2010 USMC Battalion Reunion
Destination – San Antonio, Texas!
REUNION NEWS...
Our reunion plans are coming together! We have a block of rooms at a lovely hotel right on the Riverwalk, and the group package we’ve put together is the beginning of what will be a fantastic reunion in September!
The Holiday Inn Riverwalk is not just another chain hotel! This place is the flagship of the Holiday Inn! The rooms are really nice with balconies either overlooking the river or looking to the skyline of San Antonio.
All the rooms have upgraded bedding with new pillow top mattresses, high-end pillows and luxurious linens, 37” flat screen TVs, and free wireless Internet.
We have gotten a $99/night room rate for a large block of standard rooms! We’ve also set aside 6 handicap accessible rooms, and two complete floors (30 rooms) for smoking guests. Our Hospitality Room is the spacious 2250’ Skyline Atrium on the 7th floor. It has high ceilings, lots of windows and plenty of elbow room. It’s ours to enjoy with our own food and drinks (complete with ice delivery 3 times a day and daily trash pick up)! We even get to use their baby grand piano. We have two rooms adjoining the Skyline Atrium for securing memorabilia and other items (Rumba #1 & Rumba #2), and the Tango Ballroom for our Banquet!
I’m happy to report that we have a lovely selection of entrees and salads for our banquet. The hotel caterer developed a special menu with three choices of double-entrees, 3 choices of salads and special patriotic dessert for only $40 per plate! (View Menu)
The hotel has given us a special rate for their breakfast buffet (lots to choose from) for just $10/person. As mentioned before, the hotel has agreed to let us to have our own snacks, and beverages (including alcohol) in the hospitality room. There is a nice restaurant onsite and many places to eat nearby. The hotel also offers safe deposit boxes, valet parking, an exercise room, heated pool and spa. The hotel offers services for laundry and valet parking. The rate for self-parking is $8/day with in/out privileges.
We wanted to ensure there were enough rooms for everyone who wants to attend the reunion, so we held a block of 160 rooms at the special group rate. With such a large block of space (50 percent of the hotel), we negotiated a deal with hotel… In exchange for our group firming up our space early, July 1st (60 days prior to our reunion), the attrition clause has been dropped for us. That means folks need to sign up sooner than later this year… The hotel will try to accommodate any late requests for room reservations, but after July 1st when the unused rooms have been released from our block, late reservations will be on a space available basis, and after August 1st, the room rate will be back at the hotel’s current rate. So, if you’re planning to attend, sign up now! If your plans change, it’s easier to cancel a reservation later than getting a room late!
Here are the dates of the reunion and the current activities for those dates:
Wed, Sept 1...Johnnie and I will open up the hospitality room after lunch and have registration packets, local information and reunion shirts for those who have ordered them.
Thurs, Sept 2...Get to know San Antonio! Relax at the hotel and visit before going for a short walk to the Alamo, the Vietnam Memorial or the Texas Ranger museum. Take a river tour or carriage ride, stroll along the river, ride the trolley, rent a bike...or even Segway around town! I'm considering a ladies get-together on Thursday. No advance reservations will be required...but if there is interest, we will be "engaged" for an 11:00 am brunch at a nearby historic hotel!
Friday, Sept 3...this trip to Fort Sam Houston is tentatively being planned to include presentation by the medics, overview of the mission and what's being accomplished at Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC), the Center for the Intrepid, the Wounded Warrior Program, Warrior in Transition Program, and the METC (a state of the art medical education training command). We may be able to coordinate a tour of these facilities for some while others may prefer to just go see the museum, historic Fort Sam, the PX and PX-tra. If the group interested in the medic briefing is very large, we may try to host it at the Garrison NCO club where the we could have the medic’s mission briefing. If we include a luncheon, that generally runs about $12-15/plate depending on the menu. I go there for lunch meetings quite often and believe that this can be coordinated for our group! Just let me know if you’re interested!
Saturday, Sept 4....Kick back and relax! Visit friends, enjoy the Riverwalk or rest up for the Banquet on Saturday night! We will lead with a color guard, the Marine Corps Hymn (hopefully Gary and his bagpipes), the national anthem, an invocation and a moment to honor the memory of those who gave all (with an empty place setting). We have a great meal planned, a silent auction, raffle, and door prizes...but most important will be the speakers! We'd like acknowledge each company, the corpsmen and H&S! We’d like each group to nominate someone to come up and speak for a few minutes (3-5 minutes). I'm working on a very special keynote speaker for this event. Keeping it under wraps for now...but am pretty sure that you'll enjoy it.
Sunday, Sept 5...the business meeting will be held at 8:30 am in the Skyline Atrium. Afterwards, some of us will be going to Fredericksburg to visit the National Museum of the Pacific, the Memorial Garden and Japanese Peace Garden and the Admiral Nimitz Museum. This museum was just expanded/renovated, and reopened in December. Here’s a link to their website…The Museum of the Pacific War
Some folks may opt to stay around the hotel, or some may be leaving... I'm hoping that most will want to stay longer, since Monday will be a holiday. The hotel has agreed to extend the group rate for 3 days after the reunion for any who want to extend their stay! It's a beautiful, charming city that will be hard to leave!
Monday, Sept 6... (A national holiday) ... Farewell to dear friends! Hasta la vista.... Until we see you again!
Other things to do:
There a number of other things to do when you come to San Antonio! We can get group rates with the riverboat tours, trolley tickets, the San Antonio zoo, the botanical garden and a number of nice museums. On a side note, you may want to take a tour of the Missions of San Antonio, visit a historic flour mill known as the Guenther House or stop by a little brew pub/ restaurant that folks might enjoy if they have some time to go enjoy some good food, reasonably priced with live music and a really cool bike shop where you can rent a bicycle for only $25/a day and cruise around the city! It's easy to get to since the trolley from downtown makes a stop at the Guenther House and the Blue Star every 15 minutes... So if you don't want to go for a bike ride, you can just go and enjoy the food, shopping, music, participate in the beer tasting ($10 for 5 beer samples) with the brew master...or just enjoy the King Williams district of the city! Anyway...here's a link to their websites: Blue Star Brewery, The Guenther House, Missions of San Antonio
Other important information:
Here’s a link to the website for people to register for our block of rooms with the Holiday Inn- Riverwalk directly… 2010 USMC 3/5 Reunion - Operation Hastings When you sign up, please drop a line to Tess at traveler131@live.com with your meal selections and to help us with planning.
A Reminder on room rates: The special room rate is available to the group for three days before and three days after the official reunion dates of September 1st through September 6th. So you can plan to arrive early, stay late or both!
We are so proud to host this reunion in our beautiful city and look forward to sharing this Jewel of Texas that we call “Home” with you all!
Semper Fidelis
Yukon John Harris and Tess
Holiday Inn - Riverwalk, 217 N. St Mary’s Street, San Antonio, Texas 78205
Reservations: 1-877-863-4780 (booking code “ubm”), Hotel Phone: 1-210-224-2500
Hotel Internet Website:
www.holidayinn.com/sat-riverwalk / Booking Link to the 2010 Reunion
