Vacation to Sea World, part 1

We took a summer family vacation this month to San Antonio Tx. Our goal was to visit Sea World, shop in San Marcos, stay and relax at a fancy resort, then head to Houston to see Dan's parents for the weekend before we headed back home, bringing his dad with us. Well, even the best laid plans... (see the itinerary below)... Don't always work out as planned.
It started out as orginally scheduled. We left Friday and drove to Austin, spent the night there with the intent of watching one of the largest bat colonies in America take flight at dusk... problem was, dinner was too yummy and we ate too long, so when we got back to the hotel I looked out the window and noticed it started to become dusk and realized we had missed our chance to see this interesting and unusual phenomenon. (The bats evidently live under a bridge, and every night they take flight together in search of food (bugs and such)). I think it would have been really cool to see, but unfortunately we missed it.
The next day we drove from Austin to the outlet malls in San Marcos. Not many good sales at this time of year but I did buy another Coach purse (because u can never have too many,right?) That evening we drove to our hotel in San Antonio. Sunday we went to Sea World and saw all the shows. It was lots of fun and the girls really enjoyed the animals. The next day we spent most of it at the waterpark within Sea World, then on Tues we went back again to feed and pet the dolphins, buy souveniers, and see one show we hadn't seen yet. Wednesday we were able to get early check in at the fancy-schmancy hotel (J.W. Marriott in the Hill Country), so we drove over there and spent the day at their pools and waterslides. It was a pretty hotel, but too expensive for the location and amenities offered. We were supposed to stay there 3 days, then head to Houston, but by this time we had received word from MI that Dan's grandma was taking a turn for the worse and would not have many days left here on Earth. His dad had already flown straight from Houston to MI, and his mom was heading there shortly so it would have been pointless for us to head to Houston when no one was there. The Marriott let us check out early(after just 2 days), and we headed home. Dan was able to wrap up some loose ends at work when we got there then he flew out the following week to attend the funeral. As you can see it turned out to be a very stressful and eventful 'vacation'. We do have some pictures though, that were taken before we received the news of her deteriorating condition, and as u can see, we had a fun time together as a family enjoying the sights. The picture below is when we first arrived at Sea World.



This is a picture of a tortilla maker (at the yummy restaurant in Austin that resulted in us missing the bats). They take balls of dough (on tray in front), place them in indentations on a conveyor belt thing (upper left corner), it drops them on to flat surface which then spirals down through heat till the cooked, fresh tortilla comes out the bottom (lower right corner). It was pretty neat, but obviously not so unusual for folks down there to see this because they looked at me like I was crazy when I took a picture of it :)

This is the girls watching the Shamu show in the 'wet zone'. I would like to point out that I did NOT want to sit in the wet zone. T insisted...

This was the result! Notice the drenched shirts, water dripping off Dan's face, and wet hair on the girls! we were SOAKED! They loved it though :)

Sea World Trip

Our family at Sea World on day two (the waterpark day, notice the swimsuit cover-ups)

T feeding the dolphins.

Our family. I got lots of good family pictures on this trip :)

At the Marriott, chilling as we wait between phone calls to MI. W took this pix so its really blurry, but it sure was comfy so I had to post it anyway :)

Below, the girls and I are standing in front of some of the pretty landscaping that the Marriott had. Very nicely decorated hotel.

Dinosaurs, Oh My!

We arrived in Houston to visit Dan's mom and I just had to take a photo of this. My girls dragging their suitcases behind them, and W practically buried under her backpack as well lol. Our first stop of the week was at the Museum of Natural Science where we saw dinosaur bones!

Here the girls, with Grandma, were searching for pieces of fossils with a magnifying glass.

T-Rex attacking another Dino (forgot the name).

T and Grandma beneath T-Rex.

Me and T by a Mammoth. It was really cool seeing the dinosaurs, I don't think I've been anywhere where I've seen them in person before. Fun to imagine them as living and realize how much bigger they are than us. And how small the hands are on the T-Rex, but how big his head is! Crazy! A demonstrator showed us that the T-Rex's brain wasn't that much bigger than ours, but yet like 80% of it was geared towards instinct, whereas only a small part of it was for 'thinking'. Pretty neat info too :)

Rocks, rocks, and more rocks!

At the Museum of Natural Science there were many exhibits of beautiful rocks and gems, including some very expensive jewelry made with gems. They were all beautiful. My favorite, as always, were the malachite displays. They didn't have prices, but there was a gift shop that had prices. There were several purple geode displays taller than me, like the one the girls are in front of that were priced over $12,000!!! wowza! How'd you like one of those in the entryway of your house?! Beee-autiful!

If you've already seen the video on this blog, you've seen were we got our very own geode cracked open. Here are the photos of that too.

Cracking the Geode

At the Museum of Natural Science they had tons of beautiful gems and rocks on display. They also had geodes for sale. You could pick one out, then they would crack it open and you would get to keep it, but it was a surprise what sort of crystal formation would be on the inside. The girls were infatuated with this so we did it. T especially was very excited. We later found little stands for them to sit on for display. They are very pretty.

