New Year’s Day, 2023 Day 7 San Antonio, TX

Happy 2023 Everyone! In San Antonio they celebrate bringing in the New Year with fireworks – and I mean a lot of fireworks. If you combined all the fireworks I’ve heard in my lifetime, they might equal about 10% of what we heard in San Antonio. A neighbor warned us that we would not get much sleep and she was right.

Happy Birthday to Domenic who turned 12 years old on December 27 and Happy Birthday to Zach on his 31st birthday, January 1!

We kept getting air quality alerts overnight and into the morning. I think it may be from the fireworks, but not entirely sure. But it was hazy in the morning, and we opted out of our walk on the River Walk and took Justice for a long walk in the campgrounds before getting ready to visit the Historic Market Square in downtown San Antonio.

There are over 100 locally owned businesses in this location with authentic Mexican artifacts, leather, and cultural apparel. It is filled with live entertainment, delicious food, and events. We spent a couple hours here and purchased a really nice Mexican blanket for $10! We were looking for a blanket to cover picnic tables and this is a perfect fit.

Our next stop was at the La Margarita Restaurant for an authentic Mexican meal. This is a historic structure built in 1881 and what caught my eye, was the plaque honoring the Henry Guerra Family who built it. It was an hour wait but well worth it. We were seated at an outside table with inlaid vintage Mexican tiles, very similar to those we have at home that we made into coasters. It was an umbrella table and there were also Live Oak trees along the outside providing welcoming shade. Ron chose the Deluxe Mexican dinner with Beef Fajitas al Carbon served with grilled onions, a cheese enchilada, tamale, crispy taco, Spanish rice, refried beans, and guacamole salad. I had the Flautas de Pollo which includes 2 flute-like rolled corn tortillas filled with seasoned chicken, grilled and topped with Guacamole and sour cream, served with Spanish rice and refried beans. We both had a frozen margarita, too – everything was delicious, and the service was impeccable!