San Antonio

Adam, Abby, Josh and I all went down to San Antonio this week. After learning that the printed mapquest directions underestimated our drive by 100 miles and getting tangled up in San Antonio's web of highways we finally met up with our good friends Aaron, Katherine, and Julianna. It was excellent to see them and enjoy their company. This was by far the best part of our trip, the company that is.
We checked into the hotel, just a few rooms away from the Tilley's and settled in for the night. The next morning we packed up and headed out for Sea World. A few things that I wish we had packed were a GPS unit and towels. Once again we tangled ourselves up and spent precious Sea World time navigating our way through a signless and confusing web of streets. After about an hour we made it to Sea World. The lines we short, which was great. We got right in and began orienting ourselves.
The famous Shamu show started just 30 minutes after we arrived. We headed down the lane and looked at the flamingo's and snapped some shots. Actually we took quite a few pictures. Then we left our strollers and headed into the stadium. Now it seemed to me that every seat was marked "Splash Zone". We picked a seat probably 1/3 of the way up. Reasonable right? So Aaron, Katherine, Julianna, Adam, Abby, Josh and I all scooted in and began watching the show. It starts off on a huge screen with a bio of the trainers and a preview of the show. Then it began. The trainers dropped into the water and played with these huge orka's with seemingly no sense of danger. It appeared to me as if the orka simply had to open thier mouths and the trainers would be gone. They did all the fancy tricks you see on tv. Then it happened. A row of 8 year old girls in swimsuits dove to the front of the stadium and the announcer said something about get ready to be doused. Really I was totally unprepared for what occured next. It was not the gentle sea spray I expected. It was as if someone was pouring an ENDLESS bucket of water right on top of me and my screaming kids. I grabbed Josh at the first sign that this tsunami was letting up and headed out. He was MAD. Josh is very fair tempered but he was MAD and wanted all of this nonsense to stop. I dashed outside and used the one extra pair of clothes that I had to get him dry using a blanket to dry him off. Everyone else stayed to finish the show. It was awesome inspite of the soaking. I would do it again in a heartbeat but I would bring towels to shield Josh and dry off afterwards. We took a video of all of Abby's reactions. Her jaw was dropped and there was a lot of wide-eyed oohhing and ahhhing. Ofcourse we went and got a stuffed Orka afterwards and some lunch. After riding some rides we decided to rest next to a bathroom and ofcourse gift shop.
This is the moment where in the treachery occured. At some point after changing Josh's diaper our camera left us. My wonderful pink Nikkon left our possession with all of the cute pictures we had taken. This was a huge loss. We spent time looking for our camera with no assistance from the Sea World staff inspite of our efforts.
After a while we decided to try and salvage what we could of the day. We caught half of the Sea Lion caper. Another show that Abby and Josh really got into. Then we headed over to my favorite part, the dolphin tank. There were several dolphins in a deep tank that was open to the public. You could purchase fish to feed to the dolphins and lure them in close enough to touch them. I took the bait twice and purchased the fish. And yes I touched the dolphin. It was amazing. Abby also tossed a fish into the tank towards a dolphin. It was so fun. I could have stayed with the dolphins for half the day.
