‘Don’t ever waste an opportunity to tell someone that you love them because death comes quick and without warning.’
These are serious words that are made even more serious when you’re standing in a cemetery at 10 p.m. on your honeymoon.
Last week, The Citizen’s managing editor and content editor finally got to take their honeymoon after their wedding last October.
Wyndi and I were grateful for the time to explore San Antonio and had pledged not to take work along with us, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t have to arrange several things before our trip. Special thanks to the Library, Orion Gallagher and everyone else that covered for us. This includes Mom and Dad for taking care of our whiny husky, Cooper.
Our jobs don’t allow for a 8-5, five-day-a-week schedule since news and events will often happen outside of a workday. As such, we’re always on call so the ability to just be with each other for a few days means more than we can say. That assurance and generous gifts for our honeymoon fund allowed us to have a fun and stressfree adventure exploring San Antonio. (Thanks to all the gift givers, particularly some that slipped us cash and gift cards right before the trip.)
We stayed at the Hotel Gibbs directly across from the Alamo and got several chances to walk around and eat at places on the Riverwalk like Rita’s, Landry’s and Iron Cactus. We were also a block away from the Rivercenter mall and had fun shopping and trying our aim at an Airsoft gun range. (Pro tip: don’t rely on the sights on those guns. If you aim at Texas on a map with those sights, you will hit Michigan.) We also got the bonding experience of ducking mid-mall masseuses and Club Wyndham who wanted us on the third floor for an amazing offer.
Our hotel was also near a French bakery breakfast spot named La Boulangerie, which even used French flour in its in-house baking.
Everywhere else, we used Uber to get around which included excursions to Heroes & Fantasies (the largest comic book shop in Texas), the San Antonio Zoo, the botanical garden, a Greek restaurant and the Pearl district (built around a historic brewing company) for some independent shops and Cured, a restaurant that ages and cures its own meat for charcuterie boards and entrees that celebrate flavors.
Wyndi reviewed Cured as a place that ‘completed her soul with food.’ So yeah, we kind of liked it. My other favorite food quote was that baklava was the unhealthiest thing she’d ever eaten… and it was very good.
Favorite experiences included feeding lorikeets and getting up close with butterflies at the zoo (those experiences are worth the extra $4), visiting the San Antonio Library cellar book sale, and the ghost tour mentioned at the beginning of this column.
We were about to buy tickets for the river tour when we heard about the historically based ghost tour at the Sister Grimm oddity shop near the mall. As a couple with a Halloween themed wedding-reception, it seemed like a perfect fit. The tour was also surprising because our guide often broke the fourth wall and let us know he was giving a performance and even debunked some urban legends that hokier tours would’ve emphasized. He learned it was our honeymoon trip early on and joked with us several times about it, but he also took opportunities to remind the group how life was fleeting so we should take the chance to embrace the things worth embracing and never leave anything unsaid.
I love you, Wyndi. Looking forward to many more adventures together.
— Paul Gaudette is the Managing Editor and can be reached at via email at publisher@ dublincitizen. com.