San Antonio - Day 2

We got up and got ready and our friends met us in the parking lot of our hotel. After a quick review of our directions we got on the road to the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch and Caverns. It was about a 30 minute drive and we were pulling into the Wildlife Ranch.

The Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch is dubbed "African Safari - Texas Style". As you enter the park they give you a bag of food and they tell you to drop the food outside of your car as you drive through the ranch. It was amazing, the animals were right there!!! I think the pictures speak for themselves. My favorite part was when the Zebra stuck his head in our car. I have never seen a zebra so close and I never dreamt of feeding a zebra out of my hand!!!

After the drive through we parked and went in to have lunch in the cafe. After a quick lunch we went outside to the petting zoo area to see some more animals and take some pictures.

Right next to the gate for the Wildlife Ranch is the gate for the Natural Bridge Caverns so we went there next. We took a guided tour of the caverns and saw some spectacular rock formations. The path takes you down about 200 feet into the ground and some parts were very steep and very slippery. I was worried that Grace wouldn't be able to walk it and that we would have to carry her, but it turns out that I had nothing to worry about. Our little girl was a trooper, she walked almost the entire way herself!

It was a long day and we were all exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel so we all took naps. After nap time we grabbed a quick bite to eat then headed to the pool to cool off. The perfect end to a fun day


Look for the continuation of our trip soon!

We're Back Ya'All

We went on vacation to San Antonio, Texas last week and we had a blast!

We arrived in San Antonio around 6:45 pm on Sunday 6/9. We stepped out of the airport into stifling heat. It was 98 degrees with 82% humidity, yuck! After getting our rental car we made our way out to our hotel. We checked in and got settled then went down to the resaurant in the hotel. After a quick bite to eat we decided to take a walk around and check it out before heading back upstairs. We walked out in the courtyard by the pool and found a movie playing on the wall, fire pits blazing and the smell of roasting marshmellows in the air. It was really neat! We stopped by the playground and Grace played for a little while then we headed up to our room for a good night sleep.

Bright and early the next morning I opened the door to Grace's room and she rolled over and smiled and said, "See Shamu now?" Yep, we headed out to Sea World on the shuttle and were there before they opened. Some of you are probably thinking ... "You live and San Diego and have a Sea World there ..." Well, I heard this Sea World has some different stuff and we were meeting our friends there so it was a great opportunity to compare the two parks.

We met up with our friends at the dolphin feeding. It was so great to see them! After spending a small fortune in fish for the dolphins, we stopped by the shark exhibit then went over to Shamu's Happy Harbor where there was a cute little roller coaster. Unfortunately Grace was about a half of an inch too short and they wouldn't let her ride. She was so upset. Across from the roller coaster was a water play area, so while our friends rode the roller coaster I took Grace to the bathroom to change into her swim suit. It was only 10:00 am and it was really starting to heat up so the water was a nice cool down for the kids.

Next on the agenda was to check out the water area of the park called Lost Lagoon. I didn't know what to expect, but our friends planned on spending the rest of the day there. As we approached the entrance to the Lost Lagoon we saw a huge crowd of people waiting to get in, apparently that area doesn't open till 11:00. After walking down a long path it opened up to a giant waterpark. It was like you were in a whole different park. There was a lazy river, wave pool, toddler area, tons of water slides and a giant play area with water cannons, buckets toppling over, and water shooting out of various valves. It was really neat! I think our Sea World needs something like this! We spent the rest of the afternoon there and we had a blast. At one point we got seperated from our friends and while strolling around we heard our names being called. We looked up and above us, waiting in line for a huge water slide, were our friends. They called for us to come up there and ride with them. They said that they check the height and Grace could ride too! On this slide you rode down the chutes in a raft of 4 people. I was a bit nervous about how Grace would do, but she was excited to go on. Of course she had a blast and giggled the whole way down! I am sorry to say that I didn't get any pictures while we were in the water park because we were having just oo much fun!

It was getting to be pretty late in the afternoon and I knew if I didn't get Grace down for a nap the evening would not be fun. We gathered our stuff and headed back to the hotel for some rest.

After a nap for Grace and showers for Mom and Dad we were ready to meet our friends for dinner. There was a BBQ place on the corner by our hotel and we asked the shuttle driver who took us over to Sea Worl if that BBQ place was good. He said it is probably the best around so we thought we would give it a try. Rudy's is a country store, gas station and BBQ (very interesting). The food was yummy!!!

After dinner we caught a shuttle from our hotel over to Sea World for the Shamu Rocks show. I really liked the Shamu stadium here. It was completely covered offering nice shade from the sun. It was still unbearably hot because there was no breeze, but at least the sun wasn't beating down on us. The Shamu show was good. It was to all country music, which I loved!

That pretty much sums up day 1. Day 2 of our trip report to come soon!