Spring Break

Well, we decided to finally have a "touristy" family vacation. Last time we did this, we had a 1 1/2 year-old, and one in utero. We drove over to San Antonio on Tuesday night, spent Wednesday at the Riverwalk and Alamo, and spent Thursday, E's birthday, at Seaworld.

Everything seemed to be kinda haphazard, but turned out very well anyway. We reserved some rooms online. Got a pretty cheap deal, but considering we were only planning on sleeping there, they didn't need to be the Ritz. And they weren't. What we didn't realize until too late, was that we hadn't specified non-smoking-didn't see a place for it on the website. Upon calling, my sweetheart was told that the rooms reserved for us were indeed smoking rooms. One good thing is that I was able to bring a bottle of Febreeze with us. I was really concerned because of R's asthma. Thankfully, it didn't turn out to be an issue. The first thing I did was spray down everything fabric in the room. There wasn't a smoky smell in the room, but I was afraid the bedding would carry the odor. I'm not sure what cleaning products they use, or if the room hadn't been smoked in much, but I didn't detect anything, which is saying something.

Having left after work Tuesday, we got in late, so we planned to go to the Riverwalk and Alamo Wednesday, because we knew the kids would need to sleep in.....ha ha ha. Ok maybe we were kidding ourselves. At any rate, we took the boat tour of the riverwalk. It was really nice. The guide was very personable and kept throwing out interesting facts. He didn't make it seem like it was just a memorized script, although I'm sure it was.

Afterwards we walked over to the Alamo, and walked through it. What a reverent feeling. It was neat to be able to explain the significance of various displays to the kids. The gardens around the mission itself were absolutely beautiful. Mostly park-like, but with beds of flowers and shrubbery here and there. The trees were pretty, but the most amazing one was transplanted there as a fairly old tree (40 years), I think around 1912. They had to prop its branches with something like a light post, and had several chains, using the tree's own weight as counterbalance so the branches wouldn't just split off from the weight of the limbs. On the other side of the courtyard was a building with several rooms with period items and historical information. We saw the first few rooms, but then had some kids that needed a pit-stop. Upon returning, another child had wandered off, and was lost for several minutes. That cut short our tour of this particular building. Looking back, decades ago when my family went to San Antonio, I remembered being bored to tears with room after room of guns and more guns, and knives, swords, and more guns. Every time we neared the exit of one room, I hoped that we were done, but it just led to another room. My feet ached and I'm sure I was quite grumpy. It seems to me that this was the family vacation we cut short because of bickering among the troops (me and ???). I think this building might have been that same one. In which case I'm glad to not have caused my children such torture. At the same time, being decades older, and much more interested in such things, I'd love to go back without bored kiddos and really have a go at it.

Unfortunately, we (I) managed to leave the camera in the car Wednesday. So we have no pictures of the Alamo or Riverwalk. We did, however remember to bring it to Seaworld, and got some cute shots.

The older three were able to go on their first big roller coaster ride. While they did that with Dad, H and I went on a smaller one.
Later, I took S and B on the other big coaster, while E and H played around the ship. It had lots of climbing stuff, sprinklers, and a sandbox. They had fun posing with the flamingos.

H decided that in Texas we don't really ever get to make snow angels, so sand angels would have to do.
At the end of the day, even the most energetic need a little break.
Overall, it was a great family vacation. One I would definitely do again. I could see getting a season pass some year, and just going up for a day trip several times during the season. While we tried to see everything, there's just too much for one day. We did make it to see Shamu and the pirates 4-D adventure, this one is really worth it. We were all impressed by the special effects, WAY better than I expected.