San Antonio

Jake and I went to San Antonio last weekend and went to Feista Six Flags over Texas, it was an awesome adventure and felt so good to get away from Houston. We camped at a KOA campground (thanks to the grandparents for the introduction to KOA camping on our trip to South Dakota 10 years ago!) Six Flags was fun... I wasn't feeling very well after going on a bad first right that made me sick and eating tamales that I brought with us that one of my students gave me. It was fun people watching... Texans are a different breed! Why is the obesity rate so high here? I contribute it to the heat, lack of outdoor activity, and an abundance of restaurant choices.

On the second day in SA we hung out on the BEAUTIFUL riverwalk (see above pictures) and then did one of the more infamous things... floating the Guadalupe River on tubes. Nick Bomalaski, one of my Sigma Chi fraternity brothers was in town for the weekend, and he was able to join us for the adventure. It was an adventure to say the least! Imagine a 5 hour journey on innertubes floating down a river that is jam packed with other tubers all very intoxicated and rockin it red neck style. I seriously felt like I was in another world. We saw nudity, many fights, and VERY silly people doing very drunk things. It was a Texas experience. There were thousands and thousands of tubers floatin down. Jake saved a lady's life while I tried to make peace between two women fighting over who said what to whoever's boyfriend. Jesus. Nick, who is from San Antonio, but went to Whitman and now lives in Alaska, put it well by saying, "Robert, this is what Texans call an outdoor adventure!"... I tried to explain to Jake the beauty of white water river kayaking, rock climbing up steep peeks, and being in the mountains and what really cold water is (this water was around 75 degrees!)... I wish for all Texans to make a pilgrimage up north to the serenity and greenery of the Pacific Northwest... then they'll know beauty.