san antonio, por favor

because we're broke, and christmas is just around the corner, we decided to make our honeymoon a short weekend in san antonio.  that being said, we had the best time.

 taylor got a lot of hookups through his job, and so we got to stay at the Hilton Palacio del Rio in a balcony suite right on the riverwalk! the view was incredible too

and so our first night (friday)  comprised of us soaking in the christmas-y riverwalk.  we ate at casa rio, a mexican place that is strangely owned by germans.  but we gusta'd all the same.  and we took a stroll around before calling it a night.  because saturday was the big day for us!

margarita? yes please!

we got to go to seaworld for free! another freebie that taylor scored.  and that included a special event.......swimming with beluga whales! i am a marine biologist at heart. so.this.was.perfect.  we got to seaworld right when it opened so we could see the dolphins and catch the killer whale show before we headed to see our belugas, which was the last thing we did. they were so squashy! they're really fatty animals, because they live in the arctic and all.  dont judge, they're just keeping warm. this one was named betty, but we got to play with two more also.

then after we got back to town, we did a little shopping before our big fancy schmancy dinner at little rhein steakhouse.  the waiters there wore white button up shirts with black vests and long black aprons.  that sort of place.  but our waiter was awesome.  he came up to us and said "good evening" in a pseudo-i'm-full-of-myself voice.  we had a good laugh at that because he was really just a hamburger-and-fries guy like us.  he kept telling us "pinkies up!" because we told him how we try to be prim and proper every now and then, but it never works.  overall i loved it.  the atmosphere was great and we had a perfect view.

yes, we got an entire plate to hold our cocktail sauce :)

  after that we checked out the wax museum...really freaky.

this creeped me out.  red michael is looking right at me in this shot

                                                            and of course..the alamo :)

huge tree in front of the alamo

taylor was tired of taking pictures with me at this point

 lastly, we barely caught the last river boat tour of the night.  it was such a perfect way to end our last night in san antonio! i definitely recommend going during wintertime. 

the rest of the night consisted of another stroll through the prettier side of the riverwalk, and just enjoying our kickass hotel.  we had no agenda on sunday, thank gosh.  but we had free passes to go see the natural bridge caverns, thanks to taylor again, so we thought we'd check it out after breakfast at ihop.  pretty cool stuff! it was hot down there, felt like 80 with a 99% humidity.  its amazing what the world can do.

see the "natural bridge?"

with heavy hearts, we headed back home.  but not before we got our first family christmas ornament!!!

woohoo! cant wait till we have an entire tree full of memories.  till then, our little alamo will do :)