We finally got to take our spring break trip to San Antonio. We had planned to go last year, but of course, Covid ruined that for us. But this year, the world started to reopen and we made it happen.
We left Tuesday morning and drove the 10 hours to San Antonio. We checked into our hotel and then immediately found ourselves a Texas steak house. The beef was massive, delicious and just what we wanted. The kids loved it.
We left Tuesday morning and drove the 10 hours to San Antonio. We checked into our hotel and then immediately found ourselves a Texas steak house. The beef was massive, delicious and just what we wanted. The kids loved it.
After a late dinner, we drove back to the hotel and got settled in. Sadly, that night I got really sick. I threw up a few times and finally fell back to sleep. Blissfully, the next morning I felt totally fine and no one else got sick during the night. So we were able to go about our day as planned.
We had an incredible time seeing the Alamo.
We had an incredible time seeing the Alamo.
In the courtyard outside the Alamo stands an awesome monument. The Alamo Cenotaph, also known as "The Spirit of Sacrifice," is a monument commemorating the Battle of the Alamo. It also bears the name of those who fought on the Texas side. It was awe-inspiring.
And as cool as the monument was, the Alamo was amazing. We had a great time exploring and learning about the battle. The kids were so well behaved and we spent about 2 hours exploring and it was awesome.
We learned so much about the battle of the Alamo during our visit.
The battle of the Alamo was a 13 day siege. Starting Feb 23rd to March 6th, 1836.
In December a group of Texan volunteers occupied the Alamo, which was a former mission.
On Feb 23, a Mexican force led by Santa Anna began a siege of the fort. Even though the Alamo defenders were vastly outnumbered , they were led by James Bowie and William Travis. The famed frontiersman, Davy Crockett also fought among the Alamo's defenders. They held the fort for 13 days until the Mexican forces finally overpowered them. For Texans, the Battle of the Alamo became an enduring symbol of their resistance to oppression and their struggle for independence, which they won later that year. The battle cry of "remember the Alamo" became popular during the Mexican-American war.
In December a group of Texan volunteers occupied the Alamo, which was a former mission.
On Feb 23, a Mexican force led by Santa Anna began a siege of the fort. Even though the Alamo defenders were vastly outnumbered , they were led by James Bowie and William Travis. The famed frontiersman, Davy Crockett also fought among the Alamo's defenders. They held the fort for 13 days until the Mexican forces finally overpowered them. For Texans, the Battle of the Alamo became an enduring symbol of their resistance to oppression and their struggle for independence, which they won later that year. The battle cry of "remember the Alamo" became popular during the Mexican-American war.
Before visiting the Alamo we watched "Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier" so the kids at least knew who he was. The rest of the history we learned on site.
I adore these kids in their "Davy Crockett" hats. They are such good sports.
The outer wall of the back of the Alamo was mostly intact and it was so cool.
We saw a ton of Koi fish in the irrigation ditches that are now used as Koi ponds. The kids loved that.
We talked with the live historians. They had so many cool facts and the kids loved learning from them. Then we walked over to the fountain and explored some more. Tanner really loved wearing his "Crockett" hat. He's so cute.
I sure love these kiddos.
We spent some time learning about the different cannons used during the battle and even got to see some original ones.
Tanner also wanted a picture with the Davy Crockett statue.
After our exploration of the Alamo we walked over to the "Riverwalk" and explored more. We did so much walking. We ate some amazing Mexican food. We ate at "Casa Rio" and it was so fun. We ate outside on the balcony and the kids loved people watching and feeding birds from our seats.
Seriously, look at this amazing food.
After stuffing ourselves we explored the riverwalk some more. It was so cool. Sadly, a few weeks before San Antonio had experienced a huge ice storm and a lot of their vegetation had died. So it wasn't as green as it usually is. But we still enjoyed it.
After the "Riverwalk" we walked over to "The Buckhorn Saloon".
