San Antonio - Days 1 and 2

After much anticipation (ha ha) and computer frustration, FINALLY, here is our vacation update! Part 1 at least.

Our trip to San Antonio was....great....and much different than last time we were there....and nothing went as planned....but we had a lot of fun anyway. :)

I took 454 pictures. And I'm not even slightly kidding. When I was looking through all of them, I really wanted to include about 107 of them in this post, but I promise to spare you from at least 12 of them as many as possible. :)

Day 1, the plan was: To leave home around 9:00 a.m. and arrive in San Antonio early enough to spend some time on the River Walk before having dinner at my favorite River Walk restaurant, Casa Rio.

(here's a picture of it....isn't it just grand? I love it there.)


What actually happened: We ended up not leaving until almost 11:00, then stopped for AN HOUR at a park on the way to waste time eat lunch and play.



Come on, people! Doesn't my family know it's urgent that we get there already?!
These two pictures (below) have nothing to do with anything, except that I think they're cool. And if you're not from this part of the country, you may not know what they are. These are pictures of a wind farm that we passed on the way. Yep, you read that right. Out here in West Texas we have such an over abundance of wind that we actually farm it. These wind turbines are enormous - between 200 and 300 feet tall - and there are hundreds and hundreds of them spread across the wide-open plains of West Texas, where they are used to generate electricity. Pretty cool, huh? My brother is actually going to school to be an electrician on one of these babies.

(Sorry, I know this one's really blurry - all those little sticks you see are the turbines. They stretch as far as you can see in all directions.)


But I digress. Needless to say, we dragged into San Antonio late, tired, cranky, and hungry.

But on (another) side note, didn't we look cute in our St. Patrick's Day t-shirts?



We did eat on the River Walk, but alas, not at Casa Rio, where the seating was already closed for the night - what's that about? After spending what seemed like hours (actually probably only about 30 minutes) walking up and down the river looking for a place to eat where the wait was under an hour, we settled for a little sports bar and grill where a hamburger, a plate of enchiladas, and a plate of nachos (that the kids SHARED) cost us $63.

Day 2, the plan was: To go to the zoo.

What actually happened: We left the hotel about 10:30 a.m. (we were pretty close to the zoo), and after spending TWO HOURS sitting in deadlocked traffic just trying to get off the freeway on the zoo exit....

(see that line of cars way up there in the far right lane? yeah...it wasn't moving. at.all.)


....we finally got to the zoo only to find out there was no parking. Frustrated, we decided to move our zoo plans to Saturday and spend the day Thursday doing downtown stuff. We parked at the mall and headed to the Alamo. Once there we found another 45 minute wait just to get in.



I love Texas history. Having grown up mostly in Texas and New Mexico, I never realized that not all states have an entire class in school based on their state's history. :)

Did you know the flags of six different countries have flown over Texas (hence, the origin of Six Flags) - including their own? Yep, that would be The Republic of Texas. (You may have heard rumors that we're considering giving that another try. :) ) The Alamo played a big part in the birth of The Republic of Texas.

This building (second pic below) is the long barracks part of the fort. It used to have a second story that was a hospital. This is the place where the majority of those who died in "the battle of the Alamo" actually died.



I know you are so excited to know that.

You guys keep distracting me. For your trouble in sitting through that little history lesson, I've included some pictures of the beautiful scenery on the Alamo grounds.







That tree in the photo above was so cool. It's branches were so long, and I suppose so heavy, that they had actually turned and grown down toward the ground, and then when they hit the ground they turned and started growing back up again. Very cool.

After spending a couple of hours at the Alamo, we headed back to the River Walk to find somewhere to eat. We checked in at the Rain Forest Cafe, were told there was a one hour wait, and so we decided to stroll along the river for a while. We got back to the restaurant RIGHT when they were calling our names! Whew!

The Rain Forest Cafe is really cool. The entire restaurant is decked out like a lush rain forest. Thick vines cover all the walls and ceiling, trees are everywhere, and huge animatronic animals hide in every nook and cranny. Every 30 minutes or so there is a "thunderstorm", complete with lightning, thunder (no actual rain, thankfully!), and freaked-out animals. :)



We spent the rest of the evening going for a boat ride on the river and then just walking around checking things out.



Finally, at about 9pm we were ready to leave. We headed for the truck....and remembered we had parked in the MALL parking lot....where parking is charged by the HOUR. Great. We had been there, oh, roughly 8 1/2 hours. We were so thankful when we pulled up to the little booth and found out there was an $18 maximum!

Stay tuned for Days 3 and 4 coming up....