“Would you like a margarita?” the receptionist asked me as I checked into Hotel Valencia Riverwalk, my beautiful Spanish-style hotel in San Antonio.
“What do you have that’s nonalcoholic?” I asked.
“Oh, I could give you water,” she said.
I had a weird moment of confusion. First, that’s not an equivalent trade. I mean, a delicious margarita versus water? Second, as someone who tries to avoid single-use plastic bottles, but who travels internationally to places that lack safe water supplies, my mind scrambled for a second. Where was I? “Uh, isn’t the tap water safe here?” I asked stupidly.
Yes. You’re in Texas. The tap water is potable. I hurriedly finished checking in and scurried off to my room, feeling stupid.
Such weird moments are common for nondrinkers. We sometimes feel like the odd ones out. I hadn’t researched how drinky San Antonio is before my trip, but it turns out to be known for parties and alcohol consumption. My gorgeous hotel was conveniently located right on the Riverwalk, where you can stroll between restaurants and bars, open container in hand.
But like all moments as a sober traveler, I only had to shift perspective to find how much San Antonio has to offer. Instead of sitting by the river with a drink, you can get in a boat and tour the city by water — which was extra fabulous during my December visit, with millions of colored Christmas lights everywhere. Look beyond the party veneer and San Antonio will wow you with culture, history, Mexican food and beauty.
E-biking the missions
My number one goal for San Antonio was to visit all its missions on a nonmotorized pilgrimage. I’d heard you could kayak between them, but the logistics were too complicated for me. Instead, I went by bike.
San Antonio BCyle offers a fleet of e-bikes as part of a bike-share program. Personally, I’m not a fan of e-bikes. I’m a cautious and occasional bicyclist with no desire to go faster. I’m suspicious of e-bikes the same way I am of robots or horses, expecting them to suddenly bolt or do other unpredictable things. So my pilgrimage was made a bit tougher by the heaviness of an e-bike combined with never turning on the electric assist. But the bike share program has a big advantage over renting a bike from a shop. You can ride your bike one way, leaving it in the bike share rack at the farthest mission, then Uber directly to lunch. Which was my plan.
Fortunately, there were only minor elevation changes as I rode my tank-like bike nine miles between the four missions along the San Antonio River. Nothing that three gears couldn’t handle. My route was about two-thirds river path and one-third roads with cars. But the roads were either not busy or had good bike lanes. The morning started out a bit chilly but heated up to the low 60s. While the missions are close to the river path, they’re not right on it, so my phone navigation system helped a lot — especially when one stretch of the path was closed for maintenance.
A quick disclaimer: The Spanish mission system has a mixed legacy. As the Texas Historical Association website explains, “This joint institution of indigenous communities and the Spanish church and state was developed in response to the often very detrimental results of leaving the Hispanic control of relations with Indians on the expanding frontier to overly enterprising civilians and soldiers. This had resulted too often in the abuse and even enslavement of the Indians and a heightening of antagonism.” Unfortunately, the missions have also been credited with plenty of abuse. I love visiting missions for their beauty and centuries of accumulated prayer. Please don’t send me hate mail.
Anyway, I only had about three hours for my express pilgrimage, because I had a lunch date at 12:30 (at Plantaqueria, highly recommended). I’d suggest allowing an extra couple of hours so you can spend more time at each mission. As it was, I had time to park my bike, rush into the mission, say a prayer and form a quick impression.
The first mission, Concepcion, is in especially good condition. The second, San Jose, was busy with school groups, kids everywhere. That one had a big compound where I could imagine Native Americans living crammed into little rooms and working in the big open area in the middle. I had a soft spot for the third mission, San Juan, which seemed like an underdog. The church was supposed to be temporary, but the permanent one never got built past the foundation. So the temporary one became permanent. It’s white and has a flat bell tower, like a façade for a movie or an old west town. Mission Epalda, the last of the four, has an especially beautiful church. The priest or somebody there must love to garden, because flowers, hummingbird feeders and windchimes are everywhere.
Other fun activities around San Antonio
During my three days in San Antonio, my itinerary was nonstop. I spent one morning kayaking the San Antonio River in a rented craft from Texas River Company. It was a very lazy paddle, trying to sneak up on wildlife to snap a photo of a turtle, heron, anhinga or Egyptian goose (I had to look that one up). At one point I thought I saw an alligator, but it turned out to be the ridged edge of a tire sticking up out of the muck. There’s a lot of wildlife and a lot of trash in the river. Don’t fall in.