Albert Friedrich opened the Buckhorn Saloon at the age of 17 and 130 years later it's a famous museum. During the first year of prohibition the Buckhorn Saloon wasn't able to serve alcohol so Friedrich shifted to serving non-alcoholic drinks, customs and a created a variety store. The Buckhorn thrived and locals and tourist flooded in to see the "hall of horns" which was a collection started when Friedrich started when he accepted horns and antlers in the form of payment. Later his wife accepted jars of rattlesnake rattles in exchange for drinks which she then used to create art that is still on display today. The museum continued to grow with the addition of the "Texas Ranger Museum" in which you can learn about hundreds of authentic Texas Ranger artifacts, including shotguns, badges and more. It was awesome. The kids loved exploring
We thought this map of Texas with all the ranger badges was pretty cool too.
After a few hours at the Buckhorn Saloon, we walked back over to the Riverwalk area and caught a cruise tour. We were pretty excited about this aspect of our trip. We boarded the little boat and cruised around the riverwalk canals learning all about the history of the city. It was awesome. Our tour guide was hilarious and we learned some really cool stuff. Despite this picture, Benson did really enjoy himself.
The little canal boats were so cute and colorful. We loved it!
We had a great first day in San Antonio and went to bed completely exhausted that night.
The next morning we grabbed breakfast to go from our hotel and drove over to the zoo.
Before our visit I had purchased "Pogo Passes" for our family. A pogo pass is a pass that you pay a flat fee for and then you get in free to a ton of different attractions. Our Pogo pass got us into the Buckhorn Saloon and we used it for the zoo as well.
Before our visit I had purchased "Pogo Passes" for our family. A pogo pass is a pass that you pay a flat fee for and then you get in free to a ton of different attractions. Our Pogo pass got us into the Buckhorn Saloon and we used it for the zoo as well.
We had a great day exploring the zoo and the kids looked so cute in their animal masks.
This is my favorite picture from the day. We had a great time checking out the kangaroos.
We were going to do a kangaroo interaction but after finding out the wait time, we decided to see the lorikeets instead. This proved to be an excellent choice. We loved the little colorful birds.
This interaction was worth every penny. I would totally go back again!
The San Fernando Cathedral was founded in 1731 by a group of families from the Canary Islands by invitation of King Phillip of Spain. It is the oldest, continuously functioning religious community in the state of Texas and its over 281 years old. This is also where the remains of many of the heroes of the Alamo are interred. It was such a beautiful cathedral and it was on Chris' bucket list so we were excited to get to explore it.
This cathedral is integral in community outreach for the area and helping the homeless and those in need. What an amazing legacy.
After the cathedral, we walked the few blocks over to the "Historic Market Square"
The Historic Market Square thrives today on a plaza that was gifted to the original settlers "for their use and entertainment" by the King of Spain in 1730. Throughout the early years the plazas were lively marketplaces where vendors sold fresh produce, beef, venison, honey and pecans.
Although the market has been through a few periods of revitalization, it still serves as a hub for food vendors, artists and shops. We had fun exploring and the kids loved all the bright colors, delicious smells and cool souvenirs.
I love these goofballs.
Our last stop for the day was the Bexar County Courthouse. The Bexar county courthouse is the largest and oldest continuously operating historic courthouse in Texas. This was another cool building that Dad had wanted to see. The architecture and history in San Antonio is amazing!
After finishing downtown we drove back to the hotel and relaxed for the night. We ate our leftover Mexican food for dinner and watched a movie. It was a quiet nice night.
On Friday we woke up and got ourselves ready and then drove across the street to eat at "Shoneys". The kids loved this! They loved the all you can eat buffet and ate until they were stuffed.
Then we drove to the aquarium. This aquarium was lots of fun and it was also part of our "pogo pass."
Then we drove to the aquarium. This aquarium was lots of fun and it was also part of our "pogo pass."
This picture cracks me up. I love all their different faces.
There were also some little turtles that Tucker loved.
Benson loved the Koi.
Bailey was obsessed with this iguana.
Then we saw some more lorikeets.
Tucker found this parrot on the ground walking around and got to pet it. It was pretty friendly.
Bailey got to pet her too.
Then because the other lemurs were still sleeping, they let us do a few other interactions for free. We got to pet the rabbits and the porcupine.
The kids even got to feed the porcupine. His name was "Quill Smith" and he was so sweet. He ate veggies out of the kids' hands. Benson was a little scared of him but the others enjoyed it.
