Universal City, TX Outdoor Activities

On Wednesday, September 14, 2011, the Missions began what would turn out to be the longest postseason game in Texas League history. Playing against the Arkansas Travelers in the league's championship series, the Missions battled to a 5–4 victory that took 20 innings—and a spillover into Thursday—to settle. The win propelled the Missions to a series sweep, earning the franchise its 12th championship since the Texas League was founded in 1888.

Throughout those 113 years, the Texas League underwent many changes, but San Antonio stood firm—the only one of the league's six original teams to play in three different centuries. As the San Diego Padres' Double-A affiliate, the Missions continue their legacy at their home field, Wolff Stadium, a 6,200-seat facility complete with a grass berm in left field where fans can sprawl out to watch the innings and where umpires sunbathe between games.

San Antonio’s bustling urban environs and picturesque natural surroundings both serve as the setting for Adventure Club San Antonio’s organized, jovial group outings for singles and married couples alike. Resident staffers heed suggestions from more than 300 members and 200 fortune cookies to devise a calendar of events that brims with an average of 60 activities every month, most of which are free of charge. After perusing the bevy of activities, participants congregate amid the verdant San Antonio–area wilderness for outdoor recreation such as hiking and canoeing, or within the lively city limits for dinners, sports matches, members-only shindigs, and frequent volunteer sessions for local charities.

Aside from the chance to mingle with new friends and explore the region, members receive discounts at dozens of local businesses, and can swiftly find a companion for unofficial events and shadow-puppet castings via a handy activity partners’ forum. Additionally, Adventure Club can connect members to a network of similar groups in Austin, Houston, and Dallas, and even beyond the borders of Texas in verdant locales such as San Diego, California, and Boulder, Colorado.

Antonio Daniels studied elementary education at Bowling Green State University. But rather than making a career of reading Newbery Award–winning books or conducting science experiments over bunsen burners, he entered the 1997 NBA Draft and was chosen as the fourth overall pick by the Vancouver Grizzlies. However, once he recognized the hollowness of a baller's lifestyle––whose only rewards were a 1999 NBA championship with the San Antonio Spurs and the perk of wearing shorts to work––Antonio atoned by establishing his annual youth summer basketball camp.

For all five days of the camp, Antonio prowls the sidelines, giving kids pointers and boosting their confidence in the game he has now played professionally for 13 years. Coaches from the middle-school through college ranks join him in running the aspiring dunk machines through drills, skill training, and competitive games. At the end of the camp, children will not only have sharpened their hooping tool set, but they will also leave with two of the best souvenirs Antonio can offer other than plaster casts of his hands and feet: a T-shirt and an autographed photo.

SegCity has ridden the wave of segway popularity to become one of Texas' largest distributors of segways and a leader in segway-authorized tours. With topics ranging from ghosts to breakfast, six public tours escort visitors and locals alike around San Antonio's most famed sights such as the Alamo, the Main Plaza, and The Riverwalk. The staff guides each represent slices of the city itself and share stories of their upbringings in the city on each excursion. As an authorized segway dealer, the business can also outfit riders with their own segways and requisite bassinets.

After arriving in San Antonio in 2003, the Silver Stars have asserted themselves as a WNBA powerhouse. In that first decade, the team secured playoff berths in six consecutive seasons, making it to the league finals in 2008. Along with their NBA counterpart, the San Antonio Spurs, the Silver Stars hold court at AT&T Center, where a massive center-court scoreboard often reinterprets crucial baskets as artsy short films on the digital screen.

Since sprouting into existence in 2006, Ideal Tennis Academy has fostered future stars by offering training programs throughout the year for all ages and skill levels. The toddler program, for instance, puts rackets in the hands of kids as young as aged two-and-a-half years and strives to develop important motor skills on miniature courts. The academy provides a junior-varsity program for adolescent players, which preps teens and preteens for higher levels of competition. Aside from offering programs at its facility, Ideal Tennis Academy hits the road with Tennis Delivery, a mobile program that teaches tennis by launching coaches from high-powered ball machines to locations across San Antonio.