San Antonio

Ta-da! I found a spare minute! Does anyone else need one while I'm at it??

Ok, so let's begin with our trip to San Antonio... We left early last Saturday morning to take a quick little trip for Little Man's 3rd and Daddy's 30th birthday. They are only 2 days apart, so it has become our tradition to just sort of combine everything. We stopped briefly in Katy, where we met a lady who was selling an Eddie Bauer backpack carrier for only $50. To me, that's an awesome deal! But, get this, upon finding the receipt in a pocket, we discovered that she was an even better "deal hawk" than we are!! I am not sure if the lady worked for Target or what, but she had managed to get the backpack originally marked $149.00 for only $35.00!!! And then sold it to us 7 years later at a profit! HELLO?!?! Can I go shopping with you?? But, we were still thrilled with our bargain and we used it right away when we got to the Natural Bridge Caverns.



We were so pleased to have bought our tickets online, because the line was about an hour long - in the heat, yuck. So, we got right inside and then had to wait for our tour to begin. It wasn't too much of a wait, and before we knew it, we were headed down into the caverns. It was a little bit tricky having to hold Little Man's hand, the rail and try not to let my camera hit anyone in the back while we went down the slippery pathway. Finally Daddy took the camera and I could just focus on making sure the newly turned 3 y.o. didn't cross under any rails or touch the forbidden by penalty of law stalagtites/stalagmites. Apparently if you the oils from your skin on them, they become waterproof in that area and stop growing. I think they figured this out decades ago when they installed electric lights and handrails all throughout the caverns! Hmmm, so why can't we touch it now?? It really is the neatest thing, and if you're a kid, of course you want to reach out and touch it! I think God would be a little more lenient with His creation than the Cavern Management. Oh well. :-)

Eventually I huffed and puffed my way out of there we finished our 3/4 mile long tour and came back up to the gift shop for some quick souvenirs. Then we headed out to downtown San Antonio and the Riverwalk area. We found our hotel and unloaded into our room before picking out the night's activities. (Just a side note: Expedia.com did not do a super fabulous job at our reservations. We were supposed to get a balcony room and didn't. The hotel was also supposed to have room service, and it didn't even offer that. So, Expedia was fast and easy, but not necessarily accurate. Oh, and lest you think we're Hotel Snobs, we just wanted to find one that offered room service b/c XMan has been begging to order it, just once. Hehe.)

We finally left 0ur room to walk along the river and go eat some dinner. We tried to eat at Rain Forest Cafe, but the wait was over an hour and it was already TIME TO EAT. So, with 3 little ones in tow, we decided "Um, no thanks, we'll find something else." We found a restaurant that had a table outside available right then, so we took it! None of us is actually sure of the name, we just know they had food + we had empty bellies = it was all good. Then we made it back out into the crowded Riverwalk for some more sightseeing. We went to the Alamo briefly, right before they closed. It was very neat, and when we get to that part of Texas History in school, XMan will be able to picture what we're learning about. More souvenirs and then more sightseeing. The guys really enjoyed visiting the Mirror Maze place, where you walk through a maze of mirrors, trying to find your way out! Baby Girl and I sat out the 2nd round and watched them on the video feed. It was hilarious how many people circled the same area over and over again. Finally, they made their way out and we decided to call it a night. Thankfully, Hubby agreed we could find a horse ride, or cab or something to take us back to the hotel! It had been a long day full of walking! We found a very nice cab driver and learned that we can fit a family of 5 + a cab driver into a Toyota Prius. Amazing isn't it? That was the best $10 we ever spent though!!


The next morning, we packed up and headed out to finish our stay in San Antonio. We made our way to the dock where the tour boats were and jumped onboard. (Well, we didn't really jump, you get the picture.) The boys really liked being on the boat and seeing the view of the city from the water - versus walking behind some tall guy and seeing only backs and behinds. ;-) Finally, we loaded back into the car and started the trek to Dale, TX where our friends live.

We met Ally at Chisholm Trail Barbecue which has won awards for being some REALLY GOOD BBQ. We aksed her why we had never eaten there before in our visits out there?!?! "Why did you hide this place from us," we demanded! It was so delicious and oh my goodness, it was cheap!! We fed our whole family and got drinks for $19.95. Totally made up for finding Backpack Lady's receipt. Hehe.

The kids played together in the dirt and we walked around their property, checking out the new chicken huts and coyote deterrents. We also ooohed and ahhhed over their new irrigation system, which is an absolute luxury out there in the extremely dry, arrid area of Texas they're in. Put it this way, they've had a burn ban going off and on for over 2 years now. It's just so dry!

We left for home, bringing about a pound or two of dirt home with us in the car, on the car, on the kids, in the diaper bag. But, it was fun, and we had a blast cramming all that into one weekend! It was a good trial run for our BIG OL' VACATION coming up in a week! Pictures later!!