Day 1 - Safari & S'mores
On our way to San Antonio, we detoured through New Braunfels to visit the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch.
The ranch offers a four mile drive through safari where you are able to see and feed animals of all kinds - deer, antelopes, zebras, ostriches, llamas, you name it - right from your car. The kids loved it.
It is like a little piece of Africa...deep in the heart of Texas.
The ostriches provided their own special form of entertainment. Watch the short video clip below all the way to the end. It's worth it. Trust me.
I only wish that I had kept recording instead of turning the camera off as I snatched Brady into my lap. In the seconds that followed, Brian grabbed the ostrich by the neck and shook it - hard - until it dropped the glasses. Highlight of the trip. Hands down.
After we recovered from the ostrich episode, had lunch in the cafe, and made a quick trip through the petting zoo, we were soon on our way to San Antonio.
When we arrived at the hotel, we immediately changed in to swimsuits and spent the afternoon at the pool. We spent our evening exploring the grounds of the hotel and making s'mores on the giant fire pit. There was no way that a little wind was going to keep Avery away from those s'mores.
That night, back in our room, the kids were so very excited to get to sleep in the same room. This was a first for them, and they did great! Every time Brady stirred, we would hear Avery whisper, "It's OK. It's OK. I'm riiiight here." She's such a good big sister sometimes.
Day 2 - SeaWorld & Swimming
We started our second day of the trip bright and early at SeaWorld San Antonio.
As soon as the gates opened, we headed straight for Dolphin Cove. This was our favorite SeaWorld experience, hands down. For a nominal (ha!) fee, we were able to buy little trays of fish and feed the dolphins. The kids loved this so much that after we did it once, we immediately went through the line again to buy more fish.
After the dolphins were sufficiently full, we spent the rest of our morning exploring some other exhibits and riding a few rides.
The Sesame Street characters performed a short stage show, and we were able to let the kids meet a few of them afterwards. Surprisingly, Avery was a little wary, but Brady was fearless. He hates Sesame Street and refuses to watch it on TV, yet he ran right up to Cookie Monster and few of the other characters and gave them great big hugs.
Soon the time came to go see Shamu. The kids stayed refreshed with some (melted) frozen lemonades while we waited to get seats in the show arena.
The show was amazing from start to finish, and we could not have picked a better way to end our first day at SeaWorld.
We all crashed in the room for naps that afternoon, then spent our afternoon and evening poolside. Brian made some poor guy's night by finding his lost wedding ring on the bottom of the pool. It was a great day.
Day 3: More SeaWorld, More Swimming, More S'mores...
Day 3 was pretty much a repeat of Day 2. We started our day at SeaWorld...
...and headed straight for Dolphin Cove.
We stayed in the park until just after lunch, visited lots of other marine animals, and watched the sea lions perform.
Back at the hotel, while I floated in the adult pool with a book, Brian and the kids took long afternoon naps. We spent our last evening in San Antonio in the pool. We had it mostly to ourselves, and the kids were in Heaven.
It's really a shame that they don't like the water.
The hotel had an almost 1000 foot long lazy river encircling the pool grounds. We enjoyed floating in it every day, I just didn't have the camera with me until the last night. Both kids were completely independent in their little ring floats and were willing to float round and round as long as we would let them.
By the last night, Avery was a pro at making s'mores, and Brady had figured out that the chocolate was his favorite part.
Day 4: The Alamo & the San Antonio Riverwalk
On our way home, we stopped downtown to visit the Alamo. After three days of being totally and completely catered to, the kids were not impressed with this little adventure.
I thought Avery might be at least a little intrigued by the big canons, the guns, and perhaps a small bit of the battle story, but no. She was not.
From the Alamo, we crossed over to the San Antonio Riverwalk.
This area of San Antonio is so beautiful with big trees, interesting building, lots of unique bridges, and colorful flags and umbrellas everywhere you turn. We took a boat tour because we thought the kids might like it, but no, once again, they were not impressed.
We finished off our trip with lunch right on the river.
The kids were very pleased with all of the "visitors" they attracted with their chips - birds, ducks, fish, you name it.
By the end of our meal, Avery was not so subtle in expressing that she was done having her picture taken. Point made. I was kind of tired of taking pictures by this point myself.
We had such a fun trip, and it was so refreshing to get away for a few days. We will definitely be back to San Antonio in the future!
Here are a few videos from the trip...though none of these are nearly as entertaining as the one earlier in this post!
