Please don't be offended by this, but if I were to stand outside of most health food stores trying to come up with a broad description of the people who shop there, in a single word, I'd have to choose weird.
Please don't misunderstand; I am all for healthy eating and in fact, over the last year or more have changed my own personal eating habits to include more healthful choices like fresh fruits, grains, less red meat and more fish. I actually do eat organic waffles containing flax, and even have a shaker of flaxseed that I sprinkle on top of fruit and yogurt. But for the most part, I have been able to make these personal changes, without changing the place I buy food, because I don't feel the need to arbitrarily pay double the price for things.
Okay, so if you aren't pissed off yet, I'll tell you why I went to Sun Harvest.
A friend at work let me try these Pita Chips that he says he got at Whole Foods or some place like that. These puppies seem to be deep fried in something, then covered with various seasonings. Healthy or not, they taste great! So, I told my wife we ought to go buy a bucket of them, sit in front of the TV and eat them.
All.
Once again, San Antonio experienced another Noah's Ark-worth of rain, and I decided that instead of driving all over town trying to find Whole Foods, I'd go to this Sun Harvest off IH-10 and Callaghan. If they sell healthy stuff, certainly they would have the healthy junk food, right?
There were lots of older folks shopping at Sun Harvest. I don't attribute shopping there to them trying to be healthy, I suspect that this store is simply a neighborhood grocery to them. Much like in some urban areas, people shop at 7-Eleven simply because they don't have a car, and it is the closest place to purchase a $4.75 gallon of milk and some rolling papers.
Moving away from the normal-seeming old people, now we have the generic weird people I described earlier. These are people who would give anything to live in Austin, and would fit in nicely, but circumstances have kept them here in San Antonio. These people most likely listen to NPR, drive a VW with a flower mounted in the dashboard, have a bumper sticker that says, "Impeach Bush" on their car, and have only dated other ugly people.
But I mean all this in a good way.
As my wife and I strolled through the aisles looking for the Fried Pita Chips Slathered in Herbs I so desperately wanted, I saw one gentleman who was fully decked out in safari clothing. Is that standard issue for a trip to the grocery store on a rainy day, or do you suppose he was simply purchasing a box of frozen Tofurky for his big expedition to The Shoppes at La Canterra?
Another handsome lady was prepared for shopping duty in her Hemp jeans and tie-dyed t-shirt as though at any moment, she expected to meet Peter, Paul and Mary at the check-out line.
Perhaps I'm too harsh, but I make no illusions about why I was there. I was looking for junk food and it just happened to be at a healthy food store I was looking for it in. The interesting thing was, not only did they sport two full aisles of junk-food, but by simply applying the label "Organic" or "Healthy" to a product, people felt free to dig in.
They had set-up an end cap with a two plates of cookies, and not one person (myself included) walked by without trying a few samples. That's fine, but why didn't these people jump on a treadmill and walk for a few minutes after eating? I'll tell you why - because they don't really care about their health, they just like the idea of appearing to care about their health, the environment, and this good feeling gives them an excuse to wear goofy clothing styles.
In the end, I did not find the chips I was looking for so it was pretty much a bust, but my wife did purchase a pound of walnuts and she found them a lot cheaper than what we could get from HEB.
* Please don't be offended; I'm just poking fun - and why not? There really was a goofy guy in a safari outfit.
You might recall that during the Spurs-Cavs Finals, one of the no doubt All-Star caliber announcers ABC saw fit to put on the air made some ridiculous comment, the gist of which was that there is nothing to do in San Antonio. I guess if you must have daily Paris Hilton sightings or can't bother to leave the hotel room unless there is a taping of the Letterman Show to watch, I guess you'd be right.
But sadly, I often hear people who live here who have the same comments. Once they've made the obligatory visits to Sea World and Fiesta Texas, been to the Alamo on a field trip in Kindergarten, and taken a visitor to Mi Tierra, then they are bored to tears. Too bad I say, because either my wife and I are easily entertained or maybe just plain dull, but we find something worth doing in SA and nearby all the time.
Today, we took a short trip out to The Rim to do a little research on the supposed Steak 'n Shake, which by the way, we never did find (not that we would have eaten there, Noreen*), and we decided to check out a few of the parks in the area.
To give you an idea of where I'm talking about, take IH-10 just north of 1604. Fiesta Texas and The Shops at La Cantera are to the west, The Rim is to the east and a little north of there is Leon Springs. Raymond Russell Park is on the east side and Friedrich Wilderness Park is on the west side.
More about The Rim later; first I want to tell you about Raymond Russell Park.
I'm thinking that if you happened to be in the area and you were looking for a place to picnic or maybe have some big family or company event, this would be as cool a place as any. We just took a short drive through, having never been there before, and we noticed a lot of open space where kids could play or perhaps a Frisbee might be thrown if you were into such a thing.
