Earlier this spring, Mr. McKinney and I got away for a fun Anniversary weekend trip to San Antonio, Texas. We are taking a bigger trip next month to celebrate our first time away from Little Man, but we both needed the time away together and it was fun to take our little guy on a new adventure in Texas. (since that’s where we were all born!)
You would think as good Texans, we would have both known when we picked our anniversary date that it fell on some significant Texas history dates, but we went to college in Arkansas so we have different historical dates in our brains, that was our excuse any way.
All that to say we encountered a super fun weekend in San Antonio with bonus fun we didn’t know we were going to get to experience.
These days when we plan a weekend away, we want it drivable, good eating, new place, no schedule, but fun things to do and discover. This weekend in San Antonio checked all those boxes!
But, to get from Arkansas to the hill country of Texas takes a little jaunt. I’ll share our path and few things we had planned but didn’t get to do. We LOVED our weekend and the whole time we were there we talked about how much we think both sets of our family would enjoy repeating all the things we did!
Original Anniversary Weekend to San Antonio Itinerary:
FRIDAY:
- Leave super early when Little Man first gets up
- Breakfast and coffee on the road once we get somewhere fun or at least with better options
- Stop in Austin for lunch and to play
- Tour the state capital and meet up with cousins if we can
- **alt was to go on to San Marcos and shop and eat dinner
- Travel on to SA and spend the night for the weekend
SATURDAY:
- Breakfast at the hotel
- Toodle around San Antonio all day
- Eat good Mexican food
- See the Alamo, the market, and maybe the safari
- Eat dinner on the Riverwalk
- Early night in and maybe a movie in the room
SUNDAY:
- Eat breakfast on the way out of town
- Drive home
Easy enough??? Yeah well, what do they say about best made plans and good intentions. Our weekend plans were blow up, but in all kinds of good ways.
We realized as we were leaving, that we would be hitting the outskirts of Dallas at morning commute time and while going through East Texas would add about 45 minutes to our trip, we would be moving the whole time and seeing new towns or experiencing new routes we had not traveled before. And we did.
First stop was in Tyler at a gas station with a Whataburger. Little Man had his first Whataburger honey butter chicken biscuit. While he has had plenty of fried chicken type things, this was his first biscuit there and he was a BIG fan. He had slept so good for us on the way and with our potty break for all came breakfast too.
As we were making our way across town, I realized we would not be far from my Papa’s house. My papa passed away a few months before we got engaged and we had never been there together. While my Papa is not there, to be on his land and show Mr. McKinney around the place that means so much to me was just something that made my heart swell so much. I often say that land and most importantly, his backyard, is one of my favorite spots on the globe. There is a peace that comes over you when you sit out back. I remember summer evenings shelling peas and listening in on grown up conversation (If they only knew how much I loved grown up conversation they could have probably got a lot more work out of me!). I loved watching my Papa nurture his peach trees and garden. He and his brother figured out grafting and would make all kinds of varieties of peaches by grafting limbs from other trees to theirs.
That home was a place where people gathered, where extra vegetables were grown with the intention to give them away. There were always honey buns in the freezer and new apple fritters on the table. It’s the counter where I learned what coffee milk was and how to approach people with tough conversations. It was a place where grace and love were always extended, where accomplishments were celebrated and tough things were dealt with transparency.
I’ll forever be grateful for those quiet moments shared with my husband and my little man playing on the tractors and igniting imagination.
The detour took us on a new route and as I started investigating lunch spots, we realized we would be driving through downtown Corsicana at “late lunch” time. While I’ve stopped for a cookie and potty break at the big beautiful Collin Street Bakeries long the highways in Waco, Corsicana and Greenville, Texas, I’ve never been to the original location. Mr. McKinney had not been since a high school band trip so we decided to make that our next stop.
It was perfect. Old and nostalgic for me. Hearty food for hubs and fruit cups for little man. This was the last weekend on the bottle at bed time. So, we were still learning “eat out” options and best practices for table food for our growing toddler.
If you’ve never eaten at Collin Street Bakery, you should add it to you list, but they are known for their chicken salad. Next to their award-winning fruitcake, it’s the favorite item on the list. It comes on an also well-known product their pecan bread. I’m not a huge fan of the pecan bread, but eating in, they let me swap it out for the jalapeno cheese bread and it was PERFECT. I had it with a cup of soup and sweet tea and it was just the right amount. Mr. McKinney went with his staple, the turkey sandwich and between the 3 of us, we took it all down. We grabbed a couple cookies (butter cinnamon and lemon sugar for me) on our way out and were back on the road.
