San Antonio Vacation

It's been a while since we've taken a vacation.  And when I write "vacation" here I define it as going somewhere for relaxation and recreation that is not at or near relatives.  I also exclude here our annual camping trip.  When defined as such, the last time we went on a vacation was in 2001 - before going to Seminary and before the girls "were".
Last week, we went on a short, three day excursion to San Antonio - only about 4 hours drive from Friendswood.  We have driven through San Antonio on the way to other places, but have never stayed or explored.
We left on June 2nd.  On the way, we made the requisite stop at Bucee's.

We arrived at our hotel - the Peartree near the airport and checked in.  The girls had never stayed overnight in a hotel, so this was a brand new experience.
That afternoon, we went downtown to the Riverwalk and took the boat tour:

We ate dinner right there on the Riverwalk at The Rainforest Cafe.  All the foliage and animals and noise was a bit overwhelming  - especially for Emma.  But she eventually settled in.

All of Friday was dedicated to Sea World.  This would be the girls first major amusement park experience.  We decided to get in all of the rides early and then see shows during the afternoon.  The girls rode the "Shamu  Express" - a small roller coaster designed for kids.  Abby handled it quite well, so I decided I had one chance with her to ride something big: The Steel Eel.  She was a bit unsure, but I assured her the whole time and kept telling her what would happen next.  The look on her face for that first drop was priceless: shear terror and awesomeness.  After we finished the ride, which would be our last major coaster ride of the day, Abby said, "It was scary and awesome all at the same time."

We did a couple more rides such as Rio Loco.  Then we ate lunch and went to shows.  We saw three: the orcas, the sea lions, and "Azule" - combination of dolphins, beluga whales, birds, and human swimmers.  I was impressed by the orca's size and power.  Sheri liked "Azule" the best.

The park really wasn't very busy.  We had a great time, but were really tired by the end of the day.

Saturday morning, we went back downtown to the Alamo - sort of a required visit if you're going to live in Texas.  It was small, but an interesting part of Texas history.  The reason behind a lot of town and street names were explained - all heroes of the Battle of the Alamo.

Then we journeyed home.  A short, but great vacation.