Though the area itself looked very nice, we didn't take the time to get out and really explore. One thing I did notice was that people seemed to be using the park as a good starting point for bicycle riding. The access roads in both directions of IH-10 had cyclists enjoying the scenery and fresh air. Unfortunately, as I mentioned to my wife, my ass was not built for such a small seat. She promptly reminded me that a bike with a seat suitable for my body was waiting for me in the comfort of our bedroom, facing the TV. Uh, thanks.
Either way, if you were a family on a budget and wanted to go to The Rim and take the kids to the Bass Pro Shops, but not necessarily pay for the kids to eat in the restaraunt there, why not pack a lunch and drive up another half mile on the frontage road to RR Park. You'll save money and you can look up and see the rich folks living in the Dominion, just a golf chip away. Wave Howdy to The Admiral.
Raymond Russell Park doesn't compare to the beauty of Friedrich Wilderness Park, but in all fairness, they are for totally different uses. Had we known that we were going to stop there, we would have dressed appropriately, worn some walking shoes and maybe brought a few bottles of water. Plus, I would definitely have brought along my good camera.
We had driven up to Leon Springs (which is a nice trip with lots of cute shops by itself) and made the turn to head back toward SA. I decided to stay on the access road rather than get on IH-10, just in case we wanted to stop anywhere. We would not be disappointed.
As I pulled into the park entry, and man fully decked out in "nature gear" was taking pictures of some wild flowers. He politely motioned for me to drive through, but I wanted to take some pictures of my own. 
When we did go in and park, I liked how they made use of bricks and grass to make the lot, rather than asphalt.
We weren't really dressed to make a stay of the park and go down any of the trails, but we did take long enough to wander around the initial entry way. A bathroom and some park maps along with a sort of seating/resting area were close to the parking area, and just a few steps aways were several picnic tables available for someone wanting to eat lunch before or after a nice hike.
We saw quite a few hikers getting ready to hit the trail including people with kids and older folks out to enjoy a bit of nature. My wife was struck by the fact that really, the park is located just hundreds of yards from IH-10, yet the faint sound of traffic seemed to blend into the beauty of the park as if it were a brook off in the distance.
I could understand why when we arrived, the gentleman at the gate was so focused (no pun intended) on the subject of his photography; you couldn't walk a few feet without finding something to take a happy snap of.
My wife is not a big fan of cactus, in fact I had to remove a few from our yard when we first moved to Silver Creek. But out here, safely off the path, they were a very pleasant sight to take in.
This is one of those places we pass by and usually say something like, "Gee, I wonder what that place is like?" and I suspect that there are quite a few people who do the same. But it seems to me that if you can recall at least one of those places a week, there would be no reason to ever think that "there is nothing to do in San Antonio" like the dumbass announcer on ABC.
Both Raymond Russell and Friedrich Wilderness Park are free and available for everyone to enjoy. We have found so many of these gems in and around San Antonio from time to time and it just seems a shame for folks not to enjoy them.
I'll tell you about more of more of our favorite places to visit in the near future. How 'bout you tell me about your favorite places to visit.
*My sister Noreen read about our trip to Wichita Falls and all the places we ate and was extremely concerned about my health. I assured her that we were only splurging since we were on a trip.
Please don't be offended by this, but if I were to stand outside of most health food stores trying to come up with a broad description of the people who shop there, in a single word, I'd have to choose weird.
Moving away from the normal-seeming old people, now we have the generic weird people I described earlier. These are people who would give anything to live in Austin, and would fit in nicely, but circumstances have kept them here in San Antonio. These people most likely listen to NPR, drive a VW with a flower mounted in the dashboard, have a bumper sticker that says, "Impeach Bush" on their car, and have only dated other ugly people.
As my wife and I strolled through the aisles looking for the Fried Pita Chips Slathered in Herbs I so desperately wanted, I saw one gentleman who was fully decked out in safari clothing. Is that standard issue for a trip to the grocery store on a rainy day, or do you suppose he was simply purchasing a box of frozen Tofurky for his big expedition to The Shoppes at La Canterra?
Perhaps I'm too harsh, but I make no illusions about why I was there. I was looking for junk food and it just happened to be at a healthy food store I was looking for it in. The interesting thing was, not only did they sport two full aisles of junk-food, but by simply applying the label "Organic" or "Healthy" to a product, people felt free to dig in.
They had set-up an end cap with a two plates of cookies, and not one person (myself included) walked by without trying a few samples. That's fine, but why didn't these people jump on a treadmill and walk for a few minutes after eating? I'll tell you why - because they don't really care about their health, they just like the idea of appearing to care about their health, the environment, and this good feeling gives them an excuse to wear goofy clothing styles.
