Day 5 - Alamo, Legos and the Ocean

I had a meeting this morning so the kids and Scott were up and out of the room by 8:00 am.  They hit the breakfast buffet in the lobby and were ready to go when I wrapped up at 8:30.  They were already packed up so I just finished a few things and we checked out and loaded up the rental car.

We had a few more things to do in San Antonio before we left the area, so we grabbed some rental scooters parked on the curb and headed to the Alamo.  The tour was a full two hours, so we opted to move through at our own pace.  We spent time in the long barracks, the church, saw an incredibly large tree, watched a demonstration on artillery, visited several memorials and watched the video of a reenactment of the last stand.  It was very interesting to be in the spaces that we've heard stories of.  

From there, we walked over to a nearby mall and took a look at the Lego store as promised.  We made our purchases and decided to wrap up our time in San Antonio.  We got lucky and found four available scooters right outside the mall so rather than sitting in the back of an Uber, we chose the scooters once again.  Its honestly a ton of fun!

The weather was overcast to start our morning but quickly turned to sun.  The high temps stayed in the 80s today and it was quite pleasant as we moved around town.

We were leaving San Antonio around 11:00 am.  We wanted to get on the road and out of town before looking for a lunch stop.  We ended up stopping at Whataburger in Seguin, TX.  It was our first time and we were all surprised by the sheer size of the sandwiches.  Great meal for us all even if I couldn't finish it!

We made it about another half hour up the road before I needed to use the bathroom so we stopped at Buccee's to fill up the fuel as well.  

From here, the details get a little fuzzy for me as I took a little siesta.  But I woke up around 3:00 pm as Scott was pulling off to find a Starbucks, which is just the jump I needed for the afternoon.

We pulled into our hotel on Galveston Island, around 3:50pm. Its so wonderful to see the ocean again - just beautiful!  We have two oceanfront rooms here for the next two nights.

We took about an hour to settle in and take a rest.  Then headed down the sea wall to check out the restaurants and shops.  We stopped for dinner at Brick House Tavern + Tap.  It was what you'd expect for a bar with burgers, wings, nachos, etc.  It was a good meal but we decided to sit outside to enjoy the ocean views.  Unfortunately, we aren't used to the cooler temps and Sammy and I were quite cold while waiting for our meals to arrive.  Tyler ordered an appetizer for his meal... but when it arrived it was way more than we expected. Hehe.

After dinner, we drove to the northern tip of the island and enjoyed watching some large freighters moving through the bay and several anchored for the night.

Then it was back to our hotel.  Scott and Sammy hit the pool and hot tub while Tyler worked on some homework and I wrapped up some computer work.

Everyone was back in their rooms by 8:30 pm to settle in for some down time.  I'm looking forward to an early night...  we have another big day planned for tomorrow.

Today's weather in San Antonio: 
High - 88*  Low - 66*

Today's weather in Galveston Island:
High - 75*  Low - 68*

Day 4 - San Antonio: Cave, Animals, Riverwalk

Seriously, our kids sleep a lot.  It was almost 10:00 am when they woke up so we didn't even look for a breakfast restaurant.  Instead we walked right over to Chick-Fil-A for a quick lunch.  

First, we headed back north about 35 mins drive to visit the Natural Bridge Caverns.  It was a 1:15 hr tour through the caves appx 180 ft below ground.  This was by far the best cave tour we've done!  The rooms were large and had so many stalactites, stalagmites, ribbons, curtains and draperies, etc.  Best part... no bats!  Down side though was the entire incline up and out was a series of very steep ramps in the form of switchbacks.  In the near 99% humidity, we were all huffing by the time we reached the top.

The caverns also offered a drive through zoo on the property next door, so we decided to check it out as well.  I balked at the prices for admission but within just a few minutes, I decided it was worth it.  We had a fun time identifying all the animals and even a run in with an ostrich that apparently did not care for Scott.  Lots of laughs by all throughout the tour. 

After that we headed back to the hotel to change our clothes for dinner.  I had made a reservation at a highly rated steak & seafood restaurant just up the road.  Once changed, we decided to kill a little time walking along the riverwalk.  Then it was back up to the road level for our dinner at Bohanan's.

