We went to San Antonio a few days earlier than the birthday crew and had an explore by ourselves and fulfilled Adams mission to consume copious amounts of finger licking ribs.

We hired city commuter bikes and made up our own city tour. It didn’t quite start as smoothly as we would have liked with the journey beginning on a loud, dirty, artierial road and our bikes requiring three pit stops along the way due to flat tyres. Once we finally found it, the River Walk was impressive, surrounded by beautifully maintained garden beds and park lands, with new developments popping up around it. We rode around an hour out of the city, winding along side streets and bike paths. At one point I almost ran over a gorgeous little turtle who had made a wrong turn at the rivers edge and ended up on the road. We stopped to rescue him and returned him to the river. A bit further along we stumbled across the Emma Hotel and The Pearl district where we found a fantastic community hub. There was a huge lawn area behind the impressive hotel, where a food hall and children’s fountain created a relaxed and fun atmosphere. The sun was shining, and it was the perfect venue for a few afternoon bevs. Interestingly, the ride exposed us to the huge number of homeless people in the city. We often noticed people sleeping under the bridges and were even privileged enough to have one man, stand directly in front of us, pull down his pants and wee on the footpath before us, giving me an eyeful of American penis. It was sad to see so much development and progression and conversely such a lack of capacity to care for all members of the community.

The next day we headed out in the pouring rain to get to the bus station to go shopping. We arrived soaked to the core, but we saved some serious coin! That night we headed to the supermarket to pick up some breakfast supplies and incidentally found dinner. A family sized pizza made fresh to order with two free beers for the grand total of US$10. No wonder the population is the size it is.

Because there was a possiblilty that Adam wouldn’t see enough basketball in Texas, we purchased some tickets to the NBA to see the San Antonio Spurs vs Oklahoma City Thunder. Truthfully the game was much better than I had anticipated. On arrival we headed straight to the bar thinking we would get into the spirit of the game with a beer. Whilst at the bar, a local woman overheard us talking and struck up a conversation with us. She was so impressed that we had made it to the game all the way from Australia and said she wished she had met us a few minutes earlier, so she could have shouted us our drinks for our efforts. The atmosphere of the crowd was hilarious. With every time out, quarter time or small break in play the Spurs mascot would be out, revving up the crowd. There were competitions from various sponsors where people could win anything from a t-shirt to a couch for participating in a basketball related challenge. Adam got into the spirit singing, ‘in the heart of Texas’ at the top of his voice and the young crew of guys behind us kept us entertained when a contestant was in the running to win the entire crowd a free ‘Chic-fil-a’ breakfast.

When the Australian crew arrived we moved out of the city into the burbs, into a mansion owned by the local minister. Five bedrooms, a fully equipped kitchen and a pool, ministers are obviously on a pretty good wicket in the States. The next four days mainly revolved around the basketball, but we managed to fit in a few other adventures.
Adam and the boys usually get around each other for March madness so being in Texas, to see the final 4 in the flesh, was a dream come true for them and a giant 'bucket list' tick. Sadly a gastro bug swept through the house and a few of the boys were touch and go to making it all. Luckily with some serious drugs on board, they set off on the Saturday afternoon to watch the preliminary finals at the Alamo dome, a converted football stadium that holds 70,000 people. By all reports the experience was incredible, Adam said ‘it felt like Christmas morning’. Saturdays games between Kansas Jayhawks vs Villanova Wildcats and Loyola Ramblers vs Michigan Wolverines were reportedly the better of the weekend. Although they were up in the heavens where the atmosphere was slightly lost, they were all thrilled to be there and enjoyed the games. The Monday night final where Villanova convincingly beat Michigan, was a slight let down given the lack of a real game and the A$500 that was spent on the ticket. However, the general consensus was that the tournament was worth every penny. They had a ball. My night was spent babysitting the three babes at home, it was certainly an awakening into parenthood!

After a heap of organising, Easter Sunday was spent out in the Hill Country of San Antonio. We were imagining Yarra Valley and got something like Werribee. We visited three wineries in the end. The first was great, we had a private tasting and chatted more basketball with the host than wine! We sat outside in the sun and enjoyed a glass before heading to the next winery which we had packed a picnic for and planned to settle in. We knew something was terribly wrong when each tasting was going straight to the spittoon and our disgusted faces were getting harder to hold back! The picnic was understandably cut short so that we could get our fix at the third winery down the road. It was a fun day out, but I can’t say I would recommend the region to anyone.

Our last morning was spent at the nail salon. I had been a bit desperate and Flynn and Kath decided to join me. Shockingly a shellac pedi cost AU$100. We were astounded. The girls kindly paid for me as a thankyou for looking after the kids, what a generous gift.