Good food

We ate at a yummy authentic seafood restaurant, Gaido's, while in Galveston. It was right off the ocean and had a lovely view of the waves. It was family owned since 1911! It had cute giant crabs and Prawns on the roof. A hotel they owned was also attached as well as a more casual restaurant (the one we actually choose to eat at). The food was delicious, especially these things they called seafood balls which I anticipated would be like hushpuppies, but were actually SO much better. Virtually no stuffing, just all seafood formed together in 1 inch balls. Very yummy. We had grilled redfish, grilled and fried shrimp, those balls, fish sticks, homemade potato chips, and homemade shoestring potatoes, plus rice and potatoes au-gratin. YUMMY! I was very full, but it was very worth it.

Souvenier shopping fun

I don't think I know how to spell souvenier, but oh well. I mentioned earlier that after we went to the beach in Galveston we stopped at a great store on the beach for souveniers. These pictures were taken there. Its called Murdoch's and its built on stilts/piers out over the beach/water. At both entrances there are huge displays of shells with giant clams on top. Each clam has a light in it so I imagine at night its quite a sight as well. We took lots of photos next to those clams as u will see below. The store consisted of two building connected by a breezeway that was open to the wind and ocean. It was serene and divine. I loved being on the breezeway (as u can see in the picture below). There were adironack chairs that we took advantage of as we relaxed and watched the waves and felt the ocean breeze blowing through our hair. It was lovely. You'll notice my new hat that I picked up in a shop down here as well. Its really fun because the brim is flexible so u can wear it like a cowboy hat or make it floppy like a beach hat. I love it.

W on the breezeway with the waves behind her.

One of four giant clams shells at the entrance to the shop.

Me and my new hat ;)

In this picture you can see how the building is built upon stilts over the water. Pretty neat. Made for an awesome view from the breezeway too.

The store also sold (although we haven't bought any yet) hermit crabs and kits to take care of them. The girls had a ball playing with them. We flew on this trip so I didn't think we could bring them home, but in 2 weeks we'll be back when we are on our San Antonio trip and since we'll be driving that time I told the girls we may get some then. (If they behave). They were certainly cute, as u probably know hermit crabs live in abandoned shells. So most of these crabs were in shells that someone had handpainted. They were adorable. Some were spotted, or a ladybug, or a flower, or all sorts of things and I can't even list them all. They certainly were cute though. We had a ball at this store and all that it had to offer. Definately recommend stopping here if you are ever driving up the coastline on Galveston :)

Houston Children's Museum

While in Houston we went to the Children's Museum. They had lots of neat stuff, but we went during a 'free' period so it was PACKED! Way too many people in there. In fact they quit letting people in because they had reached the maximum capacity (or exceeded it!)

These 'people' were the 'posts' holding up the porch roof all along the sidewalk lining the museum, it was really cute as they were all different colors and styles.

Girls always love face painting.

This is W learning how pulley systems work. They strap themselves in and then pull on the rope to raise the chair into the air. Based on the number of pulleys on each one the task is easier or harder. A neat learning experience. Although we didn't know this at first and kept getting in line to do the same one over and over again (and it was the hardest one lol). THEN, we read the sign explaining the display. lol.

The girls were holding bubbles filled with dry ice. The smoke you see is when a bubble burst and the dry ice dissipates.

video at children's museum

This video was taken as the girls were doing their own face-painting at the Houston Children's Museum.

The birds

Some people next to us on the beach started feeding the birds which resulted in a fury of flying feathers and wings in the air. It also resulted in some really cool photo opportunities which of course I had to take advantage of. Unfortunately, the kiddos in these pictures aren't mine, but they are really great shots I think, enjoy :) So cute in her ballerina tutu swimsuit :)

I love the laughter in this picture and the 'laughing' body language of her scrunching down, too cute!

This baby boy was trying to crawl right up to the birds, it was adorable.

The Beach

We had a ball in the ocean and on the beach in Galveston as u can see from these pictures.

Playing in the ocean video

The girls and I went to Houston recently to visit Dan's mom who is staying there for the summer for her medical treatments. While there we went the the museum of Natural History and Science, the Children's Museum, the Outlet Mall, and the beach in Galveston.

This video was taken right when we got to the beach in Galveston TX. The girls loved it. They sure had a ball jumping in the waves and trying to ride their boogie boards. They also played in the sand and looked for seashells. W actually got stung several times all over her calf by what we believe was a jellyfish (grandma did too but not as severely). Her leg was covered in little red dots which were either a reaction to the sting, or several stings themselves. A wave crashed against them and then she started yelling that her leg hurt. She immediately wanted to go home (all the way home!) But instead, we carried her to the lifeguard who assured us it was ok and 'would quit hurting in 15 minutes' I guess what he really meant to say was that it would quit hurting badly for 15 minutes but would still hurt for a couple hours! She was a trooper though and even went back in the ocean about an hour later. She still had marks though for several days-ouch! They each got a souvenier from a really nice gift shop on the ocean (pictures to follow) that had a breezeway between two parts of the store that we sat on and (the girls) ate ice cream while we watched the waves and enjoyed the ocean breeze in their adironak chairs (ahhhh). Very nice place. After swimming we ate at a local restaurant that served fresh seafood (yum) and was family owned for 99 years (!) All in all, it was a lot of fun and we certainly enjoyed our trip to Houston to visit Grandma, but especially our time spent at the ocean (or the "Gulf" as I guess we are supposed to refer to it as :) fun no matter what).

We also did some more 'night swimming' at the rv park's swimming pool (where Dan's mom was staying) It was a beautiful saltwater pool with pebble flooring. At night they had lights that rotated from green to blue. It was lovely swimming in that under the stars with the girls :)