Eventually we moved on to the manta rays and sharks. Sharks always creep me out. They are true predators and I always feel a little uneasy watching them. As we left the park we went through the stable which housed big mustang horses. Abby loved this part, although she was exhausted. Adam and I decided that we would check at the Lost and Found once more before leaving. This is where I get really really mad at Sea World. I stood in line, the next to be helped for about 15 minutes. Then I got up to the counter and explained my perdicament twice. The helper went and got her manager and then rifled through a few drawers and tinkered on their computer. Then a man approached at another window accessed from outside the park. First the lady that was supposed to be helping me and then the manager went over and helped him. Then they had a staff meeting or something. Meanwhile a different CSR summoned the lady in line behind me and started helping her, trying to shove me out of line. I stood my ground. After 20 minutes (I had my watch out now) my original CSR told me to go and wait in the lost kids room. She said that although they have walkie talkies and computers that interface with all of the computers in the park that someone had to physically walk down to Shamu and check that lost and found. I was told that this would take 10 minutes. And then I was told again and again that it would take 10 mintues. It was as is they didn't know that I had been in the park. I nearly asked them if the guy they sent had legs or if he was army crawling his way down there. Then the manager had a stroke of genius and radio'd the guy to tell him once he got there (because after 20 minutes the parapalegic had not yet arrived) to radio him back to tell him wether or not my camera had been turned in. I think he expected me to clap my hands and shout for joy instead of glaring at him as if his incompetence could actually kill me. I was waiting at the lost kids windows after receiving the call that Josh was hungry and Adam was coming to take my place when the manager 55 minutes after my initial inquiry let me know that my camera had not been turned in. I was upset that my camera was gone but I was also so frusterated that the customer service people were soooo horrible. I am writing a letter to Sea World.
After Sea World we decided to head out to the River Walk. The river walk is an excellent attraction of San Antonio. It is very fun to walk up and down the sidewalks all lit up. We decided to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe since Katherine and Aaron collect Hard Rock shirts. I believe that their collection is international. Anyway we knew that Josh was getting fussy. However, after running out of diapers at Sea World (we keep an extra package in the van for these just in case situations) we thought the worst was over. Not so my friends. Adam was holding Josh while I ate my dinner and then we were going to trade. Adam suddenly started freaking out and out of the corner of my eye I saw Josh's dirty diaper drop a dallup right onto the crotch of Adam's pants. This is a two man diaper change I knew immediately. He jerkily headed toward the bathrooms but settled for some abandoned chairs outside the bathrooms. His diaper was full to capacity. There was nothing more it could have done. Josh's bowels simply overwhelmed the capactiy of the diaper. Luckily his clothes had dried since the Orka's had soaked us and we changed him. Tired and pooped, literally, we headed home. It was fun and hard. I'll admit that I cried a little about my camera.
We got to the hotel. We got clean. We got sleep.
Day #2
We planned on going to the missions and back to the river walk since that particular experience had been cut short the night before. Since it was a fairly light day we slept in some and took our time. We had brunch at Chili's. And yes there is more poop here. Abby came down with stress or whatever Josh had. So we headed back to the hotel. This set us back considerably on our time. We had also stopped at WalMart to purchase a disposable camera. Still we got to see the San Jose and San Juan missions. It was very cool. We got some good pictures, I hope.
Next we went to the river walk. We commissioned a boat tour and had a grand time. We ate at the popular Cafe Rio, which had metal folding chairs. Next time I will simply take a picture (if I have a camera) of the famous umbrellas at the Cafe Rio. Then we walked around and got some chocolates for dessert. It was a nice day. I think even Abby and Josh enjoyed it once they were sufficiently medicated.
Day#3
We got up early and made sure everyone was clean and packed. We had arranged to go to the Alamo but it was very very cold. And windy. We pressed on anyway. I think that it would have spent more time there if it had not been so cold and windy. We took some time finding David Crockett (yes the Davy Crockett) stuff. Adam is related to David Crockett through his mother Maurina Lois Crockett Brown. So ofcourse our children are as well. We saw a painting of David Crockett and decided that Maurina had some family resemblance to him. I think we decided that she has his eyes. It was very cool to visit the Alamo as a descendant of Davy Crockett.
After the very cold passing through the Alamo we headed back for one more jaunt at the river walk. We decided to eat at the Rainforest Cafe. Everyone and especially Abby seemed to enjoy the atmosphere. It was nice to be in out of the cold wind. The food was pricey but good. It was three levels and had fake panda bears that the staff were quite proud of. We said our goodbye's and headed home. It was a lot of fun to spend time with the Tilley's and we hope that they had a good time inspite of all our gaffs. We want to do it again.