It's Official - We're Old!

St. Patrick's Day - party time! And we were in San Antonio! A party city. I can usually find something green to wear even if it's only my black socks with the bright green shamrocks. (Those socks will last forever because they only get worn one day a year.) But this year we were in our RV and I didn't really bring anything green - not even my shamrock socks. Poor planning on my part. So we planned to go downtown to buy some of those little shamrock antennae to wear. Festive without being over the top.

Mark had his seminar in the morning and when he got back we set off for downtown. I thought that the Riverwalk might be crowded because of St. Patrick's Day combined with spring break so we planned to eat lunch at the Mercado. More poor planning on my part. There was some kind of music festival going on at the Mercado. It was even more crowded than the Riverwalk, if such a thing can be imagined. The two restaurants worth eating at both had wait times of over an hour and a half.

I've never been a big fan of crowds. I'm not tall (I guess that makes me short) and all of the tall people breathe all of the air - none of the air gets down to my level. Not only do they take all the air, they stop without warning. They change direction without signalling. Sometimes they stop and head back into you in one move. One of them was holding his cigar in front of him like it was a flashlight. He probably ended up burning somebody - just glad it wasn't me. Then there was another guy walking with his drink extended out to his side and looking in the opposite direction from the direction he was walking. That probably didn't end well, either.

We got out of the crowd and headed toward the Riverwalk because we were starving. Getting food became more important than shamrock antennae, geckos, or music festivals. We stopped in to the Esquire Tavern and Grill for cheeseburgers. When we left, we had a decision to make. Go left or go right? Left would take us in the direction of the Museum Reach and The Pearl. Right would take us into the most commercialized section of the Riverwalk. In other words, crowds or no crowds.

We opted for no crowds even though the parade was getting ready to start. I think the parade was probably going to make several passes over the course of the evening. (Only in San Antonio do parade floats actually float.) There was very little foot traffic in the direction we were headed.
We walked all the way to The Pearl. La Gloria, the establishment closest to the boat landing was extremely crowded but that was okay, it was far too early for dinner. We walked another block and the area near the Culinary Institute was full of empty tables and benches where you could just sit down and enjoy the weather without being crowded. But since it was a long walk getting there, we didn't want to walk back. And since we'd eaten lunch so late, neither of us wanted to eat dinner, at least not at that time.

Bottom line? On St. Patrick's Day, a major party time in a major party town, we were at home by 7 pm. We missed the parade, we had no shamrock antennae, no corned beef and cabbage, we did not see the Riverwalk water turn green, no Riverdance, absolutely no shenanigans - and we didn't care. We are officially old.