San Antonio, Texas

It was SO nice to know we were in a place where we would not have to get up and move in the morning!  The kids first order of business was to go swimming BUT the pool was freezing so they didn’t stay in long.  That was good because we had a dinner date with the Guzman’s, my niece, Brynn, her husband, Ricky, and kids Braxton, Merrick, Lincoln & Gemma.  They told us to meet them at Willie’s Grill & Icehouse.  They were already there when we finally arrived 10 minutes late.  We had a fabulous evening of good food and good conversation.

Wednesday was our day to see the Alamo and San Antonio’s Riverwalk.  It took us a long time to get out of the trailer.  The time change to Daylight savings AND the change to central time was wreaking havoc.  We signed up for the guided tour of the Alamo.  A lot had changed there took, it had been commercialized.  But, at the same time, I thought I learned more.  I didn’t realize that the original reason for fighting for Texas was slavery so that made it less inspiring!  Since I was there last time Phil Collins, yes the Genesis lead singer and 80’s music star, had made a big donation of artifacts from the Texas revolution period.  There were some really interesting pieces in the collection.

We walked from the Alamo to the Riverwalk, one of my favorite places.  It brought back so many memories, especially going there for the first time to IAMFES with Karine and staying in the Hyatt Regency, and going there with Colin & Kersten, Mike & Cecily, and their VERY young kids, who didn’t sleep a lick in the hotel, and Emily being terrified of elevators at the Riverwalk Mall. Our first stop was at one of the Mexican restaurants for lunch and then we did the riverboat ride.

Thursday was Sea World Day.  We did all the usual things, rides and shows.  The Orca show is still great but I thought they had made the Sea Lion & Otter show very boring.  We did the all day dining plan and I can certainly recommend that.  We bought it ahead for a discounted price and we definitely saved money.  Zina favorite ride was the Seabird Swing, Myra’s favorite was feeding and watching the Sea Lions.  My favorite was the whale shows.  David’s favorite was the Rio Loco raft ride with the whole family.  It was a hot day so I was actually glad to be drenched by that ride.  David left us after that to go to the temple.  The park closed at 8 so we caught a Lyft back to the campground and I went grocery shopping when David got back from the temple.  It is hard to fit that in!

Then, this morning I got to go to the temple and we stopped at the famous Buc-ees on our way to our next stop.

From Will: As the first big city stop on this journey, San Antonio did not disappoint. We started our three nights here by having dinner at a restaurant called Willie’s with cousins who live nearby; Braxton(16), Merrick(13) Lincoln(10) and Gemma(8). The next morning, we got up late and hung out at the trailer for a while, then packed up and got in the car to drive to The Alamo. The Alamo is a truly amazing historical sight. Our tour guide knew his stuff and delivered his information well. None of the family knew that Texas was its own independent nation for 10 years and that citizens of several countries flocked to Texas to help in the battle. We then took to the streets to find lunch at a local Mexican place. Near to where we ate lunch was a walking boat tour of San Antonio. We saw many historical buildings and streets on this tour, which I would highly recommend if in the area. The whole crew was tired after this, so we went home, ate dinner, and went to bed, as it was important to be on-time to catch our shuttle to SeaWorld at San Antonio. SeaWorld was a very interesting combo of both a theme park and an advanced aquarium-like experience. My personal favorite part of SeaWorld was the animal shows; it was amazing to see how SeaWorld and other organizations are helping animals in need of physical help. Although it was a blast at the theme park, we were again left tired at the end of the day. That pretty much sums up our stay in San Antonio. Be back in Beaumont! Overall Rating: 8.9/10