Cinco De Mayo Soccer Tournament in San Antonio

Happy Cinco de Mayo!!! This past weekend was the Cinco de Mayo Soccer Tournament put on by SASA. I played with my Friday night coed team (the Comrades) and it was lots of fun! We went to Chuy's on Friday night as a bit of a team dinner once everyone had made it into town. Then Saturday was bracket play starting with our first game against a fellow Houston team. We ended up winning 1 game and getting 2 ties on Saturday to advance to the playoffs on Sunday. Unfortunately, due to a combo of very few subs, a redic first day schedule, and probably a bit of out of shape-ness we ended up losing our Sunday game and getting 3rd in the tournament. All in all it was a great time, good to see some different teams for once and get some really great competition. Here are some pictures from the weekend compliments of Gina (I was far too tired, sweaty, and preoccupied to properly operate a camera):







The serious level pain I experienced on Monday tells me I am no longer in excellent tournament shape, but I did survive the weekend so it's a win in my book :)

San Antonio Trip with Mom!

Two weekends ago I took a little trip to San Antonio, TX with my Mom. I've been to SA before with Christine, but we could only stay one night and I felt that there was probably more that SA had to offer. I was definitely right in that assumption! We had a great time shopping little antique shops, visiting the Alamo, cruising the riverwalk and especially tasting all SA had to offer! Here are some pictures from our trip (as per usual I didn't take as many as I should have):
It was the Anniversary of the Alamo battle and there were tons of reenactors around as well as a parade and this huge floral display of yellow roses in the shape of Texas (I took it on an angle):

Me and the roses (note: the wind was blowing like a million miles an hour, please forgive the hair):

Mom and I at the Alamo:

Inside the main building of the Alamo fort, you can see where the roof has been rebuilt:

Second half of the '6 flags that flew over Texas':

Token cannon pic upon exiting the Alamo:

Pearl Brewery complex:

Faux space needle in the SA skyline:


While in San Antonio we made a trip to nearby Boerne (pronounced burn-eee like journey). In Boerne there were tons of little antique shops and boutiques. Some of them were weird and contained mostly crap, but some were amazing. I personally hit decorating pay-dirt at: Cielo, The Alley on Main, and Barn Owl Collectibles. Def worth the 30 minute drive outside SA, oh and they have the most amazing little wine tasting/ wine bar called Boerne Wine Company-check them out!! Here are a couple of my shopping finds:



In addition to the mini-antiquing trip, Mom and I also went in search of Zuni fetishes (remember them from my Sedona, AZ trip??). The first store we went to had been closed and turned into a post office, major let-down. So, I fired up the ol Droid and googled us another vendor. The only other store that sold Zuni fetishes in the SA area was in Schertz, TX called Paul's Desert. It was literally the front two rooms of this couple's house, but they had some great pieces. My mom left with an amazing jet bear the size of my palm. Here are my goodies:


As far food goes we had some really spectacular meals. We went to Luke, Biga on the Banks, and Il Sogno. Luke was super yummy, I had pepper seared tuna and my mom had a pizza-like thing with caramelized onions and fancy cheeses. At Biga on the Banks we ended up sitting at the bar because their earliest reservation was for 9pm! The place was decorated very interestingly with dried gourds everywhere and some of the booths were made private with sheer curtain panels. My mom's meal came with truffled mashed potatoes and they were sooo delicious. I think I may have to work on procuring a black truffle in the near future. I believe our best 'dining experience' was at Il Sogno in the Pearl Brewery complx. They don't take reservations so we made sure to get there nice and early (we got there at about 630 and tables were filling up fast). Our waiter told us about the Antipasti bar and we were easily swayed into this appetiser route. They showed you an example of each antipasti option and you were to choose 3 or 5 options. All of our choices were delicious and perfectly portioned to share just a taste before our meals. We decided to split a pizza and split a pasta dish, so essentially we ended up with a 5 course meal (with the tiramisu at the end). We left with half a pizza, full bellies, and definite intentions to return (at least on my part). Check out this review from Texas Monthly if you want to hear more about them: review. I wish I had pictures to share of all our meals, but the restaurants were quite dim and nothing turned out clear.

All in all, I'm definitely becoming a huge fan of San Antonio and I can't wait to see what I find on my next trip (which is coincidentally already planned for April hehe).