San Antonio has two fabulous carousels — one historic and one new. The new one is inside the San Antonio Zoo. The old one is in Kiddie Park just outside the zoo’s gates. I loved them both. Kiddie Park has a 1918 carousel which features mostly horses, plus a zebra. “All of the horses on the carousel are handcrafted, so not a single one of them is the same,” Will Sledge, the zoo’s director of operations, told me as we walked on the carousel, admiring the horses. The Zootennial Carousel inside the zoo is the opposite: new, with a huge variety of 60 animals. Including some special Texas natives: a white-tailed deer, whooping crane, jackalope and Texas horned lizard, which I rode.
While the Riverwalk boat ride is super touristy, I still liked it. Since I was there just before Christmas, I went at night to view the bazillion Christmas lights. Captain Mario talked about San Antonio history and made lots of bad jokes while we experienced the Riverwalk magic.
HASH Vegan Eatery
One of the highlights of my San Antonio visit was hanging out with Roger and Mike Sanchez, the two brothers behind HASH Vegan Eatery. HASH stands for Healing and Spread Healing. The Sanchez brothers grew up poor on San Antonio’s heavily Latino south side. They worked hard in the hospitality industry, rising to prominence running alcohol-heavy events. Meanwhile, their beloved mother, Cynthia Ann Medrano, died of alcoholism. They describe her as a great teacher of relentless love and empathy. Her portrait hangs over the front door of HASH.
Eventually, Roger and Mike decided to quit drinking together. With clearer heads, they thought more about the consequences of their actions — including what they eat. Mike’s young son loved herbivorous dinosaurs, which first sparked Mike’s interest in vegetarianism. “Really, my son started it,” he told me.
I don’t think I’ve ever met two people so devoted to helping others as Roger and Mike. They run weekly events to engage people in their community, such as a Monday game night with Dungeons and Dragons and half-price mocktails, and Taco Tuesdays with dollar tacos. Neighborhood people bring their kids. “A whole family will eat for under 20 bucks,” Roger said. Their seasonal Giving Days feature a free store stocked with donations from the community.
Roger comes from a harm reduction, not a 12-step perspective, and credits cannabis recovery for saving his life from opiates. I have a more purist recovery background, so this feels uncomfortable to me. But lives saved are lives saved, so who am I to judge? Anyway, you should visit and have a mocktail and a bowl of pozole. But don’t be surprised by the big pot leaf on the front of the building.
Comfort Café
You can also support recovery at the Comfort Café, a nonprofit restaurant that supports the SerenityStar rehab program. I was very impressed that San Antonio has both HASH and Comfort Café. Visit San Antonio, the city’s tourism arm, hosted my trip and planned my itinerary based on my journalistic interests. I was super impressed that they were promoting both these places. Thank you, Visit San Antonio, for promoting recovery!
SerenityStar operates a 6-month to 1-year peer-to-peer recovery center in Smithville, Texas, and sober residences around San Antonio. Comfort Café raises money to keep it going. I met with Justin Motl and Jaycee Clark, who explained the Comfort Café mission. I wrote about it previously for The Sober Curator and you can read the full story here. The short version is: If you visit San Antonio, stop by the café for biscuits and fellowship.
Magic of San Antonio
I hadn’t been to San Antonio for many years, but I had distant memories of a magical feeling of mission buildings and especially the lights of the River Walk on a dark night. The magic was still there, especially with a jillion multi-colored Christmas lights strung up all over town.
My first night in town, I was in line at the Walgreens buying bath salts and makeup (travel necessities) when the woman in front of me turned and told me how she visited San Antonio’s Riverwalk last year and didn’t ride in a horse-drawn Cinderella carriage. She’s regretted it all year. She came back this year armed with a green princess dress and is determined to ride in the carriage tomorrow night. “I’m an old Cinderella,” said the woman, who looked to be in her 50s. “And it’s pricey. But you only live once, you know? This is on my bucket list.”
I always feel sorry for the horses in carriage rides. But when I saw the first one go by in the dark — outlined with pink and white lights — it took my breath away. “They’re magical,” I agreed.
“Yes!” said the woman, who told me that her name was Lisa. I promised that I’d look for her in her green dress in her carriage the next night and cheer her on.
Meeting Lisa reminded me that we can make our own magic. We can pack our own green princess dresses. I didn’t get in a carriage, but I found my magic on a boat cruising through San Antonio’s funny little canals, Christmas lights blazing above.
About Teresa Bergen
Teresa Bergen had the great good fortune to quit drinking very young and has enjoyed long-term sobriety. She lives in Portland, Oregon, and travels all over the world as a travel writer. She also works in the oral history field, helping to document and preserve history. Learn more HERE.
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