We were so grateful for the air steward’s unorthodox way of calming our screaming baby we thought it might make these plane TUI tips for flying toddlers.
You know, putting lukewarm teabags over your kiddie’s lugs to curb air pressure.
So I dipped my toe in the water today on my Texas trip… and happen if I stay to the end of the week I’ll be joining the Friday nighters’ splash in San Antonio.
I got my feet wet but never my trademark Bandana with an early-morning swim in the open-deck pool at the Westin Riverwalk Hotel.
Before taking to the Riverwalk again… on foot.
Obvious you might think but weekend revellers have been known to end up in the drink.
Which we discovered on our excellent Go Rio Cruises jaunt down the San Antonio River.
Margarita time
Margarita o’clock: With Tara and April
Most of which I’ve forgotten… you’ll forgive me but booze had been taken, Margaritas in one of those plastic yard glasses.
Whoever won, whoever lost at the Alamo know something, San Antonio will Mex your day.
With the jewel of South Texas a smiling, dancing riposte to Donald Trump’s mission of division.
The missions are a good place to start when exploring San Antonio, southern Texas where the travel world has gathered for America’s annual travel fair.
Which UNESCO tell us are an example of the interweaving of Spanish and Coahuiltecan cultures.
Footsteps of history
I remembered: The Alamo
The missions history which includes the unforgettable Alamo is, of course, a challenging chapter of colonisation.
Which we discovered as we walked in the footprints of the first nation Native Americans, Texans and Mexicans (and Germans).
On our 300+ years of history coach tour of the San Antonio environs.
We’d got a taste of the Mexican influences in this, the seventh biggest city, in the country with 1 and a half million, at breakfast.
This being Texas where everything is bigger we’d feasted on barbecue beef, Mexican tacos and chicken and the fruits of the land.
All washed down with Texan cerveja and margarita, the latter which they made us work for.
On your bike
On a bike where they hook up the blender for you to power the mix.
All this brunch partying to extravagantly costumed and oversized-headed Mexican caricatures on a Sunday.
At the natural history and Mexican heritage Witte museum.
And you feel duty bound to beg Deo for forgiveness at any of the well-preserved churches the missions.
Alas, we are too late for the mariachi mass and have to make do instead with paying homage to the muscular friar Francis who founded the Franciscan order.
An order of discipline, devotion to Deo, poverty and great beards.
Monk business: St Francis
And they run in my family too through my mum’s cousins who were at the heart of the Nunraw Abbey near my new homestead North Berwick in Scotland.
And who I followed out to Medjugorje in Bosnia & Herzegovina where a Franciscan friar told us how he accidentally set his whiskers alight.
At a candle ceremony.
But I digress… and I have been going around in circles, particularly on the spectacular Riverwalk in San Antonio.
Around San Antonio
Super trooper: Buffalo Soldier Turner McGarritty
So if I deviate into Buffalo Soldiers, German towns, country, jazz and more.
I always seem to get back on course too.
Know something too though that San Antonio will Mex your day.
But maybe remind me the best way to get to the Alamo to channel my best Davey Crockett.
I should be OK as all signposts on the walk point to the famous fortification.