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Arrival McNay Art Museum Botanical Garden

Arrival

Amy, Jan, and Cameron on the Riverwalk

We flew in on American Airlines with a layover in Houston. San Antonio bills itself as the eighth largest city in the U.S., which seemed impossible (New York, L.A., Atlanta...even Houston and Dallas must be bigger?) until we discovered that the city limits cover 368.6 square miles!

We stayed about a 10-minute drive north of downtown at Studio Plus, a low-budget suite motel. A noisy, malfunctioning air conditioner (making it hard to sleep), variable maid service, and basic shabbiness prevent us from recommending the facility, but we did appreciate having a kitchenette (though this one was not particularly well supplied) to help keep meal expenses down.

Nearby we quickly found an H.E.B., a ubiquitous south Texas grocery store chain. Some H.E.B.s (we still don't know what the acronym stands for) sold only groceries , but the one near our hotel was huge, comparable to a large Fred Meyer. We lacked nothing, including low-priced gasoline.

The first night, after arriving late, we searched for a quick meal and found Wings 'N More, where we had delicious barbecue chicken—maybe not genuine "Texas BBQ" but tasty all the same. Given the layout of the restaurant, which was exactly the same as the T.G.I. Fridays in Kirkland, we speculated that either Fridays owned Wings or used to occupy the space. We were surprised at the coincidence of finding a Mariners/Texas Rangers game on the TV—the Mariners won and we cheered quietly.

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Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum

Our first morning we spent at the lovely McNay Art Museum. Marion Koogler McNay bequeathed her art collection, Spanish-Colonial Revival-style mansion, 23 beautifully landscaped acres, and an endowment to the city of San Antonio. Opened in 1954, the McNay was the first modern art museum in Texas. The collection includes 19th- and 20th-century European and American paintings and sculpture. Featured are works by Cézanne, Hopper, Matisse, O'Keeffe, and Picasso, as well as Degas, Monet, Gauguin, and Van Gogh. Also included are Mexican artists Orozco, Rivera, and Siqueiros.

The sloping lawns and wooded trails include fountains, a Japanese- inspired garden with fishpond, and major works of outdoor sculpture.

We stood for a while to watch George Rickey's wind-powered Horizontal Column of Five Squares, Excentric II, a sculpture set in the middle of a pond [left], which recreates itself with the slightest breeze.

We felt very comfortable strolling through the intimate spaces of the renovated mansion. Cameron was given a set of painting identification cards at the outset, so that he ran ahead to hunt for paintings, and we had age-appropriate ideas and questions about the art to discuss.

Perhaps our favorite space was the sunny Spanish-Colonial garden courtyard in the middle of the mansion, with a tiled fountain and sculptures to view, including Washerwoman by Auguste Renoir.

When we were done with our visit, we ate a picnic lunch beside a bright, sun-yellow sculpture [right] at a table tucked among the trees.

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San Antonio Botanical Garden

Our afternoon was enjoyably spent strolling in the sunshine at the beautiful San Antonio Botanical Garden. The 33 landscaped acres include a formal garden and wisteria arbor, rose garden, sacred garden, herb garden, garden for the blind, children's garden, and Japanese garden, with numerous fountains, ponds, and pools. The Garden also encompasses the highest hill (topped with a gazebo lookout) within the San Antonio city limits—which demonstrates just how flat the city is!

But what makes the Garden particularly spectacular are two special features: a four-building Conservatory and examples of three South Texas ecological regions.

Built by the San Antonio Botanical Society in 1988 for $6.9 million, the uniquely designed glass buildings of the Conservatory [right] contain plants from around the world. The greenhouses surround a sunken courtyard and tropical lagoon filled with aquatic plants.

Specialty collections include alpine plants, epiphytic plants, desert cacti and succulents, equatorial tropicals, palms and cycads, and a fern grotto with waterfall. Each group is housed in its own climate-controlled environment, including a 65-foot tall, fog-enshrouded forest of palms.

The native Texas areas comprise plant communities characteristic of the Hill Country, East Texas Piney Woods, and Southwest Texas. The three distinctive ecological regions vary in soil, plant life, topography, and weather. Within each botanical setting sits an early Texas dwelling to demonstrate how pioneers lived in these areas: the reconstructed Schumacher House, a log cabin, and an adobe house.

We spent several hours at the Garden and thoroughly enjoyed the walk [left, Cameron feeds ducks at the Garden's lake].

After leaving, we stopped at the oddly named Fuddrucker's for cold, thick, real ice cream milkshakes. Dinner that night was simple spaghetti in our suite.

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