Everything Is Bigger in Texas - Days 3, 4, 5

Old San Antonio Train Station, circa 1902

OCTOBER 14, 2025

Woke up at 4am to shower on the train and prep for a 5am arrival in San Antonio, TX. When you’re in a rooomette with Amtrak, you have access to 1 communal shower and 4 separate bathrooms shared between 12 rooms. I would say from experience that maybe half the occupants of the those rooms use the onboard shower, so that cuts down the numbers somewhat, but there can be some strategy and waiting involved. 

Showering on the train requires preparation and often, some athletic effort!  The shower room has about 2 ft of standing space, towels, soap & shampoo. Being organized before you get in there is a must. Additionally, depending on the evenness of the segment of rail the train is on at the time and in this case, the fact that our shower door was missing its magnetic closure device, an uninitiated traveler might open their eyes post-hair wash to find the door swinging wide and the floor sloshing with mini tidal waves of shower water. I had some training earlier in my life with this kind of balancing act while at Cal Maritime aboard the 50 yr old Training Ship Golden Bear going through the Magellan Strait at the tip of South America in a storm…maybe a story for another time! Tom, on the other hand, had no similar ‘training’, but in an effort to preserve his dignity I did not ask how he managed the shower gauntlet. 

Texas! Already 70 degrees at this early hour, we walked for about 10 min from the station to a Marriott hotel lobby to have coffee and wait until Enterprise car rentals opened at 7:30am. I had Tom go across the street to get me this LOVELY biscuit you see depicted from the Alamo Biscuit Co. Yes, it’s as good as it looks!

The car rental went off without a hitch and the first order of business was a 1.5 hr drive to Austin. Wish I could say something nice about the scenery along the way… but I can’t. Anyway, we went strait to our hotel in downtown Austin and were granted a very early check-in:)  First order of business: BBQ! Many visitors opt for the much publicized Franklin BBQ, but we headed for Terry Black’s and there’s no question we made the right call! We ordered a mixed grill of jalapeño sausage, brisket and pork ribs with sides of green beans and coleslaw. Just a true pleasure with each bite. Yum, yum, yum. We took some leftovers back with us and finished it off later without a morsel wasted.

With the time now being around 1:30 pm, we dropped the car at the hotel and headed out on foot to get

those post-BBQ steps in! As it was about 85 degrees, we took a slow 30 min amble to the Texas state capitol, making sure to walk on the shady side of the street. Such a great decision to see this beautiful building and grounds. As you walk around, you quickly realize how fervent Texans are about, well, Texas! That Texas star is EVERYWHERE, in and on everything from windows to ceilings, carved into woodwork, in paintings and embedded in floors. We explored the interior and grounds for about 2 hrs —If you’ve heard the saying, “everything is bigger in Texas,” I can tell you it’s true right down to the grass, which on these grounds, were perfectly verdant green with each blade having an imposingly chunky quality!

(Click on video and EXPAND in upper left corner)

We stayed at the beautiful Cambria Hotel in downtown Austin. One of the main reasons we chose this location was that it backed right up to a very cool area in Austin called Rainey Street which has lots of unique food spots, bars and live music all situated in bungalow style HOUSES. It was here we spent the remainder of our evening within stumbling distance back to our hotel:) —Check out the videos for a better sense of it!

                                                                                         

(Click on video and EXPAND in upper left corner)

OCTOBER 15 & 16, 2025

We made the drive back to San Antonio in abut 1hr 10min, returned the car and headed to the beautiful

Plaza San Antonio Hotel, checking in before noon! First order of business was hitting the pool for some rays and a nap! With that out of the way we made plans with our Milwaukee cousins for a dinner date and set out to explore the famous San Antonio River Walk. It really is not only beautiful but extensive in its length through the city. All this time I thought it was constructed to lure tourists, but we learned that the purpose behind it was actually to prevent flooding from the main river into downtown San Antonio!

(Click on video and EXPAND in upper left corner)

We popped up onto the street downtown and decided to take that time to tour the famous Alamo. I recommend getting the self-guided tour headsets and going into the artifact building (air conditioned, yay!) at the end. Fun fact: Musician Phil Collins is a major donor of Alamo artifacts to the museum! He even narrates (see video) a scale model run-through of the battle of the Alamo. Kinda cool. 

By happy coincidence (well it was somewhat planned…) we got to see ‘cousins’ Chad & Barb

Hinsenkamp who travelled down from Milwaukee to see Barb’s sister and brother-in-law during the time we would also be there. We met up for dinner at Tokyo Cowboy, “where southern comfort meets Japanese street food”…! Man, it was good! The waiter brought out a mix of their dishes and it was more than enough food with the added bonus of some really good cocktails. 

Our last day in San Antonio was spent meeting back up with Chad & Barb in ‘The Pearl’ which is an upscale outdoor mall area with lots of food options. The Pearl is also adjacent to probably the coolest hotel in San Antonio, The Emma, which is a converted old brewery and still has the vats and exposed piping throughout . Rooms are anywhere from $500 - $1,300/night so…maybe on the next visit?—-In the late afternoon we caught a Hop-On-Hop-Off bus and loved the tour to areas of San Antonio we would never have seen otherwise.

 Really enjoyed seeing Chad & Barb and being able to spend some time with them — they also joined us, along with my parents on a long trip in Italy this past April so these meet-ups are becoming a nice habit! 

It’s off to New Orleans now on the Sunset Limited! More later!