Westin La Cantera

Since Labor Day gave Joe and I two days off together, we decided to head down to San Antonio and spend the weekend at the Westin La Cantera.  This is one of those resorts that is really designed for families, but boasts 7 pools (including an adult pool).  They do s'mores and have poolside movies - the latest in family resorts.  They also have a full list of activities.  Really, all Joe and I wanted was a weekend by the pool and with 7, we thought we couldn't go wrong.

We drove down after Joe got off work on Saturday and checked in.  Our first order of business on Sunday morning was breakfast at the Magnolia Pancake Haus.  This is a Triple D spot that my parents tried a couple of times and all gave rave reviews.  Even at our "early" hour, we had a bit of a wait, but it was well worth it.  The food was wonderful!!!  And, they have this pretty slick system where you can monitor your place on the wait list via your phone.  It tells you how many parties are ahead of you and what the expected wait time is.  All in all, Magnolia Pancake Haus was a great start to our weekend.

We got back to the hotel and donned our bathing suits, but we quickly realized three things:  1)  Approximately 1 billion other people and their kids decided spending the weekend at the Westin La Cantera was a good idea.  2) 7 pools is a bit of an exaggeration.  Maybe there are 7 if you count the jacuzzis, but they are SMALL pools.  3) Waiting to get a pool chair until after you have had breakfast is a big mistake when there are a billion people to compete with at small pools.  In spite of all that, we were only slightly deterred.  We placed our stuff carefully on a nice spot in the grass and jumped in the pool - the adult pool, that is.  It was quite lovely and we enjoyed the water.  We swam around, sat on the side.  We even went to the pool bar and had some nachos to snack on.  Later in the afternoon, we noticed that San Antonio seemed to be having quite a heat wave.  As a result, we decided to head to the Natural Bridge Caverns to cool off.

Natural Bridge Caverns are just on the outskirts of the city.  There were quite a few people there, too, but we got on the Discovery Tour.  The cave was pretty big.  They actually take you by the "natural bridge" for which the cave is named and then inside.  It was much cooler inside, but the offset was the humidity.  Overall, it didn't feel that much better than the pool, but we did enjoy our little tour.

The "natural bridge"

My favorite formation was the "Fried Egg"

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped for dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse.  We had some gift cards from Nick and Mary and it was actually quite a nice dinner.

By Monday, we knew the drill - get your chair EARLY!!!  So, again, we donned our bathing suits and headed down to the adult pool.  We got a couple of nice chairs with an umbrella.  We relaxed, read, and swam - perfect!!!  Unfortunately, we knew that this little slice of paradise was short-lived.  We had to head home, so we packed up and moved out by early afternoon.

Our last stop was another Triple D - the Bun 'n Barrel.  We had a burger and a BBQ sandwich, but I can't say that Joe was all that impressed.  I thought it was okay.  At least it was enough to tie us over until we could make our way home.