RIVERWALKS AND LAZY RIVERS

I got a last minute invite from my daughter yesterday, who needed to run to San Antonio to inventory one of her company's model homes. Rather than making a 2 hour round trip just for an hour's worth of work, she figured we might as well make a day of it.

Our first stop was the old Pearl brewery. I'd heard that plans were afoot to make it the next Ferry Plaza or Pike Place Market - a foodie mecca if you will - and I was anxious to see how that was coming along. Perhaps if we had arrived on a

Saturday, with the weekly farmer's market in full swing, we would have been more impressed. But on a Sunday at 11:00 a.m., my impression was "They've still got a ways to go!"

As it turns out, unless we overlooked it, nothing is going on in the brewery itself. They have added a separate, very modern structure out behind it, where the market is held, and which has a handful of permanent businesses - a bookstore, a cookery store, an architecture firm, and a couple of restaurants - none of which open before noon on Sundays. Fortunately, we spotted some activity at another building beyond that one, and decided to follow the crowd to La Gloria, where we lunched on some tasty Mexican street food and delicious fresh-squeezed lemonade.

We wasted an hour or two trying to find the model home, since Google Maps left out a very important step in their directions, but a friendly concierge at the Hill Country Hyatt got us on the right path. Have I ever mentioned how much I love that place? We wandered outside for cool drinks from a pool-side bar, and it was all I could do not to jump right in clothes and all, flick a float from beneath some unsuspecting kid, and take off down the Lazy River!

Once we'd taken care of Lexie's business, we headed back downtown for a stroll along the riverwalk. No matter how sunny and hot it is up on street level, it's always shady and cool down there. I wonder how long it will take my own scrawny little cypress trees, to catch up with those magnificent ones along the river?