have premonitions or what?!

Here are Mayce and I against the Alamo (side wall) with a HUGE flowering cactus!

What I thought was a beautiful touch was that during the Battle of Flowers parade (see tomorrow's post) - the HUGE parade during FIESTA, every float stops at the Alamo and places a memorial/flowers on the front lawn out of respect. It was very moving and beautiful!

There is just so much history here - if you ever get the chance to go to San Antonio, definitely take a walk through the Alamo and learn what true heroes look like.

BBQ & Boots - In That Order!

Here are Mayce and I on a golf cart at an apartment complex - we went with her brother to look at a possible new apartment on one of the days we were there. It was fun to ride on the back of the cart!

During my recent visit to San Antonio, we did more than just FIESTA stuff - we also went to a very cool outdoor barbecue restaurant that was AWESOME. It is called Rudy's and it touts itself as the worst BBQ in Texas - haha!

You get your food in an 'assembly line' style set-up and then eat it on picnic tables outside (or there's another room inside, but that's just lame when it's so nice outside!).

Here's a picture of my dinner - it was SOOOO good! And because they use mesquite trees to fuel the cooking, it smells absolutely amazing outside when you are eating.

Here is David, modeling the barbecue sauce:

Then, after we gorged ourselves with yummy barbecue, we ended up at a mall that had a Cheesecake Factory, so we stopped for dessert. I thought that was the highlight of the trip.........until they showed me some HUGE cowboy boots at the entrance to the mall! Soooo.....of course we had to go take pictures by them!!

And here we are being stupid and trying to 'hold up' the boot:

Cornyation 2009!

Last weekend, Mayce and I flew to San Antonio for a big festival called FIESTA. Her brother, David, was going to be in a performance and then there are other festivities throughout the weekend as well.

This first installment of my FIESTA adventures is about the Cornyation show that David was in on Thursday night (there were 6 shows all week - but we made it into town for the last one: Thursday at 10:30pm at a theater downtown). It's kind of a parody on "Coronation" and it mocks current events in the news and pop culture, and the proceeds go to charity (they raised about $150,000 for charity this year!). The theme of this year's show was 'footwear'.

As we walked up to the front of the theater to go into the show, a whole motorcade of white GMC Yukons pulled up with police escorts and they all lined up in front of the theater. OOH - someone famous, I thought! Well, I guess being one of the Kings of FIESTA is a big deal and they call him "Rey Feo" (or "Ugly King"). This trail of Yukons was his entourage with police escort!

When we got into the theater, we saw a wierd sign:

I guess an old tradition is to throw tortillas during the show, but someone got hurt somehow and tortilla-throwing is no longer allowed. Shoot!

There were 13 groups that performed this year and David's group was poking fun at the FLDS cult that was broken up in El Dorado, TX last year. They started out in the long dresses and crazy weird women's hairstyles with that 'bubble' in front.......and ended up with something totally different!!

Here are some pics of David's group's performance (he's in the orange dress):

Here is a close-up of Dave's wig - they actually used water noodles to make the wig flair out like that!

Hanging out on the sidewalk after the show:

And one last pic from the night - one of the performers from another group at Cornyation......he's showing a little too much for me.......