Today is Friday and we arrived in San Antonio around noon. We had spent four days in Marina del Rey outside of Los Angeles with Ron’s mom and her friend Bob. What a treat! Both were doing well and it was so wonderful to see family again. How we have missed them. The air was wonderful as was the temperature. We never broke a sweat! We spent a day finding and packing boxes and mailing clothes we never wore in SL to our friend in Vancouver who will store them until we get home in December. We also had a bunch of gifts to send to family and friends. It was a whole lot cheaper to ship them from southern California than from SL! In the four days we were there our sleep patterns never got stabilized. I would wake up every morning around 3:00 and Ron would fall asleep around 3:00. You would think we would be awake at the same times. Fact is stranger than fiction. At any rate we are eager for a good night’s sleep. About the time we get on a US time schedule, it will be time to go back to SL. Bummer. Ron spent a morning with some minor plumbing repairs at his mom’s house. Most of the time we just relaxed and read our books and visited and ate great food! Sonia is the world’s best cook.

As soon as we arrived today we grabbed a quick bite and Ron went to work, going on a landfill site and recycling operation site visit with the 13 SL participants that are here for the conference and a study tour. The conference starts tomorrow and the SL participants have been here on the study tour since Monday.

Sandi, Ron’s sister, had predicted that we would experience sticker shock when we got to the US after being in SL. The only time that happened was this morning at the airport. We ‘dined’ at Starbucks due to the early hour. We had two coffees, two Danishes and a bottle of water for $12.50. That would buy a lovely meal for two at a fine dinner house in SL. Our lunch today in San Antonio was $14.00 and much better than our breakfast.

It was overcast here today that made it cooler. It was about 85 degrees. Last week it was 103! Oy! I’m so glad for cooler weather. This evening it rained. I’m not complaining. We are staying in a lovely B&B that is about a century old and located within walking distance of the conference. The ICMA conference usually has about 4,000 attendees. It’s a big deal. I enjoy seeing people who Ron’s works with on the international committee and hanging out with some of the spouses. San Antonio should be fun. I’ve never been to Texas so I am interested in seeing the Alamo that is right downtown, the Riverwalk that is a redevelopment project in the downtown area (30 years ago) and a marketplace that has lots of crafts from Mexico. I told my students at Shilpa I would bring them something back from our trip.

Saturday
Ron finally managed to have a good night’s sleep. I made it until 3:40 and stayed awake until 5:00. The alarm went off at 6:30. I got up and put on my shorts and t-shirt and walked along the Riverwalk into town and back for a good 45 minute workout. Showered and had a wonderful big breakfast at the B&B. On my walk I saw a great egret and two blue herons hanging out in a tree by the river. What a treat. I also saw four or five plants that we have in SL. I am always surprised when we travel to exotic places and discover some of the same flora that we have in the States.
I'm having a great time just wandering around San Antonio. It is a very pedestrian friendly place. It is a quick trip to downtown by foot and there are many historic sites right downtown. Ron is working so maybe he is having as much fun as I am but probably not! San Antonio is way cool. It's my first foray into Texas. It's such fun to hear the Texas accents. Thanks to the weather goddess, there's a cloud cover and occasional rain and we do love not sweating. Today I walked from our lovely century old B&B down the Riverwalk area to town. I was shopping for my SL girls. I went to a marketplace that isfilled with stuff from Mexico and saw a lot of junk and some neat folk art which is what I ended up getting for the girls. Then I went over to thehigh end shopping area that is housed in a really cool old historic district. Pretty soon I was tried of shopping so walked back to a Tex Mexrestaurant and had a fabulous salad with grilled shrimp. Yum! Tonight we have two do's- a reception and a dinner to go to. Tomorrow I hope to go see the Alamo and figure out what to buy for Ron's staff backin SL. Shopping here is a wee bit different than in SL. Adios amigo! More later.