Did you know there is more to the National Park Service than just 63 stunning National Parks?
Among other places, there are 63 National Historical Parks...the Alamo isn't one of them. Instead, The Alamo was designated as a National Historic Landmark on December 19, 1960. Having already visited it the last time we were in San Antonio, we decided to add another stamp to our National Park Service passport books and visit the Mission San Juan which is one of the four missions making up the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park.
The Mission San Juan is a lovely little park which doesn't take too much time to wander through. The chapel is simple, the artwork well done.
As it was a lazy outing day for us with no rush to be anywhere, we meandered our way from the Mission to the Riverwalk. The Riverwalk has long stretches of just following beautifully manicured pathways along the river past statues and apartment buildings with restaurants and a few shops intermixed for variety.
This beautiful mural is one of the things you'll see as you walk along.
After wandering on our own for a bit, we opted to take one of the boat rides and learn something about the city.
The ride took us by a small artist area known as La Villita which we had to check out afterwards. Like the Mission, La Villita isn't terribly big so even with looking at all of the beautiful wares inside the shops, there was still time for us to see some of the not too touristy places.
It seems as though more and more places have a space needle type building with a revolving restaurant. Here it's called the Tower of the Americas.
Since this one was built in 1966 only five short years after Seattle's famous Space Needle, I suppose it's less "new" and more learning how popular they are as we travel around the country.
Our last find was an incredible playground at the Hemisfair. Sadly, it was overrun with children accompanied by their respective adults so instead of playing on any of the many climbing nets, we had to settle for appreciating how much fun the kids were having.
There is definitely so much more to see and do in San Antonio but sometimes you just want a relaxing afternoon of sightseeing.
Comments