We woke up and it was another rainy day – although after this and for the remainder of our trip the sun was coming back!

Japanese Tea Garden

The Japanese Tea Garden was originally a limestone quarry and the garden was created in the early 20th century. We arrived quite early and due to the weather we basically had the place to ourselves.

We explored the Pavillion area, walked along the paths and bridges and saw the Japanese koi.

^{Exploring the tea gardens}

San Antonio Missions – National Historic Park

We then took a short drive to the missions. The San Antonio Missions were founded in the early 1700’s by Spanish Franciscan friars to support Indigenous communities. There are four mission sites and we didn’t really know much about them when we arrived. We parked up at Mission San Juan and took some photos and then made our way to Mission San Jose where the visitor center is based.

We went round the visitor center and then explored the grounds at Mission San Jose. Tom walked into one of the mission buildings and everyone was dressed up as they were doing a re-enactment. His words – there were loads of people dressed up as centurion soldiers – so he left very quickly!

^{Exploring Mission San Jose}

It was still quite early so we decided to return to the river walk and have a wander around the shops. However – the rain came down and we got absolutely drenched! Izzy tried some cowboy hats on and tried to take a photo of a duck before we returned home as the following day we were headed to Houston.

^{The River Walk in the rain!}