On Saturday we woke up early and went for a long bike ride along the Mission Trails of San Antonio with aunt Carol. We start around 8am at Blue Star and ride to Mission Espada where we take about a 10 minute water break and then head back. The whole trip takes about 2 hours and with the beautiful fall weather we've been having, is a great way to start the day. Plus we can put our pedometers on our shoes and get steps from it (we had about 9,000 by the time we were done!). Afterward we went for coffee at Olmos Perk, which is kind of a tradition now because we go there after every ride. It's a nice alternative to the national chain type of coffee shops so we like to give them our business.

Afterward we came home and rested, did our grocery shopping and hung out until 5:00 when we went over to Jennelle & Greg's for a BBQ. Greg had built a cool grill in the back yard out of some bricks they had acquired when they bought the house and he did a really great job. [See their blog in the links section for previous post & photos of the grill and I am sure a new post to come with photos of the BBQ.] Greg made some delicious Teryaki hamburger patties so dinner was really yummy.

Since it was alumni weekend, I figured we should participate in at least one of the activities so afterward we headed to Pat O'Briens downtown. A bunch of our sorority friends from college were there including Ropes to celebrate her birthday. When we got there it was very crowded and as we tried to find the piano bar where everyone was, we headed upstairs only to find that the bartender who Jennelle asked for directions turned out to be my best friend and neighbor from when I was about 8 years old, Erica! We used to play together every single day for a few years until she moved and went to a private high school. I have not seen her for many, many years. It was so weird because as Jennelle was talking to her I was just thinking "she looks so familiar.. could it really be...?" and then she looked over at me and we both realized we knew each other! It was so great to see her and luckily Jennelle remembered to capture the moment on film. I hope that we can catch up again soon now that I know she lives in the same city as I do!


Next we headed downstairs and found our Sigma friends but it was so crowded so everyone was getting ready to leave to head to another (hopefully less crowded) bar. We decided to stay at Pat O's until we finished our drinks at least and then we headed over the few blocks to Zen Bar. We were glad to be wearing flip flops since we were comfortable on the walk. When we got outside on Houston Street, we saw very long lines at some of the other bars in the area and on the street we saw one of our Sigma friends, Jessica, who was having her Bachelorette party! I had recently seen her engagement photos through a link on Facebook and fell in love with her photographer. I even asked Phil yesterday if he thought it was too late for us to take Engagement photos since we never did before we got married! So it was good to see her in person even if it was just a short visit on the sidewalk!

So we got in line at Zen Bar to get in and hang out with everyone but we were denied entrance because the four of us were wearing flip-flops! Alas we came to the conclusion that we didn't really want to go to a bar where they did not allow flip-flops, you know, out of principle... so we decided that anyway it was past our bedtime and we might as well come home. We got home around 12:30am, had some Double Stuf Oreos and milk, and went to bed. All in all, a pretty good day.

Our tree decided to trim itself...

... and did not look out below or yell "Timber" and thereby destroyed our hammock when this huge branch came down.

So anyone who might happen to have a Mexican hammock just sitting around not being used, we're really hurting for one and would be more than happy to put it to good use for you. This is the perfect hammock season with the cool crisp fall weather, so the sooner, the better...