Hot & Humid in Houston: San Antonio

We drove to San Antonio on a Saturday afternoon. On the way there we told the kids they could each get one souvenir so that we could cut down on the asking for everything. We arrived in the late afternoon and quickly set out to the River Walk to look for a place to eat. The kids knew that the Alamo was in San Antonio, but we hadn't talked about anything else that was there. So, as we were walking that first night, we passed over a bridge, Caroline looks over and says, "Oh! There's a river!" Oh yeah. And a River Walk. We chose Tex Mex for the first meal. As we were waiting for our food, a man came to our table to take our complimentary picture. (As the days went on, we realized all River Walk restaurants did the same thing.) Twenty minutes later he came back with our pictures. First the free one, but then others that we could purchase. Now we are not the type of people to purchase these things, but the picture he took of Todd and I was probably the best picture we've had in a very long time. So we bought it. Todd said that was my souvenir.

The next morning was Sunday. All of us woke up at 4:30 a.m. All of us. We had a tour scheduled at the Alamo at 10:00 a.m. We had a lot of time to kill. For breakfast the kids had really fresh French pasteries at a little coffee shop. Then we hung out at the playground across the street from our hotel. It was a very cool playground with a big rope climbing structure. They had flat saucer swings and spinny things that Caroline loved. We spent time at this playground every day. On we went to the Alamo for our tour. We were at the Alamo on March 1st, which was in the midst of the actual Alamo battle nearly 200 years ago. They had reenactors there, and they allowed the kids to clean and "shoot" the cannon. We covered our ears for the loud "Boom" spoken by the tour guide. It was an interesting tour, but 2 out of 3 kids were fussy and exhausted (due to the early morning I'm sure).

We took this picture the next day when there were less crowds.

For lunch, Todd wanted some fish and chips. After walking the River Walk, we found a British establishment that had scantily clad waitresses and signs that said, "No one under the age of 21 allowed after 8:00 p.m." But they had some good fish and chips. And we got another complimentary picture. Josiah saw pictures of the Beatles on the wall, so he was happy (and distracted from the ladies).

That afternoon we decided to check out the Tower of the Americas. It was a 750 ft tower that was built for the 1968 World's Fair. The ticket included not just the elevator ride up, but a 4-D show about Texas. It sounded great. So, up we went. At the top of the observation area, you could walk the circle inside or you could walk "outside" where they had tall glass walls, but open air after that. Open air seemed like the logical choice to me, so out we walked. Josiah immediately said he didn't like it, he didn't feel safe. Henry tried to go back inside every time we walked by a door. I made them walk the five minutes around the whole tower. Face your fears children. We didn't spend nearly as much time observing the cityscape as I had expected. Back downstairs we got in line for the 4-D movie. It was titled Skies Over Texas and I was envisioning some sort of Disney Soarin' counterpart. But the Tower of the Americas did not have a Disney budget. It looked like an early 90's TV show with the clarity of the picture. Despite that, Caroline freaked out when they showed a snake jumping at us. She was already on my lap when they showed the alligators in the bayous. So that whole experience was a bust, but now we can cross it off our San Antonio list.

We went to bed that night quite exhausted. I thought for sure we'd all sleep til 7 at least. Nope. Wrong. 4:41 a.m. Josiah is awake and he's super congested and breathing crazy loud, so he woke me up. I pleaded with him to breath through his mouth, but he insisted he couldn't. "I'm not a mouth breather." he told me. So we were both up from that point. Todd joined us for breakfast at a German establishment that hails to be the oldest restaurant in San Antonio. The kids all ordered pancakes and they were good! With full bellies we said goodbye to Todd who had to go to his conference. The kids and I headed to the playground to work off said pancakes. After a few hours of playing we walked to Legoland. We didn't know they had a Legoland in San Antonio, so we were actually really happy we found it. We had planned on going to the one in Ft. Worth at the end of April, so now we saved that trip! Legoland was only one floor of the building, but the kids made the most of their time. They did a builder workshop where they made a koi fish. They had a play area and two rides. The first ride, you had to pedal to get your "car" in the air. The other ride was a laser shooting ride, and we did that six times in a row. By the end Caroline had trigger finger and couldn't use her hands. Legoland also had three 4-D movies. I didn't tell Caroline they were 4-D. We just went for it and hoped it went better than the Tower of the America's movie. This time, she loved it. It rained on us, there was wind, she got to wear 3-D glasses. She loved it. She saw all three movies that they offered. I was personally freezing at the end because it would rain on us four to five times each movie. Not just a mist, but actual rain. Even Josiah skipped one of the movies because he wasn't keen on the rain.

Caroline wanted a picture with ALL the Lego Friends.

After spending hours at Legoland, we took the elevator down to leave. It, of course, lets you out at the Lego Store. So we were there for another hour. Saying "no" to the $70 and $140 Lego kits left and right. If it has the security wires around the kit, that's not one we're going to buy! They did get to pick out a Lego key chain because they like to hang key chains from their back packs. They also got to make their own Lego figures to keep. Josiah built his figure to look like Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter.

We were exhausted again and that night we all slept past the 4:00 a.m. hour. The kids did have it rough though. The hotel room had two double beds. When Todd registered for the conference he requested a rollaway bed. The first night we were there, the front desk said they are usually all used up, but they would check and give him a call. They never called, so Todd checked with them again the next day and that desk clerk said they didn't even have rollaway beds. So our kids had to sleep three of them to a double bed. It was tight. It didn't help that Caroline was in the middle and she's the most hot-blooded child ever so she didn't want covers on her, but the boys on the ends did. By the fourth night, Caroline slept at the end of the bed horizontally to the boy's vertical sleeping and that worked. Purchasing a cot is in our near future.

Tuesday, we had another big pancake breakfast before heading out to the DoSeum - a museum for children. We arrived at 10:00 a.m. when they opened. We didn't leave until 3:45 p.m. And the kids would have stayed longer. They had a cool outdoor playground. Inside their special feature was a sound and sight area. They had one huge room where you could play instruments. And our kids did. Since it was encouraged by the staff in the room, our kids played and drummed on everything. It was so, so loud, but they had a great time. They kept a good beat together, too. Josiah's favorite part was a spy area. It gave you missions and had lots of rooms with clues and hidden things. Josiah found a fellow like-minded kid who was equally dressed up as a spy. This kid called Josiah by his spy name, Fallen Fox. Josiah, in turn, called him Jupiter Ninja. They had a really, really good time. The best part was that we had no time constraints. It was great to just let them play for as long as they wanted.

Hand puppets on the screen.

Josiah loved the building area that had an actual saw and an hand drill.

Caroline loved that she could make the robot do what she was doing:

This was a very cool room. The kids shot the blasters to hit the targets up above which were drums, cymbals, and wind chimes. Caroline waited under the bucket for a good ten minutes waiting for it to fill up and dump all over her.

The music room. So, so loud, but they LOVED it.

Wednesday morning the kids played at the park til Todd was done with his conference. On the drive back to Houston, Josiah kept asking for us to stop at Buc-ee's. He wanted as his souvenir the Buc-ee's beaver stuffed animal. The stuffed animal that has nothing to do with San Antonio. But Josiah was a happy camper.
And this was the park that we went to every day. It was a very cool park. Caroline wanted to move there, but she doesn't understand that if we lived there we wouldn't eat out every meal and spend hours of time at the playground every day.