Our afternoon plan was to arrive in Austin and tour the capitol and take pictures and head on in to SA for the night. But, we started realizing we would be hitting Austin around 4 and I called the capitol and they still were doing tours, but that would mean we were on Southbound 35 at 5 on a Friday afternoon, or if we waited we would be getting to SA around 10 with a baby already asleep that doesn’t transfer well.
This new stage for us has us overthinking and redirecting all the time. So, McKinney was quick on his feet and suggested we look ahead at San Marcos or New Braunsfels and see if there was something to do. Well, hello you say San Marcos and I say Outlet Malls. But I had just switched out 12mo to 18-month clothing and new we really didn’t need anything outside of mom and dad Easter outfits. So, I was willing to shop, but I wanted to see if there was anything else to do.
My go to in that moment is always Trip Advisor and it did not disappoint. I quickly came across Wonder World Park. And while it sounded a little tourist and hokey, I was all the things I love and am trying to push us to do with a kid in the family. McKinney was in and that became our new destination. I made sure we would make it for tours and such and we were off!
It was not hokey at all and it is now something I’ve shared and told so many people about. I even used it to claim a new spot in my Trip Advisor rankings! We loved it. We got the combined tour pass, because when on vacation, you cant miss and experience. It took us on a drive through animal safari, the guided cave tour, science center, gravity house, observation tower, and petting zoo.
It was staffed by students from the local college and they were excited about their jobs and enthusiastic about the information they shared.
The cave here was the first show cave in Texas, located along the Balcones Fault Line, and has such and incredible history from private owners and now public attractions. We learned all about the rocks and limestone, the 2 types of terrain that have developed in this region over time and the water reservoirs located deep inside this cave. It was really fascinating. Our Little Man had about had enough as we got towards the end, but we were both enthralled and thought the whole time about how our families would enjoy it.
The safari driving tour was neat as well. The train stopped for a while and let people who purchased food feed the animals and pet them. We held back from that part because those are the kinds of things, we don’t have to spend money on yet, but it was neat to watch a few deer type animals do a little sparring and just watch different types of animals interact in the wild. They also had snow peacocks, something I’d never seen and fainting goats that we scared and got to pet the little babies that are just a few weeks old.
This was probably my favorite day of our weekend. Just totally unexpected and unplanned surprises that had me going!
We asked the students giving us our tour where they recommended for dinner and they gave some great suggestions of things I’d already seen on yelp and Trip Advisor. As we pulled in to town, Mr. McKinney remembered a high school trip to the area where they at a total hole in the wall, local dive called Herbert’s Taco Hut. I saw the pictures and it looked like my kind of place. But, when the college boy suggested it too, our final decision was made. Y’all, it was SOOOOOOO GOOOOOOD. I mean lick your plate kind of the good. We got there before the Friday night crowd and were immediately seated at a table. Service was impeccable. And I promise you the guy barely had time to type our order into the computer before it showed up at our table. Which just meant I didn’t have enough time for a third basket of chips. Their salsa was good enough that we bought 2 jars to bring home with us. It was clearly made by a Mexican grandpa! I think we are already planning how we can drive down there just for that.
If you are going anywhere near central Texas or the Hill Country, you need to add in to your plans the Wonder World Park and Herbert’s Taco Hut (I’m not sponsored by either one, but if they want to bring me back down…we will be there so fast!)
After that, with our bellies so full, we made our way on to San Antonio to check in and get settled for a fun weekend. Pre-baby McKinney’s would have dropped out stuff and checked out the town, stayed up late and slept in. But, now that we are parents of a one-year-old, we know it doesn’t matter what time we get in, he is still going to get up around 6 and be jumping in the bed ready to go. So we figured we might as well just play along.
We stayed at the Embassy Suites on the Riverwalk. While there are several great options and some deeper in the walk, more in the middle of things, this was the perfect location for us. At this stage, the Embassy is a great option because all rooms have the “suite” type set up. We can put the baby in one area in the pack ‘n play and still have our own room to watch TV and not have to be in the dark in bed at 8pm. Although, right now that sounds amazing. Also, this was Mardi Gras weekend and if we had been closer to the middle of the action, which is where the no-kid McKinney’s would have been, Little Man would have never slept. I’m cheap and like to argue with the Mr. on hotel selections, but I sure am glad I listened. Plus, this location had onsite breakfast and an afternoon manager’s reception that could have served for dinner if we wanted it to.
As promised, Little Man was up early so we got ready for the day, went down for breakfast and then took out on the town. We hit the Alamo first and got our history lesson for the day. Apparently, March 5 was the day that Santa Ana called for the attack on the Alamo and the battle was fought on March 6. Again, things 2 good Texans should have known, but we didn’t, so we were reminded by special ceremonies and fanfare throughout the day. Thankfully we were leaving as most of the crowd was showing up.
