Presidents Day

San Antonio doesn't make a big deal about this holiday; after all, the city has just finished the Rodeo, and the nearby border town of Laredo has a huge multi-day "George Washington Birthday" festival. Also, I had to work on the holiday, because the Alamo Heights ISD chose to use Presidents Day as one make-up day for the two-day ice-storm closing back in January.

No problem! I enjoyed the substitute-teaching assignment at the high school. Funny, I remember that earlier I had considered wearing the closest thing I have to a patriotic necktie (dominant blue stripes,small red stripes and tiny gold stripes), but when I got dressed Monday morning it skipped my mind and I wore a green shirt and golden-yellow tie! Then in the evening, when I attended the monthly VÍA Citizens Advisory Council meeting, another Council member, Isidro Gutierrez from District Ten, was present, and I asked him for a lift home. He agreed, and when we got to his car after the meeting Isidro had to clear out the front passenger set (a common situation whenever I bum a ride). The most prominent item that he threw in the back seat was a necktie he had worn earlier -- star-spangled red, white and blue. That was when I remembered my earlier intention to also wear patriotic around my neck, which I had forgotten!

Well, I may not have honored the actual holiday in the manner I had intended, but I was patriotic in a Texan sort of way, on its eve. You see, Sunday evening I had taken Patrick and LaRae to see The Alamo. He had visited it during his first Army tour in S.A., but LaRae hadn't ever been to the city before, let alone laid eyes on its and Texas' most famous landmark. And she simply HAD to see The Alamo!

So see it we did, in a beautiful evening. When the "Shrine of Texas Liberty" closed for the night, we strolled down the fairly new "Paseo del Alamo" that leads down from Alamo Plaza to the Riverwalk-level floor of the Hyatt Hotel. El Paseo takes the walker down wandering, decorative steps, over flowing streams and past waterfalls, and presents a striking mural picturing major S.A. historical landmarks (with The Alamo at its center, of course) on a wall close to the hotel doors.

After we came out on El Paseo del Río, the main Riverwalk, and Patrick took more photos with their digital camera to supplement those he had just taken back in the old mission-fortress, he broached the topic of an evening meal. I gave a few suggestions (even tho' I consider the Riverwalk restaurants to be generally over-priced), and we ended up at The Original Mexican Restaurant. Next to this eaterie had been The Kangaroo Court, which had cheesecake to die for. But alas! it had closed some time after 2003 (when I had last eaten at Kangaroo) and replaced with a convenience store. A convenience store, of all thing, on the Riverwalk! "Yech-h-h" to the store and a mourning "boo-hoo" to The Kangaroo Court and its cheesecake.

But dear reader, don't worry, be happy! The Original Mexican Restaurant acquired the recipe and/or rights to that cheesecake to die for. I had a slice of it, unenhanced, and Patrick and LaRae shared one enhanced with caramel. You should have heard the "m-m-m-m"s of delight coming from us as we ate the scrumptious dessert! Even tho' the evening air was cooling quickly following sunset, it was still a wonderful way -- certainly a tasty way -- to end a visit to The Alamo and the eve of Presidents Day.