Road trip to art-walk in San Antonio

Above: Looking northward to downtown from San Pedro Culture Park pathways

If you follow the ruta of San Pedro Creek, you are on a pilgrimage rooted in the past, destined for the future. As in some ancient legend, a city emerged out of these waters. A city bubbled forth out of this spring-fed stream, running from long before there was anyone here to witness it – or drink from it…. If this creek could speak, in whispers of song, or poetry, it might tell the story of the city that it birthed, brought to the light of history, its most extraordinary, and perhaps unexpected, progeny. Whispers of memories, echoes of song, rhythms of poesy, drumbeats and bugles, punctuated by cannonades – and long intervals of peace.”

A Creek Tells Its Story: The Mythic Narrative of San Pedro Creek,” John Phillip Santos

Our rare quick trips to San Antonio tend to involve friends and family, so exploring the two miles of improvements along San Pedro Creek is taking a while. In December, we walked a small segment of the former degraded ditch that has been transformed into San Pedro Cultural Park.

Rather than repeat the background, here are links to my earlier blogs: first post, 2018; second post, 2024. Below, find images taken along a newer stretch.

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Postcard from San Antonio: Brothers share maximalist hospitality hints

Above: A place setting of “Le Point de Bascule,” an installation by the de la Torre Brothers as part of their exhibition, “Upward Mobility,” at the McNay Art Museum

An appetizing invitation from the de la Torre Brothers you can’t refuse? First entering the McNay’s gallery containing their almost-all-media dinner-party installation, “Le Point de Bascule,” you feel as though the guests must have stepped away from the table for a smoke on the patio after a wildly fabulous meal. Taxidermy around the walls make it feel oddly at home in big-game-hunting Texas.

We’re repulsed by this opulence. But we’re also thinking: ‘God, I wish I’d been invited to this party.’”

Artist Einar de la Torre, interviwed by Patricia Escarcega for an article in The New York Times

Above: The dining room table in “Le Point de Bascule,” a multimedia art installation by the de la Torre Brothers

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Time to weigh your blog consumption

Above: A peacock on the grounds of Real Alcazar in Seville, Spain

Are you sure you’re feeling okay? On examining the list of the most-read posts during the past twelve months, it hit me what is missing. Food. I think this might be the first time since launching these biannual roundups that not one post about restaurants appears on the list. Perhaps while I’m out plumping up during travels, all my readers are on Ozempic.

It always surprises me how different my list of favorites would be than yours. Your interests remain all over the map, which is good because postcard delivery lags way behind our travels. I have a full album of photos waiting to pop up willy-nilly from Mexico, Italy, Spain, England, France, Turkey and the Netherlands.

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