I’ll tell you what I loved about San Antonio and being down on the Riverwalk was that we could just walk everywhere. Little Man rode in his stroller and we just took the map and took off. We had a crisp morning walk to the Alamo and stopped to get local coffee along the way. I love local coffee but its hard when Starbucks is literally across the alley from them. I’m proud for them for sticking with it and making it happen when the Starbucks line was out the door.
The rest of the morning was spent strolling around and discovering things I found on my map as we headed to the Market Square for a late lunch.
As we were walking, I looked down a sidewalk and noticed a statue and a building that didn’t not look like other things. I asked if we could stop for a minute and let me look at the map and see what we might be missing. It was something cool. The Spanish Governor’s Palace and this site is part of the National Park Service. Once I saw the statues and learned what it was about, I felt like that was enough for me and said we could move on. But, knowing me, Mr. McKinney said, “its pretty rare that we are this close and can tour something that is 300 years old and it only cost $5.” He is so wise! So we toured it.
I’m so thankful he is mine. And its moments like these, on an anniversary trip, where I see how far we have come. How much our time together has taught us about each other and how we are forming this team and a family that is about the same things and wants to accomplish, see, learn and grow so much.
So, we toured and it was cool, and we have pictures and can tell Little Man about the places he has seen.
After the Spanish Governor’s Palace, we walked on to the Market Square, our main destination for the day. Several people told us to eat a Mi Tierra, but we had also received recommendations for La Margarita. Once we hit the main corridor, we decided that La Margarita would be our stop. It was right in the middle of the walkway and a live band was set up outside. While it was probably not the best moment to have my little guy that close to loud music, he loved it. His smile was so big and his grin ran wide across his face. We shared and enjoyed fajitas and took in all the people watching and street fest.
Lucky for us, San Antonio, while a different kind of party, doesn’t really need much of an excuse to hold a party. So, between celebrating Mardi Gras and the Alamo battle, there were people every where. The homemade gorditas and elotes vendors had me wondering if I should leave a little room instead of eating the extra homemade tortillas.
It really was the perfect kind of afternoon. We strolled in and out of stores, dreaming of home décor, cabin life, and searching for trinkets. With our own Fiesta Fest in the works back home I felt like I needed an authentic shirt to have in my wardrobe and we met the nicest couple who worked with us and loved on Little Man in the process. They wanted the “market haggle” but by the way they treated my little boy it probably wouldn’t have mattered how much they charged us.
We walked back to our hotel by way of a couple other stops on my map. The crisp morning air had been replaced by a warm sunny afternoon and little man slept in the stroller while we just took our time. We had intended to all take naps in the room that afternoon, but just rested for a bit before the Riverwalk parade started.
After the parade, we took a Rio Tour to see all the stops and learn a little more history. We would both come back and recommend that again. We learned a lot, got the lay of the land and met some nice people we shared awkward laughter with at the tour guides funny jokes. Knowing it would get a little crazy, we took in an early dinner. We were over the Mexican food, although that is abundant in the area. All the typical tourist restaurants like Joes Crab Shack and Rainforest Café were among the choices and then basically every steak place you’ve seen anywhere around Texas. But every time we asked where we should go, a local person would tell us about Boudros. After the third recommendation we decided it was silly to even question it. So, we made our way to Boudreaux and were not disappointed.
Everyone also recommended the same thing – the Ribeye and the tableside guacamole. While we held back on the guacamole….although everyone around us did not and it looked amazing, Mr. McKinney took on the Ribeye and I had Duck 3 ways. Seriously one of the best meals, anywhere, in a very long time. We would come back and eat there every time. We had an inside table for two with little mand hanging close in his high chair. The patio would have been my first choice, but it was chilly and packed so we took the first available option. Even on a chilly evening, they had patio warmers and Mexican ponchos draped over all of the outside chairs. It was fantastic. They had some good-looking dessert on their menu but I had spotted an ice cream shoppe we would walk past on our way back.
Even then, I was not hungry so we waited until we go settled in our room and ordered dessert from room service. Not to self – the chocolate mousse cake was the way to go, but my crème brule did not disappoint.
We watched a movie in our room, although we realized the next morning, we could have watched the laser light show on the cathedral from our room. At 9:00 pm on nights it’s not raining, there is a laser light show that tells the history of San Antonio through a display on the outside walls of the cathedral.
The next morning was pack up and head home. We did exit in Austin to look around the State Capitol and Governor’s Mansion. It was raining so we didn’t get out, but we might have were the weather different.
This trip was really the perfect kind of weekend for us. Together time, making new memories, eating at new places, exploring the land!