Ok, really... this place is spectacular!  Loved everything we had.  Steaks were amazing... cooked over fire for amazing flavor.  Great cuts of meat and top notch sides.  

We all filled up and then headed back to the room.  Tyler arrived just in time for work.  Scott, Sammy and I took a short break and once the sun set, walked down the riverwalk to board a river cruise.

We all enjoyed the tour that took us on the loop of the river surrounding downtown.  Lots of restaurants and bars align the route along with statues and art installations.  It was great to see at night with all the lights!

We got back to the room around 9:30 pm.  I worked on some church stuff while Scott and Sammy watched some fail videos.  

Then it was off to bed!  We are all pretty tuckered out today!

Today's Weather in San Antonio:

High of 85*  Low of 61* Sunny

Day 3 - Fountains and Rodeo, and... Bats!?!

Another great night sleep!  We weren't in a rush to be anywhere so we let the kids sleep in a bit.  But given, we were sharing a room, it wasn't long before they started to stir.  We headed down to the breakfast buffet in the hotel at 9:00am.

Yesterday, I was able to get rodeo tickets for today at 1:30pm so we had some time to kill.  We took a nice walk through the historic district and enjoyed the warmth of the morning.  

Scott found a cool park in Fort Worth with water gardens so we decided to pack up our room and head over there.  

It is a beautiful park with incredible structures all with fountains, calming pools, and waterfalls.  We really enjoyed just exploring the space and posing for pictures.

When we left we noticed the parking lot we were in was the site of the major railroad hub.  I looked it up on ChatGPT to learn more and found the station is still in use and could be accessed through the condominiums that now took the majority of the space.  So we wandered it.  

It was incredible to see the architecture of the original train station (completed in 1931 - long before modern computers and equipment) and how carefully they repurposed the space for modern use while still protecting the history.  We went under ground following the white subway tile only to emerge on the open platform.  It was fun to imagine what this place would have looked like in its hay-day.

After we finished our exploration, we headed back to the stockyards and grabbed some lunch at Riscky's Barbecue.  They couldn't seat us in time so we got it to go and ate in the lobby of our hotel from last night.

After our meal, we walked over to Cowtown Colosseum for the Stockyards Championship Rodeo at 1:30pm.  We had great seats with a good view of all the events.  It was fun watching it with the kids who had never experienced rodeo before.  

We wrapped up around 3:15pm and grabbed the car to head south.  Today we are relocating to San Antonio, appx 4 hrs south.  

We had an obligatory stop at Buccee's in Hillsboro, TX.  I am always so fascinated by how they can pump so much fuel without bleeding those tanks dry.  We filled up on snacks, ziplock bags, even a dress... you know the typical things you buy at a gas station!

We ran into a decent backup near Waco which added almost 30 mins to our trip. I tried to convince Scott to cross a grassy median and onramp the highway from the shoulder like so many others were doing, but the kids outvoted me and we waited patiently for the traffic to clear.

We also used the opportunity to share with the kids about the Branch Davidians and all that occurred during the raid of their compound in 1993.  While some of the details were hazy even for Scott and I, we leaned it to ChatGPT to help!

Our next stop may surprise you.  But we were driving through Austin, TX at exactly the right time, so we went for it.  Here's the background.

In the city of Austin, there is one of the largest urban colonies of bats in the world, with over 1.5 million bats living under the Congress Avenue Bridge.  Each night around dusk, the bats wake up and fly out in a tight spiral formation (like a swirling tornado) for almost an hour straight.  It is a massive, coordinated migration for feeding.  And they eat appx 10-30,000 lbs of bugs EACH night.  Anyway, I heard of this bat colony years ago and have always been intrigued. And as it happened, we were passing Austin, right around 7:30 pm when they would be close to starting.  So we made a quick stop - and it was incredible! (The photos definitely don't do it justice - I promise)

We hadn't had supper yet, so we stopped for a quick meal at Freddys and then grabbed a coffee before getting back on the road.  We had 1:15 hrs remaining and pulled in to our hotel in San Antonio right around 10:15 pm.  We'll be here two nights so it'll be good to settle in.

We were all pretty shot after a big day... so it was pretty much straight to bed.