They loved it. They had a blast learning about the lemurs and getting to hold and pet them. It was so cute to watch.
We had the best time playing together. We split into two teams. It was Mom, Dad and Tucker against Tanner, Bailey and Benson and we had so much fun. We were the only ones there and we had the run of the place.
I absolutely adore Benson's finger guns in this picture. We all had a blast and we will definitely be doing this again, closer to home.
The kids also loved this massive tortoise.
We had been waiting all day for the lemurs to wake up because that was the only interaction Bailey wanted to use her tokens for. She had saved them but every time we went to check, the lemurs were still napping. Finally, one of the aquarium workers brought out one of the ambassador lemurs who was awake and let the kids pet her. Lemurs have a matriarchy of power. This was the head of the family.
Then finally the lemurs woke up and Bailey got to have her interaction.
Tanner told the aquarium worker how he gave his sister one of his tokens so she would have enough for this interaction and she thought that was so nice that she let Tanner do the interaction for free.
Tanner told the aquarium worker how he gave his sister one of his tokens so she would have enough for this interaction and she thought that was so nice that she let Tanner do the interaction for free.
He thought that was pretty cool and after some strict instructions on how to interact with the lemurs, the kids were allowed into the cage. I would have loved to have gone inside to get pictures of their experience, but these will have to do.
Then we got ready to leave. We had to grab a few silly pictures too.
From the aquarium we drove over to a laser tag place that we had passes for. This was so fun.
The worker wasn't sure Benson would be old enough to wear the vest and hold his gun at first. Then we gave him a gun to hold and a vest to try and he handled it like a pro. It was so funny.
The worker wasn't sure Benson would be old enough to wear the vest and hold his gun at first. Then we gave him a gun to hold and a vest to try and he handled it like a pro. It was so funny.
After our fun day, Benson passed out on our bed back at the hotel. We ordered pizzas for dinner and had another chill night in. Our full days were wearing us out at night.
Saturday was our last full day in San Antonio. We got free military passes for Sea World and spent the day playing. We had so much fun!
Sadly, the kiddie rides for Tucker and Benson had the longest rides. So I stayed with the younger kids and Dad took Tanner and Bailey to ride all the big rollercoasters.
We had a great time though. We laughed and giggled the whole time.
Tanner and Bailey rode all the massive rides that I would never ride, and they had so much fun together. I love that they both love rollercoasters.
We also got to go to the Orca show. We had never been to sea world before and this whale show was seriously amazing. Whales are so smart. We loved watching the trainers communicate with the whales.
We were technically in the "splash zone" but we didn't get very wet. The kids were a little disappointed that we didn't get more wet.
We also loved the sea turtles. Sea turtles are so cool.
Next we hit up the gift shops and let each kid pick out a souvenir. They loved this. We ended our day by visiting the penguins. The baby penguins were so cute.
We had a great day at the park. The kids loved their souvenirs and we took one last picture before leaving.
We left Sea World, drove to our hotel to change and then drove out to the Tejas Rodeo. This was also included on our "pogo pass". We sooo much fun at this rodeo.
Benson was really into "finger guns" on this trip and kept flashing them whenever I got the camera out. He totally cracks me up.
First we got some delicious Texan BBQ and then we found our seats. I seriously adore all these kids in their boots and hats.
We ate cotton candy until we were sick and loved watching the bull riding. Bailey did not enjoy the calf tying but she liked everything else.
We had a great night.
We got in late from the rodeo and passed out. It was such a fun-filled day.
We left to drive home yesterday and made one final stop. My friend Liz had told me about "Buc'ees" and it did not disappoint. Buc'ees is this massive, amazing mega gas station. It's seriously so big, but its so clean and nice inside. We bought brisket breakfast tacos for all of us. We also stocked up on muffins, fudge, taffy, jerky and all the rest of the yummy things. It was amazing. We are huge Buc'ees fans now!
We had a quiet, uneventful drive home. Our kids are such great travelers, we feel very lucky. Chris and I get to listen to audiobooks and talk and our kids are just quiet most of the time.
We had a wonderful time in San Antonio. It was everything we could have hoped for. Even with covid restrictions in place, having to wear a mask everywhere and having to social distance- we still had a fantastic trip.
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