Float the Rivers, Nap, Party all Night at the Square, Sleep, Coffee and Repeat. That's the Small College Town vibe and lifestyle of San "Marvelous" Marcos, Texas in a nutshell.
This summer I decided to mix it up, and try something different. I had been avidly fond of BABY Austin, Texas for quite some time. One could describe San Marcos as the Brooklyn of Texas. I searched around on the internet, made some phone calls, and found a 2 month plus, short-term furnished lease, with zero security deposit at the Vistas complex in San Marcos, Texas. The Vistas is a welcoming, newer apartment complex that encompasses an entire city block. It has a pool, key entry security, a gym, and on-site management. Basically, everything was included in my $1800 dollar total rent, short term lease. The Vistas Studio apartment was ideal for my leisurely 2nd summer home. The goals were to vacation, relax, escape the bigger ATX city and small-town party!
After reviewing google's population and resident numbers, I'd personally place the residential human population of San Marcos, Texas in the 70,000+/- people range. For a huge city slicker, big-time urban lover and wanna-be real estate developer like me, this is a pretty small town. Why choose San Marcos you ask?
1. Well, I was attracted to San Marcos's proximity to my work residence in Austin, Texas. The Interstate 35 Highway commute, with my BMW efficient car was around 20 to 30 minutes. Thus I could quickly scoot to San Marcos for the weekend festivities and return to Austin in time for the Monday A.M. work week. Why else?
2. I had always wondered what it would be like to live in a Small Town. I'd never attempted it.
3. I envisioned the small town life, as a reprieve from big city STRESS and car TRAFFIC.
4. The Texas State University Student heavy population of San Marcos TX, creates a youthful energy dynamic and beautiful co-ed atmosphere.
5. I knew the college kids would love to party and the bar scene around the town SQUARE would be vibrant, fun, and invigorating.
Those anticipatory thoughts pre-lease signing seemed to ring true. In actuality, I learned a bunch about myself, the town and life in general during my short-term San Marcos Lease. I learned that San Marcos, although lively at night with the bar scene, was extremely sleepy and slow during the day. I learned the overall costs of goods, groceries, bars, and things were cheaper. During the daytime, the hours moved at a turtle pace. On the bright side, the Vistas's apartment pool was so peaceful, and pool chairs so comfortable, I managed to read an entire book! My paperback book choice was the outlandish, page-turning and riveting, Kitchen Confidential, by the late celebrity chef, egalitarian, and adaptable world traveler, Anthony Bourdain. I dream of my books one day becoming as fun as his.
Moving along, with my active Texas Real Estate salesperson license valid throughout the state of Texas, I could have attempted to lease, sell and work some real estate deals, but in all honesty, I had zero desire to do so. In general San Marcos real estate is still affordable. The chillness, cold beers, rivers, pools, bikini watching, floating and the overall vibe was too enjoyable to mess up.
My favorite park to hang was Sewell Park. Sewell Park, was walking distance from my apartment. Everything in San Marcos is walking distance. A bike ride would almost be unnecessarily speedy. Sewell Park possesses a variety of activities, as there are 2 sand volleyball courts always in use, a basketball court, inflating tubers, bikini hill for sunbathing and towel lounging, grills for outdoor cookers, and some green space for throwing discs, footballs and the sporting types. The San Marcos River water in Sewell park is a chilly 72 degrees and fresh! After a jump in, it feels fantastic. Bikini Hill and the adjacent freshwater vividly reminded me of my hometown's Barton Springs Pool and hill-top sunbathers. Ohh, the similarities.
My favorite City jaunts to hang out, eat, imbibe and spend money at were: the Aqua Brew, Louie's, Zelicks Bar, the Daiquiri Factory, Mayloo's, the Green Parrot, Buzzmill, Cheatham Street Warehouse, Tantra Coffee and Chimy's Margarita and Mexican Food. All of these places were affordable, fun and lively at night. 5 to 6 of my Austin and Houston based friends were willing to join me on the responsibility escapism and weekend debauchery. On the weekends when my friend's and I joined forces, we had an excellent time. Thumbs up for zero policing tickets on my hosting watch. My friends' feedback highlighted how truly fun the 3 hour Blanco River, "Spring Break Party Style," Float was.
Let's reveal the imagery and scene of the 3 hour plus Blanco River San Marcos Tube adventure ride. First it begins with a 15 minute uber ride from downtown San Marcos to Texas State Tubes in Martindale. After the 18 dollars tube entry fee, you are given a bus ride with your fellow tube patrons upstream on the river. Once dropped off at the starting point, one selects the most airy tube available and gets ready for river flow drop in. Tube patrons are allowed to B.Y.O.P. Basically Bring Your Own Party. Tubers stack ice chests full or cold beers, snacks, paraphernalia and more. In addition to the booze, it can be a cannabis carrying crowd. There is the occasional family, and some kid sightings. Next comes the loud music boomboxes, which blast rap music and tejano. The Tubers play modern radio rap, and not the original glory rap of the 90's era. There is a rope swing. There are groups of say 7-10 tubers that physically tie themselves together. Then there are the river floating party banks. These shallow river banks are where the tubers stop to take a break from the river flow, chug and shotgun beers, people watch, and happily converse. It's a pretty easy going and friendly tubing crowd. If you ever decide to go yourself, remember the longer you stop and break on the banks, the longer the 3 hour sun heavy tube ride becomes. Towards the end of the tube ride, I've done this sober before, the fellow tubers display drained, dreary and worn body language. By the end of the float, you are eagerly ready to return to dry land, eat some food, and locate a soft dark bed. It is a river floating, mindfully booze altered, bikini landscaped, afternoon adventure.
The friends' also agreed with how attractive the female bar-goers and nightlife beauties were in the San Marcos Town Square. The Square is where the up until 2 am nightlife is. Cheap bars, drinks, shots, young people, fashionable ladies, bar crawling and all. Except for my ring wearing married buddy, we made our fair share of flirtatious efforts. All of my friends agreed to those 2 aforementioned river floating and square partying events were winning activities!
On the downside, one thing I did learn about myself was my inner gravitational pull towards bigger cities. I learned a town of fewer than 100,000 people, despite its grandeur is going to be too small for my personal tastes. As a spoiled longtime resident of TOP 15 populated mega United State's cities, I've come to grips that big-time city slicking, is the life for me.
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