Remember the Alamo! - Day 6

On day 6 of our trip we headed to beautiful San Antonio and the symbol of Texan valor and bravery, the Alamo. Before heading out, however, we decided to educate ourselves about what went on there that fateful few days by watching the movie "The Alamo' before leaving our timeshare. That way we would all know what we are supposed to be remembering when we hear "remember the Alamo." It was such a good movie and really got us excited about seeing the real thing.

So that is just where we started - at the Alamo and the beautiful gardens surrounding it.

The Alamo was originally a church, but at the time of the infamous siege by Mexican General Santa Anna in 1836, the old ruins of the church and the wall surrounding it became the fortress that Davey Crockett, Jim Bowie, William Travis and other heroes defended for 13 days to their own deaths. So even though it was no longer a church, it is holy ground - a shrine to the martyrs for freedom.

I love the Alamo. I saw it a few years ago without my kids, and I was anxious to bring them back here are to teach them the great and tragic history of this place.

Of course they loved it too, especially the cannons.

But it was a hot day, so as wonderful as the gardens and exhibits were, the one part of the Alamo that proved the most popular with this crowd was the fan.

San Antonio is a beautiful city, and that famous Texas pride is everywhere! I don't think any other state in the union has as much state pride as good old Texas! They have Texas shaped everything! I saw Texas shaped woven into carpets, welded on fences, dog bowls shaped like Texas, and even the waffle maker at our hotel made Texas shaped waffles! I think that is so cool! They even have their very own pledge of allegiance that the kids say in school. I wish all states were that proud, maybe our federal government wouldn't be as inflated as it is right now.

We decided to take a river cruise to see the famous San Antonio Riverwalk from the water.

It was so fun, and so beautiful!

And then we decided to do a little River-walking ourselves.

Such pretty bridges and river-side restaurants. It really reminded me of Venice. So romantic - even with 9 kids in tow.

It was so colorful and there was so much to explore.

It was warm out, and we took a long break at this outdoor amphitheater on the water's edge.

The stage was on the other side of the river. Russian dancers were practicing for their show there that evening.

While the adults and teenagers rested the kids raced each other down the grassy rows of seats. Where do they get the energy?

We resumed our stroll along the Riverwalk. Above is how Luke and Brynn hide. Can you see them?

We chose to have dinner in a Mexican restaurant under a bridge where the kids took turns practicing the reproduction Alamo era bugle that we bought at the Alamo so that the boys can work on their "bugling" merit badge. I'm sure that the people at the restaurant, and everybody up and down the river loved that.

A photo op. What a pretty place!

Our walk through the city brought us back to the Alamo where we waited for the sun to go down so that we could see it all lit up.

What a great old city with some really fun architecture.

When the sun went down, the lights went up. The Alamo is gorgeous when it is all lit up like that and seems say to all "Remember the Alamo!"

Nathan attempts to play Taps on the bugle, as if to honor the fallen heroes.

What a great day!

A Texas-Sized Slip N' Slide - Day 5

We asked lots of local folks what we should do while we were in Texas, and the answer was always "Schiltterbahn!" Huh? "Schlitterbahn Waterpark."

Everyone told us it is the best water park in the world! And when it is 104 degrees with 90% humidity, it sounded like something we needed to check out.

Unfortunately, so did everybody else in Texas! It was the last week of summer before everyone in Texas headed back to school, so they all had the same idea - one last day at "the Schlitt." So the lines were long and we didn't get to do everything - but that water park is so big, that doing everything might be impossible, even on a slow day.

In fact, Schlitterbahn is not just one water park, but three! You have to take a shuttle between them. It is so big, it makes Knott's Soak City look like an inflatable kiddie pool and a slip-n-slide.

The amazing thing about Schlitterbahn is that it is all fresh water, no chlorine, coming from natural springs. And the water is icy cold! In fact, the springs are the source of the Comal river that runs alongside the water park, there is even one slide that will drop you right into the river. How cool is that? They pile the inner tubes used for the rides onto big barges to float them down the river the the start of the slides.

