lone star state of mind

san antonio. a city i generally enjoy, although the river walk is a bit played out for me.  despite finally getting cooler temperatures at home, and knowing i was headed towards hot and humid, i was still excited about this trip. some of my favorite work girls and of course, getting to see the bulgarian for the first time since march!

and, while waiting for my flight, i got a call from my eastern european friend, asking when i'd be getting into town.  since it would be late, we made plans for breakfast the next morning. i arrived safely and without incident, taking up residence in the lovely and oh-so-familiar hilton palacio del rio.

after re-connecting over breakfast, we headed to the exhibit hall to get our respective booths set up.  mine was done relatively quickly so emil joined me for lunch before i made my way back to the hotel and he back to the hall.  i spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on emails, and when emil was finished for the day, we headed out to the river walk for dinner.  

he continues to be someone who's company i enjoy greatly, even though our opinions are almost always at odds with each other. not contentious odds, mind you, but our perspectives are almost always on two completely opposite ends of any spectrum.  in fact, i am constantly surprised at just how well we get along.  

okay, if i'm being honest, and introspective, i'd have to admit that there must be some part of me that appreciates having my ideas challenged.  even though he doesn't directly challenge them, just by virtue of his differing opinion, i'm forced to question, re-evaluate, articulate.  and, because i tend to be a get-along to go-along type, it's a healthy refreshing change of pace.

the exhibit hall opened the following day and i had big plans for the evening.  my new jersey coworker, sam, and i had gotten tickets for a haunted house (my first of my favorite season)! this particular haunted house had been listed on several 'best of' lists, and i was eager to see if it deserved the hype!  

phew! *sigh of relief*  it did not disappoint!  though we needn't have paid for the more expensive 'fast pass' version since it was pretty quiet, it was obvious pretty quickly that this would be different than my previous haunted house experiences.  we had to enter by going down an enclosed twisty turney slide in the complete darkness. 

awesome.

and the rest of the 'house' offered plenty of surprises and scares.  sam and i were glued to each other the entire time, and the threesome going through with us weren't far behind.  in fact, when we finished the experience, my shirt was stretched to three times it's normal size as a result of one of the other girls hanging on for dear life! it was a perfectly lovely way to spend a friday evening.

the following morning in the hall was uneventful. emil joined sam, vanessa and i for lunch, which continued the theme of decent food but terrible service on the river walk. our lunch took almost an hour to arrive at our table!  but at least the company was good. 

afterward, we decided to take one of the river walk boat tours. vanessa had never been, and emil had mentioned wanting to check it out, so the four of us headed to one of the boat landings, bought our tickets, and climbed aboard.

it was pretty routine (i'd done the tour two or three times before) other than the speed talking guide, until about half-way through when an elderly woman became limp and unresponsive.  needless to say, there was an emergency docking, and her family and a couple of the other patrons carried her off the boat while ems was called.  i still don't know what happened or if she is/was okay, but i'd guess that it was a response to the heat, and hope that once she got some fluids and cool air that she made a full recovery.

after finishing our interesting adventure, emil and i headed back to the hall for closing time. and then it was downtime at the hotel for a couple of hours before meeting up again, with the rest of the girls, for dinner.  i had wanted to take everyone out to gruene (pronounced: green) -- a little town about 45 minutes outside of san antonio -- that a few of us had discovered last year when we went tubing.  i was really done with the river walk.  the food hadn't been great and the service at every meal seemed to get worse and worse, and i had been dying to get back to gruene.  i fell in love with it last year and wanted to do more exploring.

but, when a couple of the girls wanted to stay 'local',  i decided that it was nice to not have to be the 'planner' for once, so i sucked it up and prepared for another questionable river walk meal.

it was worse than i could have even imagined.  a disaster on almost every level.  the food took almost two hours (i still can't believe we stayed), and it was terrible.  i was irritated and annoyed and a little embarrassed that i had the bulgarian along for this ugly experience.  he's typically a bit short-tempered, and, maybe because i was feeling that way, he surprised me with his continued attempts to lighten the mood and calm my increasingly fraying nerves.

eventually we were done with that horrid place, and as we were leaving he asked if i had picked the place.  i told him no, but that i was trying to encourage others to not rely on me so much for their extracurricular conference activities.  sometimes i need a break from planning everyone's lives, and they don't often give it to me when we're on the road.  his response; 'everyone has a role. see what happens when you don't fill yours?'

i couldn't help but laugh.  at the very least, i've developed a reputation for finding and selecting good restaurants, so i guess i'll try to stop being annoyed when people want me to do just that.

after dinner we all needed an attitude adjustment, so we cruised the walk looking for a soft and happy place to land.  we were more fortunate than in our dinner location and spent the next few hours chatting, dancing, and laughing before calling it a night.

the following day was the last of the conference.  after successfully shutting down the booth and with the afternoon open for play, i convinced sam to join me for a road trip to gruene.  and she too fell in love with the place, commenting several times that we should have come the previous night.

it has a relaxed, small town america feel, as well as having a rich country music history.  gruene hall has long been a regular stop for some of country's most well recognized performers.  and, even in the middle of the afternoon, as we explored the town following our amazing meal (with excellent service!) there were several venues with live bands playing on stages and outdoor patios.  it was bliss and i will have to make this a regular stop anytime i'm in san antonio!

with an early flight the next morning, we headed back to our hotel to pack and settle in for the night. and thus ended another trip to the lone star state...where i'll be heading back to next month!  oh well, at least i get a three week travel break to catch up on laundry and dog snuggles.