Everyone has got a favorite city. Some vote for LA, others for San Francisco or Seattle. Some of the poor misguided even think New York city is the place. Mine was always New Orleans. Then I went to San Antonio and now I have to say oh yeah, that is a cool city. Some of you are going to say “What the hell, that’s in Texas!” and I have to say “I know, but you have to go there.”

What makes a city cool, besides how it looks and what you can do there, is the people. Just like New Orleans people can’t help but be cool in San Antonio. They’re friendly, they don’t spit on the sidewalk, well, OK I did see one girl do that, but she cleaned it up. She chewed and she said she was just tired of swallowing that stuff. She felt bad about it. The folks there like to gather in cool places and watch each other and they do it all with a coolness that’s just, well, cool.

One of the best places to go to see and be seen with the cool people is San Antonio’s Riverwalk. I know it’s considered touristy but that doesn’t make it any less cool. Sitting alongside the river with a Texas girl with big hair, seeing the sparkly stuff in her mascara come alive as the light hits it, sipping something cool and full of Tequila, listening to her say “Y’all” a bunch, is time well spent and I highly recommend it. You can people watch and see the lights come on at sunset, watch the boats go up and down the river full of people laughing and asking the guide how deep the river is (5′) and just revel in the feel of the quiet evening as the sun goes down.

It’s a place where you put on your best threads and strut your stuff. The guy above is a yellow-crowned Night Heron and you can see by his name, night is when he comes alive. By day he’s a mild-mannered carton stacking specialist down at the UPS terminal, wearing his brown outfit with the brown baseball cap, bill facing forward as per the company dress code, but at night, watch out. That’s when he shines. It takes a lot of confidence to put on his yellow feathers and his stripey pimp coat, but he pulls it off as if he were born to it. Many, many ladies were checking this bad boy out as he struts up the birdwalk.

If you’re thinking, you know I’m kind of sick of my favorite city. I’m bored and I need someplace new. Someplace fresh and alive. Then you’d best get on down here to San Antonio as people who talk Texan say. You’re missing the good times.