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cleaning day
Remember two days ago ago when I mentioned how much I liked to watch sidewalks being hosed down?
I watched this guy for a long time – he not only hosed down the sidewalk but hit the bridge supports, too. The water was pumped out of the river and the runoff went straight back into it – in case you were wondering about that and also maybe if you were wondering if there’s a difference between “clean” and “wet.” But at any rate, here you go with a non-touristy view of the Riverwalk.
San Antonio, Texas
photographed 5.18.2022
crystals
I went to grad school in New Orleans, and that’s where I learned that the most enjoyable times (for me) in the French Quarter were early in the morning. It feeds into (1) my dislike of crowds and (2) my interest in seeing the behind-the-scenes parts of things. In NOLA, there was always someone hosing down a sidewalk, which for some reason I liked to watch.
Anyway, the same theory holds on the Riverwalk in San Antonio – an early-morning stroll was empty of people…a nice thing for a photographer like me.
San Antonio, Texas
photographed 5.18.2022
Window air conditioner
Most of the main part of the Riverwalk is developed, with hotels and restaurants and bars competing for those tourist dollars. But every now and then, there’s a place that’s been passed by, that serves as a reminder of what the whole place used to look like.
This was one of those places.
the Riverwalk
San Antonio, Texas
photographed 10.24.2014
Goods
If you are in San Antonio and want to get away from the tourists around the Alamo and the Riverwalk, you could do this:
1. Have breakfast at Ocho, a nice little place at the Hotel Havana. (But the waitress will ask you to not take photos with your camera. You can, she says, take as many as you want with a phone. When asked the difference, she says they don’t allow cameras “with lenses” because of “privacy concerns.” You decide it’s not worth the time to explain to her what a lens actually is. Or how a photo shot with a phone is kind of more likely to instantly show up on Facebook.)
2. Walk north along the Riverwalk. There won’t be any tourists, other than yourself and any companions you may have brought along. But there will be plenty of runners and walkers and dogs. It’s a nice walk. Some of the bridges have art under them, and there’s even a set of locks. It’s a very pleasant place.
3. Take some time at the Pearl Brewery, which hasn’t actually been a brewery in a long time. If it’s a Saturday, the part with the farmers market and retail shops will be pretty crowded, but the part where the sign says GOODS will be quiet. You can sit in the shade and read a book.
4. Or you can take in the stores and do a pretty fair amount of people watching at the market.
5. Or, you can find a chair on a grassy slope above the river and read that same book. (We are Water*, by Wally Lamb, was what I was reading, in case you wondered.)
6. After a while, you could go to La Gloria for some street tacos.
7. And then, you could get the water taxi to take you back toward downtown. The taxi’s only marginally faster than walking, but it does go through the locks, which is something that I don’t get to do in my day-to-day routine.
San Antonio, Texas
photographed 1.25.2014
* I agree with the review, and am glad that the book was on sale: it wouldn’t have been worth it otherwise.
Two things about San Antonio
To me, the Riverwalk generally conjures up images of Mexican food restaurants by the water and about a million sunburned tourists working really hard at having fun.
There’s this other part of the Riverwalk, though, called the Museum Reach. It goes to some museums (weird, I know) and the old Pearl Brewery. There are not that many people on the Museum Reach, so naturally that’s the part I like the best.
The part I like the best, after this very nice shade structure, I mean.
San Antonio, Texas
photographed 11.26.2011
*Why, yes, I do have the obligatory Alamo photograph! It’s right here.
One Day | One Image 