Up, down, impatient day

Quick update of activities (don't feel like writing much more tonight - that last blurb was my deep thoughts for the day:

- took a look around a beautiful Mexican/Texan marketplace outside our hotel - lots of cool souvenier type stuff there.

- Preston was off at noon & so we went to the buckhorn saloon for lunch (another yummy chili burger). It looks like an old wild west saloon in there. Food was good. Preston had 'chicken fried steak'. They also had 'chicken fried chicken' there, all of which sounds rather silly, but apparently 'chicken fried' is a cooking style as opposed to a descriptor of the type of meat. The lines were long to get the food & I was hungry & grumpy & impatient.

- The saloon had some museum stuff in it - some old west displays & then a bunch of horns & taxedermied animals - kind of cool - most of it would probably be illegal to have if you were trying to get them today.

- Went to the Alamo which was a bit disappointing. It's still nice - but it's basically just a big open area inside the alamo building/chapel - a few little displays, but nothing really there. The grounds around the alamo are nice, but yeah, I don't know what I was expecting, but this wasn't it.

- Went on the river tour - that was fun - the boat driver was hilarious & gave a great & informative tour.

- Went to "La Villita" the artisan village, some cool stuff, but a tad pricey.

- Wandered around the river walk & into one of the cathedrals. Nice time to wander & chat with Preston.

- Ended the day at Pat O'Brian's cajun restaurant with crazy, loud, annoying drunk people sitting one table over & screaming & whooping & hollering. Then there was the cool waiter guy who could balance trays of food or multiple trays of drinks on his head & walk around with them - very amazing. The food was not bad. Had some alligator bites - yummy though a bit chewy - and Preston & I ordered some crawfish cakes & crawfish etouffe (which was supposed to look like a big crawfish cake with sauces on it). What I got didn't look right & I tried to get a hold of a waitress to confirm, but they weren't around & then finally appeared & abruptly told me it was the right dish. So I ate it, wondering why my crawfish looked like tiny shrimp & yeah, in the end I think I had the shrimp creole dish, but along the way I left my brother shocked & concerned at my response to the whole thing.

Guess that was the day - maybe hitting the "mission trail" tomorrow.