Our Trip to San Antonio

Yes, we went to San Antonio last week. Why? Because I talked Mark into taking me on a vacation. I read about the "babymoon" concept and convinced Mark that we should do one. Ours, however, wasn't "romantic" exactly. It was definitely fun! And it was good, quality time together. Mark took such good care of me and he spoiled me!

Tuesday, April 21
Our friend took us to the airport in the afternoon. Our flight left at 5:00 pm. We had a very short layover in Denver. We arrived in San Antonio at 10:00 pm (central time). Our friend, Brent, picked us up. We had a nice tour of the area--because Brent got lost driving us home.

Why did Brent get lost? Because he (and his family) moved to San Antonio the week before Christmas and they haven't had any need to go to the airport since then.

Brent is married to my best girl friend, Karen. We've been best friends since 1999. Karen and Brent have four kids: twin girls (Wendi and Hailie), a wild young man (Ben), and a baby doll (Elizabeth). The kids were all asleep when we got "home"--after 11:00.

Wednesday, April 22
The girls were gone to school by the time Mark and I woke up. And Brent was to work HOURS before we woke up. After we finally got ready for the day, Karen took us downtown and tossed us out of the van at the Alamo.

While we were dropped off right by the Alamo, we actually didn't go in the Alamo until hours later. Instead, we headed to the River Walk. There are loads of restaurants there. Since it was still morning and since we had just eaten, we didn't find any use in any of the restaurants at the time. We walked and walked until we decided what we wanted to do.

What's that? Oh, we decided that we wanted to get on one of the river boat tours. It's just a little boat and it goes around the loop and up the man-made part. When we went to buy our tickets, we were pleasantly surprised that they were only $7.50 each. The cashier asked for our $15. Suddenly, he said, "Wait. It'll be $11.50." What! We got a discount--because we're good looking? I don't know. But, we sure didn't mind.

We went to the mall right on the River Walk after our boat tour. We bought tickets to go to the IMAX showing of "The Alamo." We had time to enjoy a snack before going to the movie. The acting was terrible--but it was quite educational. I honestly didn't remember learning much about the Alamo before, so I enjoyed it.

After "The Alamo" movie, we went BACK to the River Walk to find a restaurant. We found this great place (with decent prices) and enjoyed tamales, tacos, a little thing called "pollo rellano", and some absolutely delicious Mexican rice. If we could remember the name of it, we'd definitely recommend it to anyone. Oh yah, and our server was absolutely delightful.

The actual Alamo and that property was our next visit. I was glad that we went to the movie first. It was small and reverent. The Alamo square was nice too. It was a good place to sit and think.

Brent picked us up not long after that. We went home and had dinner with the family. The girls were so excited to see us. And--admittedly, we were excited to see them too!

Thursday, April 23
Karen took us to pick up our rental car first thing this morning. We got a rental from Alamo--a Chevy HHR. We had our pick of that or a "plain" sedan--I can't remember the make and model. But Mark DEFINITELY wanted the HHR. I had to snicker at him a bit, because he seemed a little excited over it.

We went out to SeaWorld. It was easy to find. I looked for over a week (and had Karen look) to find a coupon or a discount. Regular priced tickets are $55 for adults. The best I could find was a coupon to get adult tickets at the child's rate of $45 or 20% of by showing my SouthWest Rapid Rewards number. They gave us the Rapid Rewards discount--but when I looked at the receipt, it was actually for 25%! Woot! Considering we had to pay $15 just to park there, I was very pleased for the extra discount.

We tried to do everything there was to do at Sea World. We saw the shows. Mark rode the rides (I didn't--you know, "pregnant woman" status). We took lots of pictures.

My two favorite things were first, the Orca show. There were five whales! Mark and I sat right in the splash zone in the front--and yes, we got wet. I managed to get more wet than Mark did. Mark was videoing it right when the biggest splash came our way. We laughed and laughed!

My second favorite thing happened at the dolphin and Beluga whale show. It wasn't the show itself (which was a lot more acrobatics and diving than dolphins and Belugas) that I loved. It was the result of the park losing power for about 15 minutes. When the park suddenly came to a standstill, the dolphin trainers came out to the stands to talk to people.