Unfortunately, this being a water park, I didn't get to bring my camera out too much, so I didn't get too many pictures, but oh, I could have gotten some pretty terrific shots if I happened to have a waterproof camera. Oh well.

The original water park is a German Black Forest theme, and there are tons of trees everywhere, which was really great, because it kept us cool and we really didn't have to worry about sunburn.

That main waterpark is mostly tube rides and everyone finds the perfect black inner tube and uses it all day long.

Another thing I really appreciated about this place was that once you paid for admission, everything was free - parking, tubes, life-vests, and you could bring your own food inside. The tickets were kind of pricey, but at least we weren't being nickled and dimed to death.

Once we had our fill of the first park we headed over to the other two on the shuttle.

There was a family blaster slide with big 4-man rafts, and there were several water slides that went uphill! Standing in line was half the fun as there was icy cold water just gushing down on us from some slides above. In some places, as we stood in line, the water was a least a foot deep around our ankles. Who ever thought standing in line could be so fun and refreshing?

There was also the worlds only surfing machine. Dylan and I were excited to try that, but it was lame. Not surfboards, but boogie boards, and you are only allowed to get on your knees, not stand. The water rushes toward you in a curve upward at high speed. Not exactly the same. They should call it the world's only boogie board machine. Oh well, at least we can say we tried it, right? I guess those Texas folks just don't get the whole surfing thing. We'll just have to stick with the real thing.

We finished off the day at the tall tower with all of the high, fast slides. So fun! Those Texans really know how to make a fun water park!

We were there until closing, and then we had to wait for the shuttle back to our car in the other parking lot. The line was long, so the boys decided to take a dip in the Comal river that runs alongside the park. Other people, not park visitors, were floating down the shallow, slow river in inner tubes. It looked like so much fun!

When we got back to our car, we had a happy treat waiting for us! My sister Natalee, who lives in Abilene, TX, about 5 hours away, and her kids had driven out to join us for part of our vacation. They were there waiting when we got off the shuttle! What a happy reunion it was for us and the cousins!

It was so cute. Caleb and Ethan had the very same special blankets with them. Nat and I had bought the blue cowboy fabric together a few years ago and made the same blankets for our kids last year. I guess they were a hit with both boys, because they both drug them on the trip.

What a great day with a perfect ending!

Zooming Over Lake Travis - Day 4

Our timeshare was up on the shores of Lake Travis, a man-made lake in the Texas Hill Country near Austin. We decided to spend our second day there just exploring the lake and enjoying the resort.

We were very happy to learn that our time share served breakfast every morning - to the deer that is. The boys had a great time feeding a family of about 2 dozen deer that came looking for a handout.

For 50 cents you could get a sandwich bag full of corn feed. Money well spent as the kids spent an hour enjoying these beautiful creatures each morning.

We decided that the best way to enjoy the lake was to rent a boat for several hours. Good idea!!!

We spent the first couple hours taking turns zooming over the lake on a big tube. It was a blast!

We were laughing for hours.

Hang on!!!

I went with one of the boys a few times, but Skipper Dennis was a little too happy with the rudder in those turns, and we went flying a few times.

The great thing about tubeing is that you don't have to know what you are doing - just HOLD ON!

Lukie sad that his ride with Dad is over.

I just kept looking at my family and thinking how fun this was to spend such a great time with them. I am so glad that all my kids are old enough to really have a good time together. This wouldn't have happened even a few years ago with babies in tow. It is so nice that everyone was old enough and brave enough to have a great time.

After a while we decided to try first knee boarding then water skiing. Well, the knee boarding wasn't working because it was just too hard to get it strapped on. Dylan fared pretty well for his first time water skiing - until the tow rope got caught in the motor. Bye, bye rope. And that was the end of that. Back to the tube!

Nothing can wear a kid out like a day on the lake.

What a great day! We had so much fun being together... at high speeds!

Together time is time well spent.

I love my family.

Austin City Limits - Day 3

On Monday we drove into Austin to check out the capitol city if Texas.

As we were driving away from our hotel we came upon a fine family of deer and Alex stepped out to feed them.