I hope you've learned a little about San Antonio and be sure to let me know if you're headed there, maybe I'll join you! Also, read about a few of San Antonio's cupcakerys in my two previous posts. Enjoy!

Cupcakery Review: Cupcake Couture in San Antonio, TX

The second cupcakery that my mom and I stopped at while in San Antonio was Cupcake Couture on Broadway. This wide open shop displayed a great variety of cupcakes (be sure to check the refrigerator for the cold ones too). I was impressed by the different flavors such as pistachio, but I felt that some of the cupcakes ran a little dry. To be fair, not all of the cupcakes were eaten right away because this shop only offers regular sized cupcakes. I ate the turtle cheesecake cupcake in the store and my mom tasted her cappuccino cupcake first. The cheesecake was right out of the refrigerator when I tried it, so that dampened the cream cheese flavor a bit, but overall it was delicious. the flavors that I tried later were red velvet (little dry and I don't like the maraschino cherry on top, it makes me think I'm eating black forest cake), pistachio (icing was divine but the cake was quite dry), Mexican chocolate (totally dry and uninteresting), and chocolate with peanut butter icing (cake dry, icing yummy- Baloo especially enjoyed the icing). I would have to rate this cupcakery a B- due to dryness, but I'm loving that they are trying interesting flavors. Here are my pics:


Enjoy!

Cupcakery Review: Kate's Frosting in San Antonio, TX

On our recent trip to San Antonio, I made sure that one of my mom and I's priorities was to test out a couple of cupcakeries. The first one we came across was Kate's Frosting on Main. The store is set up as a tiny boutique flowing up to the cupcake counter. There were cake plates, jewelry, and scarves for sale as well as cupcakes. After getting momentarily distracted by a glorious Rosanna petal cake plate, I made my way up to the cupcake counter. My favorite thing to see at a cupcakery (especially if it's my first time there) are mini cupcakes. With minis I can taste a number of flavors at once without getting sick or, well, fat haha. I chose red velvet and carrot cake. My mom ordered red velvet, white chocolate raspberry, and chocolate with vanilla icing. The trouble with minis is that they tend to get drier easier, but Kate's Frosting did a great job with their minis. They were tasty and moist. My only complaint would be the lack of flavors, even in their standard cupcake size they were lacking in variety. Definite B on my cupcakery scale. Here are some pics:



Note: these were my favorite taste-wise, but if you're looking for more interesting flavors, I would go elsewhere. Enjoy!

Texas City Guides

I just found the coolest city guide for H-town on Design Sponge, and they have guides for the rest of the cities in Texas (and the US for the matter) too! Check them out, I know I have my next 3-day weekend planned!

Houston
San Antonio
Austin
Dallas

And for my peeps back home:
Washington DC

Enjoy!

San Antonio

One last Texas city trip before Christine leaves! This past weekend Christine and I went to San Antonio for the first time and saw all the sights. We stayed about a block from the riverwalk in a great hotel called the O'Brien Historic riverwalk Hotel. We first went to see the Alamo and walk around the little park they had created there. It was so packed that we didn't go inside the museum but we did get a couple of pictures outside:



Then we explored the riverwalk and eyed up some places for dinner etc.



After showering and a mini nap we headed back out to the riverwalk for a wine tasting at A Taste of Texas Wine and dinner at Paesanos Ristorante. We had originally wanted to do a food and wine tour of the city but this weekend was one of the few on which the tour was not running. We ended up having a great time at the wine tasting and convinced our bartender to drink with us. Here are the 5 Texas wines we tasted for only $3!!!


After a few more drinks we called it a night and headed back to the hotel. In the morning we were greeted with a continental breakfast featuring Texas-shaped waffles! So fun!


We were able to go to mass at the San Fernando Cathedral on Sunday and the church was really pretty. It is the oldest standing church building in Texas. Unfortunately, the only English mass of the morning was full of hymns and readings in Spanish, so that was pretty disappointing. After one last cruise of the riverwalk and picking up some candy apples, we headed back to Houston. It was a great trip, but I'm feeling pretty sad because it was Christine's last weekend in Texas before moving to Washington and starting her life with Ben. I get to see her again in a month for her wedding so that's something to look forward to :) Good luck in Washington, Christine, hope you enjoyed your stay in Texas!