San Antonio to Portland, and the Woman’s Club of San Antonio

Laura Domela — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 22:44:52 +0000

Kevin's mom is a member of the Woman's Club of San Antonio, and before we left she wanted to take us by to show us this interior of beautiful building. The Woman's Club has been here in the Woodward House since 1926.

This 2 1/2-story Neo-Classical revival home was designed in 1904–1905 by architect Atlee Ayers for San Antonio business man David J. Woodward (1864–1925) and his wife May Bock Woodward (1866–1942). The Woodward couple flipped twenty-three homes during their married life. David built the houses, and May decorated them. Each property would eventually be sold for profit when the couple moved upward to a more expensive residence. After David Woodward died, his wife sold the house at 1717 San Pedro in 1926 to the Woman's Club for $47,000. The first floor of the house has the interior parlor, library with fireplace, butler's pantry, office, kitchen, powder room and dining room. When Ayres designed the house, the second floor served as living quarters with five bedrooms, bath and sitting room. The Woodwards intended the top floor to be a ballroom and had it designed with window box seats. [Wikipedia]

The inside is filled with period-appropriate furniture and what looked like some of the original light fixtures.

Most of the ceilings that aren't wood are decorated with painted murals:

Gorgeous light fixtures throughout:

Portraits of past presidents:

Wooden columns:

Cool mirror on brick by the back door:

Pretty pink walls, drapes, and chaise:

After visiting this historic home, we made one more stop by Guajillo's for some more tacos (just as fabulous the second time) and then headed home to Portland (with a stop and quick plane change in Phoenix). As we taxied up to the gate in Portland just before 11pm, we were informed that the emergency slide at the front door had partially deployed and was now stuck and that we were going to need to wait for them to unstick it. (Sliiiiiiiide!)

After about 20 or 30 minutes, they brought a rolling stairway to the back door and we exited through the back door, walked over to another staircase back up to the jetway, past the front door and into the terminal. We got to see the partially deployed slide and it was not nearly as exciting as we'd imagined it would be:

Oops.

Now we're home getting the house ready for holiday guests (guests we hope to take up for some San Juan Island boating between Christmas and New Year's!)

Quick Trip to Texas

Laura Domela — Mon, 15 Dec 2014 14:53:05 +0000

We've been in San Antonio for a couple days visiting Kevin's mom. It's been a great trip so far. Lots of visiting, lots of exploring, and lots of eating. We had breakfast tacos at Taco Cabana for old times sake (because there's no Tacodeli in San Antonio, only in Austin, and those are the best breakfast tacos in TX). We took Kevin's mom to dinner for her birthday on Saturday night – Restaurant Gwendolyn down on the Riverwalk. It was great! We had the charcuterie board to start (highly recommended) and the 5-course tasting menu and we all really enjoyed the food.

The concept of Restaurant Gwendolyn is extremely old school, using what they had and doing as they did before the break of the industrial revolution: approximately 1850. There are no blenders, mixers, choppers, ice cream machines, deep fryers, or anything else with a motor–nothing with a plug.   "No perishable ingredient may travel further than a good, strong horse.   The menu will move absolutely in lockstep with the seasons, as okra and  eggplant taper off and leafy greens move in, we must change ourselves to  suit the product–not the other way around. What is outside is inside."

Old school tableside coffee at Gwendolyn:

Yesterday we did a little research on "the best tacos in San Antonio" and came up with a place called Guajillo's, so we tried it last night for dinner and yep, exceptionally good tacos. We each ordered a different kind of meat, but the taco plates all come with 6 small (4 inch-ish) corn tortillas flat on a plate covered with meat, and a side plate of cilantro, onions, and with my Al Pastor, some pineapple. You build the tacos from there. We traded tacos, and everyone seemed to think the Al Pastor may have been the winner, but they were all delicious.

After tacos we returned to the Riverwalk for some more walking. The trees are all decorated for the holidays and it's super festive down there right now. We took a river barge tour (always fun) and also walked a good distance along the river as well. Here are some photos from the last two nights on the Riverwalk:

Riverside architecture:

We made a quick stop at The Alamo:

Cool amimation/moving projection on the San Fernando Cathedral (happening simultaneously with a concert in the plaza):

A few random shots around the city:

Guajillo’s – Riveted

San Antonio to Portland, and the Woman’s Club of San Antonio

Quick Trip to Texas