When we got to Austin we headed straight into downtown and had a peek of the Longhorn stadium at the University of Texas before stopping for a visit the Texas State History Museum.

We thought the giant star in front was just to coolest!

Actually, it was cooler inside since the AC was wonderful after being in that high heat and humidity.

The Texas State History Museum is very nice! We figured that it was a good idea to start our trip to Texas by learning a little history about this great state. It is a terrific - full of interesting multimedia exhibits and presentations. We began with a multimedia presentation in the theater about Texas history that was very impressive. I walked out thinking that I wanted to be a Texan! Then we looked at the exhibits. It was three floors, the bottom was about the Indians and the Spanish and the early history of Texas, the second floor was all about the fight of Texas Independence and statehood, and the third story was all about Texas today, and the industries here.
We all really enjoyed it! What a great way to start our visit.

We brought our lunches and decided to have a picnic on the beautiful grounds of the state capitol, but the heat was so sweltering that we were miserable - as you can see by looking at Luke above. Does he look hot or what?

So we ate fast and headed inside the capitol building to experience Texan air-conditioning.

The Texas state capitol building is HUGE, supposedly as big as the US capitol. Would you expect anything less from Texas?

After a sufficient cooling off period, we ventured outside to the enjoy the beautiful grounds again.

We worked our way over to the Texas State Capitol Visitors Center, which had more state history, though there is more hands-on exhibits, and though we got there just before closing, the kids had a fun time playing with everything.

And dressing up in period costumes.

Derek was Davey Crockett, Dylan was a farm boy, and Luke was, well, a pretty country maid. Hey, that is what he wanted to wear, OK?

Of course, he also climbed into very manly cowboy chaps and a leather vest. Cool Hand Luke!

More pics with the capitol. I accidentally overexposed that picture of Nate, but I still thought it looked pretty cool, so there you go.

When we got too hot we trudged back to the car to explore Austin from the comfort of our air conditioned car. We had some time to kill before sunset when we were planning to see the bats. We came upon an REI, and Dennis wanted to visit. I had no objections when I saw and Anthropologie right next store!!! I LOVE that store, and this one was huge! How perfect is that? A store for the guys and a store for the gals right next door! I had a great time there, but, as always, it would have been more fun with another gal. Shopping is always so much more fun with a girlfriend. Oh well. It was some girl-time on a boycation, and I was happy to take it!

Then we grabbed some Creamslushes at Sonic and headed over to Congress St. bridge to wait for the famous Austin bats to emerge from under the bridge. By then it was pouring rain! Still hot, but beyond humid to soaking wet!

We waited for a long time, but we were certainly not alone. Quite a crowd had formed waiting for the bats to get busy.

Finally, just at dusk, the largest urban population of bats, up to 1.5 million, decided it was dinner time! They are Mexican free-tailed bats, very small, and when they are not hanging out in Mexico, they are living in the long narrow slits in the underside of the bridge, above. Even before we could see them, we could smell them and hear them squeaking. Once they decided it was time, they started coming, and coming and coming for about a half hour.

We watched them from under the bridge for a while before moving up to the top of the bridge where we were just a few feet above the rats as the shot out from under us. It was hard to get a picture of them from this point, because we couldn't see much of them against the treetops, but managed to get a few images with my camera, above.

We liked the bats!

We figured that Austin would be a good a place as any to get some real Texas barbecue. A local pointed us to a place called the Salt Lick which was about a half hour out of town in a place called Driftwood, Texas. It was literally out in the middle of no-where in an old barn. Really, how could it NOT be great? I mean, LOOK at that grill! We ordered it family style - fresh hot rolls, coleslaw, beans, homemade pickles...

and of course, lots and lots of meat! Spare ribs, short ribs, chicken, sausage, and the ever popular Texas brisket!

Now that was some mighty good barbecue!

Did I mention it was all you can eat? And would you believe, they let us take it all home? It tasted even better the second day.

We were stuffed!!! But we had been warned that it would to a crime to leave before trying the cobbler, so we ordered a berry cobbler and a peach cobbler to share. One taste and we all forgot how full we were. We descended on those desserts like a swarm of buzzards!

Or maybe bats.