San Antonio in January
 

I need help planning my itinerary. I've never been, although my husband lived there a couple years in the air force. So far, all I have on my list is the Alamo (of course), Riveralk (shopping & boat ride), and BBQ at the Salt Lick near Austin. We're also going to Boerne to visit friends, so anything along the way would be fine. Taking our 3 teenagers. We'll be attending a convention for part of the stay.

Certainly visit the other missions in San Antonio.
http://www.nps.gov/saan/

If you have time and if the weather is acceptable Enchanted Rock is nice place to explore. It's about an hour and half or two hour drive from San Antonio. http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/f...nted_rock/#sch

Do you have your dates yet? I believe that they drain the river once a year in January. This year it was around Jan 12-16th. They hold a "mud festival" but it doesn't really sound like a great time to be touring the river walk (and, of course, no boat ride.) I didn't see the 2007 dates on the web site.

With three teens, you have to shop the outlet malls in San Marcos. Two HUGE malls.

German Food at Oma's Haus in San Marcos. Or at Shilo's Deli in downtown SA.

The Marketplace for tacky and not so tacky souvineers.

Teens might like the nightly ghost tour or a segway ride

If you and your family aren't overly familiar with TX history, go to the IMAX movie first. It will then make the Alamo more meaningful.

I totally agree to see the other missions! San Jose has the visitor's center and an award-winning film.

The Hill Country between San Antone and Boerne is full of antiques, cute stores and restaurants. So are Fredericksburg, Llano, Burnet, etc. Just kick around and explore! :-)

Yikes! Is there a place I can ask regarding the draining of the river? We are going to be there around Jan. 12-14 for convention, possibly the week before to do some free time sightseeing.

Too bad you'll miss the bats in Austin. They arrive around March though.

This is from the San Antonio website: January 11 - 14, 2007, Michelob ULTRA Riverwalk Mud Festival. Held for one week in January to celebrate the draining of the San Antonio River for maintenance by the Parks & Recreation Department.

According to my husband, who has to have the dates for rates of his hotel rooms, dates are Jan 3-12 for '07. The river isn't that bad when drained. I expected it to be devoid of water, but actually it looked more like a tidal river at low tide. Boats wouldn't be running though.

Another thought you all would enjoy...Natural Bridge Caverns, about 1/2 hour out of town off I-35. No matter what the weather, the caves are a steady 70 something degrees and are surprisingly wonderful. We had friends here from England this spring who actually thought the caves were one of the highlights of the entire trip. While you are out that way, take in Gruene, (a part of New Braunfels), and Gruene Hall...a historic live music venue...usually free unless they have a big time name there at the time. More than a few artists got their starts at Gruene Hall and the music from the free groups looking for a start can be excellent, good-mediocre, or rarely...nothing you care to listen too. We love going over for a Sunday afternoon.

San Antonio becomes Boerne as you head northweat out of town and there's really not anything that I can think of worthwhile that time of year out that way. There's some decent shopping in Boerne...for adults anyway...not so sure your kids will enjoy that.

Great suggestion for Natural Bridge Caverns and don't miss the drive-thru zoo right next door. That's a lot of fun, you can feed the animals through your car window. Just make sure your sun roof is closed, otherwise the ostriches will poke their heads in. That happened to us and it was quite a shock to see an ostrich head coming at us from above!! :-O

I heard there was a lavender farm somewhere between San Antonio and Boerne. Would it be worth a stop in January?

The one I know of is further north of Boerne just west of Blanco, but it won't be in bloom in January and really, no other reason to stop, although it's off a two lane road and sort of a pretty drive if you continue on (backroad to Fredericksburg).

This may be a little off the wall but when I was in San Antonio, we took a side trip to Luckenbach. It was a lot of fun sitting outdoors (having a beer) and listening to music. There's a general store that's been operating since 1849. It's all quite amusing, but the key is the music. I checked their schedule, nothing posted yet for January 07 but it was worth it IMHO. www.luckenbachtexas.com >:D<