June 20th, 2025

San Antonio Trip: Post 3/4 and 4/4.

Yes, I’m combining both posts.

San Antonio Trip: Two Posts in One.

Day 3 had lots of stuff. We went to quite a few of the Missions, and I took LOTS of photos. I had to sort through all of them to find the good ones. Day 4 was essentially sitting in the car all day, and so I’ve decided to add a couple photos I took then to this post, rather than making a separate post for it.

Without any further ado, here is Day 3:

San Antonio Trip: Day 3:

Day 3 was much better than Day 2. Everything was working nearly perfectly.

I had wanted to go see the Japanese Tea Gardens, so we went there first. More accurately, we drove by instead, and I relived my memories of what it’s like to try and find a parking spot at Griffith Observatory or Exposition Park on a weekend.

We were nearly completely stopped.

Too. Much. Traffic. There were lots of people, let alone practically NOWHERE to park. We decided to skip that one. Since it was a weekend, downtown was also out of the question. Google Maps was reporting high amounts of traffic there.

Instead, we ended up deciding to go visit some of the San Antonio Missions. They’re different than the California ones, but I still highly recommend them. I’ve been once, making this my second time.

We decided to stop at San Juan Capistrano first. There are two San Juan missions there. We did not stop at the other.

There were plenty of people there as well, but far less than Brackenridge Park (where the tea garden is), and I assume far less than downtown. As per normal, I took quite a few photos. A good chunk did not make this post due to not meeting my quality standards.

Front view of the chapel at San Juan Capistrano.

Inside view of the chapel.

A photo of the statues. The statue in the center is different than the one that was there last time I went.

Photo taken in 2022. Note the different statue in the center.

The bell towers on the chapel.

We went for a walk on the trails outside. They are quite pretty and worth going on.

Another photo of the trails.

A lizard on a tree branch.

The coolest photo I got there. An airplane flying right over the mission.

The airplane.

After seeing the Mission, a bit of the trails nearby, and the small museum it had (of which I didn’t really take photos of. I usually don’t photograph museums), we headed further down the road to the Espada Aqueduct. We didn’t go there last time, so we went this time.

It was quite pretty, and had some nice spots taking photos. Unfortunately, the area under the bridge, specifically facing the way in the first photo, had some trash under it.

Under the bridge of the aqueduct.

Part of the river going under the bridge. The bridge is behind me in this photo.

The aqueduct.

An airplane we saw at the duct. Presumably from the nearby airport.

More of the duct.

Even more of the duct. The gate on it reminds me of the irrigation gates over here.

A photo of the bridge, from the other side. Much prettier since there's no trash in it.

We did drive by the Espada Dam as well, though we did not stop to take photos, ar there were lots of people and nearly no parking available.

The river that goes through the Espada Dam.

After driving through there, we went to the San Jose Mission. I took LOTS of photos there, and it was a bit difficult to pick out the ones for this post.

The San Jose Mission church.

Front of the church.

Side view of the church.

Belltower of the church.

Inside the church, taken facing the altar.

I did also find a nice spot on the other side of the church to take some “interesting perspective” photos. There was a old millhouse (or something like that, it had a nice big wheel that water used to turn) and with the right angles you can get some nice photos of the area. Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos of the millhouse.

Interesting Perspective Photo 1.

Interesting Perspective Photo 2.

And, of course, after that we did go in the museum, where I took a few photos, but am only sharing one, since it’s one that actually came out (the museum was very dim inside).

A window inside the museum.

And a few more, all outside.

Birds outside.

Cactus on a roof.

A well.

The gate. Main entrance to the mission grounds.

Oh, and yet another thing flying over a mission, this time a helicopter.

A very fitting street sign. Located at approximately 29.320900,-98.456100. In case you can't tell, the sign indicates that "Cemetery Lane" has a dead end.

After that, we headed back “home”, got pizza, ate said pizza, and decided to go to a couple used book stores. El Paso doesn’t have the greatest selection of things, but San Antonio is a bigger city and did actually have better bookstores. I ended up going home with quite a few CDs, all of which were classical music discs.

And after going to bed, Day 4 started, and that meant it was time to head home.

San Antonio Trip: Day 4.

We ended up going home via the way we would if we had gone to Austin, though we stopped only for gas, and I managed to take a couple non-noteworthy photos.

Along the US-290.

On the I-10, somewhere near Sierra Blanca. It was already getting dusty. You could see it getting dusty, though my photo of it was pretty bad, and as a result isn’t in this post.

We made it home, and the trip was over.

I had a lot of fun on this trip. I got to take lots of photos, see lots of things, and get a break from the El Paso dust.

And in case you’re wondering, yes, I have been to the Alamo, and the Tower of the Americas, and the River Walk Boat Ride Thingy. All of these were downtown, however, and we were trying to avoid downtown this trip (the one featured in this post). due to traffic, not to mention all of those (with the exception of the Alamo, if I’m not mistaken) cost a pretty penny. The Missions, on the other hand, are free.

Some photos from all three of those places in 2022. Photos were either taken with a iPhone 5s or a Canon PowerShot ELPH 360 HS, both of which had issues taking good photos, though the iPhone actually did better.

Statue of San Antonio along the river walk. I was in a boat. Taken on iPhone 5s.

Random photo along the river walk. Also taken from a boat. Taken with Canon.

Photo taken from the Tower of the Americas. Taken on iPhone 5s.

Photo of the Alamo. Taken on Canon. For some reason the only photo I have of the front is of all of us in a group photo. As a result that isn’t going into this post.

And with that, that concludes this series of posts. I hope you enjoyed seeing the photos, and next time I go on a trip, Godwilling I’ll be able to share those photos too.