Tower of the Americas Open??

[markinvictoria]

Hi all
Going to San Antonio tomorrow to celebrate our 37th anniversary. I think I read the Tower of the Americas has reopened with Landrys running the show. It would be a nice place for a anniversary dinner. Does anyone know if it is opened yet?? Also, is the San Antonio Botanical Gardens worth the trip? Any other must do's in the area? Thanks for any help. Mark

[TXhummer2]

http://www.toweroftheamericas.com/index.html It must be open now,
this website had an "Opening Soon" page only until recently.
It was supposed to be open when we were there the 12-16 June,
but alas, was not.

[Ph0t0g]

Yes the Tower is open, but if you plan on going for dinner you should make a call now they have been extremely busy since thier Grand Opening :) But I hear its not difficult to get up on the observation deck if your just looking to get a good view of the city. The Botanical Gardens are open and as for the other touristy things :) you have all of the San Antonio Missions which includes the Alamo. Then as everyone knows there is the riverwalk. If it interests you there is the McNay which has some nice art as well as the San Antonio Museum of art.

Congratulations on your 37th.

[PhotoByMark]

It is open! Wife and I ate dinner there last Sunday for our Anniversary (July 2nd).

I took lots of pics too! Of course!

I have not posted any here cause I have been meaning to do a little processing on them. Never enough time.....

Here are couple though

[nuke]

They let you take a tripod up there Mark? Damn, I called them and told them I would like to visit and take some photos of the Tower and City and they said there is a fee for photographers...hmm, maybe I shouldn't tell them anything about me "being a 'photographer." I'll just act like I'm some regular guy wanting to snap some tourist style photos.

[Will Raybourn]

The botanical gardens is in pretty good shape right now. If you want to do something new to downtown, well, old but new, the old Aztec theater was just reopened and from the pics I saw on it, it looks like it is well worth the visit...I know I want to check it out. here's the link to the site. http://www.aztecontheriver.com/home.htm
From what I hear, and seen pictures of, the lobby is gorgeous and there is some type of light show that goes on every 90 minutes.

[PhotoByMark]

Mike - Not sure but, I would just carry it up like you are suppose to have it. I do not think they would say anything. If you park at the tower parking lot then you are real close to the car anyway. It is worth a shot anyway. A small pocket tripod would have been nice in the restaurant. Keep in mind though the main floor of the restaurant does move so you cannot do any long exposure stuff.

I will say that you will get much better pics from the restaurant than the observation deck. Bring glass cleaner and paper towels and/or if you are tripod can get up to about 7 feet then maybe you get pics up above the glass on the outside part of the observation deck. The restaurant glass was much cleaner IMO. I got lots of pics and some are decent but I have not really done much post process on them.

Here are few more if u want to look - pretty much straight out of the camera though.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/photoby...7594185377533/