Mark and I went up to talk to one of the Beluga trainers. She talked to us for 15 to 20 minutes—most of the time, just the three of us were talking. She answered a lot of questions about her job and about the animals. While she was talking to us, the Beluga that she most often worked with came up behind her a few times. This Beluga smiled at me. As I tried to snap a picture, that silly girl popped up and spit on me! She dropped down and smiled at me again—and again I tried to take a picture only to be spit on again. It was downright hilarious! I’m so glad the power went off.

After SeaWorld, we went back to Karen’s to find a recommendation for a restaurant. Debating and searching led us to the name of Augie’s Barbedwire Smokehouse. It turned out to be a GREAT place to eat. Sadly, they were out of ribs. But, the other stuff we got was soooooooooo good. In fact, Karen told us the next day that the creamed corn there was THE BEST creamed corn she has ever had in her life.

Friday, April 24
This was our 11-month anniversary! I LOVE YOU MARK!

Wendi and Hailie didn’t have school today. Karen and the kids went with us down to the Japanese Tea Gardens. It was free, it was small, it was drizzly, and it was ever so nice. Ben wouldn’t look at the camera for anything. And he always wanted to be ahead of everyone else.

We went across to the zoo parking lot after we had our fill of the Tea Gardens. The zoo parking lot was right by the zoo train. Well, not really a “zoo” train. It was a train that was next to the zoo. We bought tickets and hopped on board. It took us around some picnic areas, over by a museum, and around a big grassy field that used to be a horse polo field (now it is a driving range).

Karen and the kids went home--but Mark and I thought we would try and have a gander at the Fiesta activities that were going on downtown. We drove around and around trying to find a decent parking space. We finally did--but I made us walk the wrong direction! Ha! Yah, we walked away from the party instead of toward the party. When we finally got to the party, we happened upon the parade. It was packed--but part of that is because the streets were pretty narrow.

Friday evening, we all (except Brent who had to go help someone move—oh the joys of being the Elder’s Quorum President) went to Bruce and Yaw’s house. I did the MPA with Bruce. I’ve heard for years how amazing Yaw’s cooking is, and I FINALLY had the chance of getting to taste it in San Antonio. This was the first time Mark met Bruce. It was a great evening.

Besides the food, one highlight of the visit included Ben going outside, suddenly becoming very mysterious (and quiet), and then being caught hosing himself down with water. We left him outside until he was practically dry—even though he really wanted to be in. (I’m pretty sure he only wanted to do what we didn’t want him to do.)

The other highlight was Bruce and Yaw showing us pictures of their “summer house” in Taiwan (where Yaw is from). There’s a long story about that, but trust me—it’s great.

Saturday, April 25
We woke up a bit earlier today than the other days and headed to the San Antonio Temple. We did a session there. It was so uplifting and so worth the time. The celestial room was bigger than Mark and I expected too. I'm glad Mark takes me to the temple often, because it helps us grow closer each and every time.

Brent didn’t work today. The eight of us went to the zoo. About halfway through our time there, Mark and I got split off from Brent and Karen and their family. By the time we got to the big African animals, I was pretty much exhausted. Brent called me then and told me they were heading home—they were exhausted too.

Sunday, April 26
We woke up at 4:00 am (central time) and headed to the airport. Brent packed us a bag of goodies and sandwiches for the plane. We got home to Salt Lake City at 10:00 am (mountain time)--just in time to get tidied up and head to church.

We had a great time in San Antonio. We had a blast with the kids. We had a blast spending time together. We got to help with a 5-month-old. We got to play games. We had great food. We took lots of pictures. We finally found me some black flat dress shoes that I like and felt justified in buying. We got to learn some new stuff about Texas. We got pretty decent deals on everything we did (the river tour, “The Alamo,” SeaWorld, our car rental, etc.). We got to renew and strengthen our friendships with Karen and Brent. Yup—it was a great trip!!!
P.S. If you want to see the rest of our pictures, they can be found by clicking here.