Texas Road Trip

This year's summer vacation took us to the great state of Texas and marks the half-way point in our family's quest to visit all 50 states.  We stayed in San Antonio for a week, so there will be several posts about our time there.  In this post however, I will just make a few general observations about our trip. First, I want to say that Texas has the nicest welcome center of any that we have visited.  Not only are the facilities clean, but it also has a boardwalk that leads out over a swamp.  It was nice to have a scenic place to walk around after spending so many hours in the car.

We couldn't make it through the week without eating at Whataburger- because, you know, Texas.





















Buc-cees was an unexpected favorite.  Buc-cees is a gas station on steroids.  Seriously, the first Buc-cees we stopped at had 96 gas pumps.  Ninety-six. Gas. Pumps. The inside of the gas station was also amazing.  I mean, there was a whole wall dedicated to jerky.  I have never seen any gas station as enormous as this.  It was a sight to behold.

 Another favorite was the Alamo Cafe.  My cousins live in Texas and they always post a picture of themselves eating here when they visit San Antonio.  This tells me that the restaurant is good. So, when we saw the Alamo Cafe down the road from our hotel, we had to give it a try.  We loved it- so much so that we ended up eating here three times during our stay.  Even Olivia- who never eats Mexican food- was ordering enchiladas and begging to go back.  If ever I'm in San Antonio again, this will be the place where I eat.

We also had a meal at the authentic and super-popular Mi Tierra restaurant and bakery.  It is said that this is the most authentic Mexican meal you can get outside of Mexico.  I suppose this is why the wait is so long.  We were there for an hour and a half before we were seated.  The atmosphere was awesome.  There were murals painted on the walls and mariachi bands roaming around playing tunes.  After our meal, we stopped at the bakery and I let the kids pick out a pastry.  I'm glad we ate here once, but I don't know if I'd brave the line to make a return trip.