Our Family Vacation to San Antonio

While I have been desperately missing Hawaii, and even slightly regretting that I didn't jump on the $400 plane tickets I saw a few months ago, we decided to save the $3000ish that Hawaii would have cost and instead spent around $300ish on an extravagant trip to tropical San Antonio!

Corey has a 2-2.5 week break between each trimester of school, and we have gone to Hawaii or home for each break so far, so we haven't seen much of Texas. Our friend's sister has a lovely home in San Antonio, and graciously allowed us to stay while her family was out of town. So we piled in the car for a serious road trip. San Antonio is about 4.5 hours from our house, and we also drove 3 hours extra down to the Gulf. We probably spent at least 20 hours in the car during this trip, and the kids did amazingly well.

We started with a trip downtown to the Alamo. We looked everywhere for Pee Wee Herman's bicycle in the basement, but alas- it was nowhere to be found! We actually didn't go inside and so not know that much about it all. Guess we need to read up on it on Wikipedia!  

 We next stopped for some very mediocre Mexican food on the Riverwalk, Blech!

The Riverwalk is a series of channels that were built to prevent flooding back in the mid-1900s. This area is now lined with shops, restaurants, hotels, and other attractions.

 We took a tour-boat ride through the Riverwalk and it was great! Zach especially loved it!

The next day, we headed to Sea World. Season passes were the same price as a day pass, so we bought them instead. Who knows if we'll make it back or not? But I love aquariums and marine animals, so Sea World is right up my alley. It was perfect weather that day, and I'm sure it will just get hotter and hotter as the summer goes on. We hardly had to stand in any lines at all. It was great!

 Here is the dolphin pool.

 And, of course, Shamu. Zach gave him several "loves."

 Our friend, Kyler, took Zach on the merry-go-round. Kyler is one of Zach's favorite people.

 We went on this lame ferris-wheel type of ride with Zach that takes longer to load and unload than the actual spinning!

 Corey and Kyler took Zach on this "big kid" spinning ride. Corey said Zach loved it!

 Zach loves sharks, and totally dug this sign for a crazy upside-down roller coaster the big boys went on while we waited. I'm totally good to never go on a roller coaster again. Between getting motion sickness and needing a chiropractic adjustment to work out the kinks afterwards, they're just not as fun as they were 20 years ago!

After being in the sun at Sea World all day, we needed a good night's rest before heading 3 hours further south to the beach on the Gulf Coast in Port Aransas, TX. We stopped briefly in Corpus Christi before checking in at our beachside camp site.

 Another fun shark exhibit for Zach. He fell asleep right after we stopped here, and as he was drowsily waking up, he said, "Rahr! Shark!" I guess it left an impression!

 Luckily, I married the Scout Master of the Universe! This Eagle Scout can raise a huge tent in 5 minutes flat!

 Zoey is ready to hit the waves.

 Zach was PUMPED about his Toy Story camp chair, the tent, and everything!

 The look on his face here just cracks me up!

 This handsome boy is also ready for the beach.

 Zach loved playing in the sand, as well as jumping in the ocean with Daddy.

It was warm, but pretty windy, so Zoey and I watched from the shore.

 Did I mention it was windy?!

 We did dip our tootsies in the Atlantic Ocean though. I have a picture of Zach doing the same thing at the very same age as Zoey, only it was in the Pacific!

 Survivorman!-using our homemade ice pack to fill our water bottles.

 Corey packed and prepared almost everything for our trip--including the food. He seriously was awesome! How many husbands do all that?! He even made delicious cowboy dinners for us to cook.

 They got a little over-cooked, but were still tasty! And I had picked up some rolls from Texas Roadhouse at our last stop, so we were set!

 The boys were equally excited about their matching headlamps!

(Corey secretly wished his had a Buzz Lightyear on it too!)

 Zoey snug as a bug in her swing! I can't believe we packed that thing all the way from Dallas. It ended up not being a necessity, but came in handy anyway.

 Zach is really into shadows since watching Peter Pan.

He was WIRED in the tent- so excited about his sleeping bag, sleeping in the same room as Mom and Dad, etc. He was rolling and jumping all over the place!

 The next morning we grabbed some pastries for breakfast and watched the pelicans on the beach. They were amazing! We rode the ferry across the small channel, wondering why in the world they don't just build a bridge--it's not very far at all--and headed back to San Antonio for one more night of fun before returning to Dallas.

 We stopped at the lovely Japanese Tea Gardens, and found out it is NOT very stroller accessible!

 We took Flat Stanley with us to the Alamo so Zach's cousin, Corey, could have some cool pics for his class project. Beat that, other Utah kids!!

We finished off the day with some fare from the Hard Rock Cafe, downing several liters of ice water in the soaking Texas heat. It's gonna be a long, hot, humid summer, and I'm glad we were able to visit Southern Texas before it got any warmer!