Real Life as a Movie

Where have I seen something like this before?

A romantic dinner high in the sky and the most perfect picture comes into view.  Instead of a heart on the Empire State Building, it's L-O-V-E spelled out on the side of the Palacio del Rio hotel along the San Antonio River Walk.  How sweet.  They must have known we were coming.

A scene from a movie?  Sort of like the Valentine dinner scene from "Sleepless in Seattle".  Except it was different.  We were celebrating our anniversary at The Chart House atop the Tower of the Americas 500 feet above the city and enjoying every minute of it.  There's something special about an anniversary at holiday time with lots of festive decorations and celebrations going on.

I've posted several photos of the tower but had never been up there.  I mentioned this to my sweetie and he immediately went into action.  Reservations and plans were made and we arrived at the appointed hour somewhat early in the evening to catch the sunset and be sure to get a window seat which cannot be reserved.

A quick photo of the courtyard and fountains at ground level.

A look up at the tower, we'll be riding in that glass elevator.

Way, way up there!

Going up!  Looking east is not the best view of our city but you can see a long way even on this cloudy day.  There's an elevator to the observation deck on the other side of the tower which probably has a better view. The blue roof is part of the convention center next door.

A few pictures while waiting for our table.  Looking northeast, the Alamo is behind the Rivercenter shopping mall just above the center and left of the column.

It's very compact and feels similar to a large aircraft.  The restaurant revolves fully in an hour so you get to see the entire 360 view during dinner.

From our table we start out looking southeast and can see the Alamodome where the bowl games are played.

After this we focused on dinner for a while.  Then the Love sign came into view just as darkness fell.  Instead of "As Time Goes By" we had a very romantic techno-beat from the bar above.  Oh well.

The lights of the city were beautiful to see after dark.  We were moving at a pretty good clip and I was using the pocket camera so it was tough to get a good picture.  Looking southwest toward Del Rio and the Mexican border about 150 miles away.  After those lights end it can be a long way to the next town.



The food and service were excellent.  What a great evening!