San Antonio is not a city for early risers. I’m just sayin’.
I strolled down Commerce St. to tourist-trap central, picked up a little breakfast, and then stopped in at the Spanish Governor’s Palace. “Palace” is overstating things rather, but it is a nice place, and must have been quite palatial in the 18th century. I was considerably amused by the letter asking His Excellency to please kindly deal with the matter of two mules, owner unknown.
The best part of the palace is the garden out back, which is shady and flowery and peaceful and wonderful. I caught sight of a butterfly flitting about the flowering trees, watched it for awhile, and then saw motion out of the corner of my eye and turned my head expecting another butterfly.
Nope. Hummingbird. Female ruby-throated, I think. I can recommend this as a way to start one’s day. Especially when it’s a gently warm and brilliantly sunny morning, perfect for sitting out in a garden in a light sleeveless dress and sandals, and it’s snowing like crazy back home at that identical moment. Not schadenfreude, no—just relief, really.
“El Mercado” is a total tourist trap, but such is life in a big city. I looked around a bit (few things worth looking at, like decent guayaberas), left, and went back to the hotel by way of La Villita, which is also a tourist trap, but with more interesting architecture.
I was privileged to have lunch with Necia Wolff and Suzanne Sears, the former of whom is a warm and gracious human being, and the latter of whom gave me half a dozen ideas for my talk…
(… yes, I am one of those horrible people who edits slides until the absolute last minute, which is why they aren’t up yet, though they will be…)
… which I was able to quickly pop in while sitting in Michelle’s preconference. It was good to see librarians with laptops in the room. Honestly, more librarians should have them than actually do. I almost managed to sneak in a really horrible meta-Twitter joke, but I was just a smidge too late.
On the way for post-preconference drinkies with Michelle and one of her coworkers, we ran into Michael “Tame the Web” Stephens and Jenny “Shifted Librarian” Levine on the Riverwalk, which was fun.
And now I’m back in my room pampering somewhat tender feet (haven’t worn those sandals in ages, feet aren’t used to ’em) and pondering evening plans. Good times.
Oh, and while I’m opining—the exhibit floor at TXLA? Is GINORMOUS. You can’t measure that thing in football fields, it’s so huge. (It’s not open yet; there are hall windows upstairs that look down on it.) I’m almost scared to go in, for fear I’ll get lost and never be seen again!
