I grew up for most of my life in San Antonio (despite the time we lived in Ohio for 4 years) but since I’ve been living in California, my parents moved to be closer to my sisters in the Katy/Houston area. I haven’t been to San Antonio in about 5 years and John has never been, so when we decided to go to Texas for the holidays I made the executive decision to spend a night in San Antonio and have a good ole classic night on the Riverwalk for Christmas. It’s SO BEAUTIFUL during the holidays if you haven’t been I suggest you visit during this time because it’s a #win.

We stayed at the haunted Emily Morgan hotel, which is on the list of top 10 haunted hotels in America. While we didn’t see anything too crazy, I did have crazy dreams about Santa Anna and Mexico City, and my sister’s TV went on and off in her room! (Emily Morgan is also the name of the Yellow Rose of Texas, who was also a lover of Santa Anna. AND MY NAME IS EMILY!!! Coincidence much?!!) The hotel is next door to the Alamo, which is a quick and free visit and amazing way to explore Texas history. (You can see the Emily Morgan hotel in the background next to the flag. I mean it just looks scary AF, right?! I wish I got a picture of the creepy gargoyles up close but I forgot. OOOPS).

You can buy beers and margaritas from the BierGarten once you are in the Riverwalk and walk around with them and explore, which is nice because I like to drink my booze and multitask. We had some chips and queso at Casa Rio (my favorite Mexican on the Riverwalk) which felt amazing because you can’t get good queso in California (this is a fact and not an opinion). Then we rode a boat just as it got dark to watch the beautiful lights and point out scenes from where they filmed the movie Selena (A FAN FAVORITE IN THIS HOUSE!). But beware, if you wait too long the line is insane. Also there can be a lot of screaming children so you have been warned…

Afterwards, we headed to the Pearl area to explore some bars, mostly the rooftop bar at Paramour, and walked around the new developing artsy part of the Riverwalk which was 100% awesome and something I’ve never done before. My favorite was the goldfish art exhibit under the freeway because they light up at night and were so pretty.

After a night of eating and drinking and crazy dreams, we woke up and ate big ass breakfast tacos from Taco Haven, a San Antonio institution. It was a short trip, but better than not going at all! I love you San Antonio! Until next time…