Today's Adventure.....downtown San Antonio

It was a very long day.  We spent about 6 hours in downtown San Antonio, but it's so nice and interesting.  In the middle of this city is so much history and so many different types of architecture to look at.  The girls and I perused the mall while the big boys went to Ripleys Believe it or Not.  A lady at the mall told us that yesterday Shaq was at Ripleys.  We probably couldn't have gotten in then.  Today they had Hard Rock closed for a private event.  We wondered what that meant.  The girls had never been in a mall with so many escalators and Jaemin learned that he LOVES escalators.  He had a great time on them.  Jaemin also learned, while walking around San Antonio, that he likes his stroller a lot more than he thought.  He walked a couple of blocks and couldn't wait to get back in it.  No problems with him after that.

After the mall and Ripleys, we strolled on over to the Alamo.  It was pretty interesting.  There wasn't as much left of it as I expected.  The bigger kids and Brian went into  a different area that I really couldn't get the stroller into easily and said there was some of Davey Crockett's belongings, etc.  We saw a bunk area....I did with Jaemin and it was really small.  As in these people must have been really short!  There were only some canons left that we saw, but the little models of what it did look like were pretty interesting.

After that we walked all the way down to the Market Square.  I was expecting a Namdaemun of sorts....nothing like.  It was okay, but could have done without the 20 minute walk (slow walking) each way.   I did find something to get the grandparents for Christmas though and Kaelin found a bracelet, Chelsi found a ring that's actually sterling silver and small enough for her and Chase found a bird call of some sort that he just had to have.

We walked back to the mall and took a riverwalk boat tour.  The tour guide was pretty interesting explaining how all of the cultures made up San Antonio, including a strong German culture and how the San Antonio river was not always called that.  It's now a maze of places to go around because there are man made arms off of it for the businesses.  But it is really pretty!  After the relaxing boat ride we ate along the river at Casa Rio.  They definitely had homemade salsa and it was every bit as good as what the family makes.  I don't usually drink, but a beer sure did go down smooth with my Mexican food after a scorching hot day.

Onto Sea World tomorrow.  Tickets are printed and ready to go.  And since the hotel gave us 2 adult 2 day passes and saved us a bunch, we bought the kids quick queue passes.  We'll see if that's worth it tomorrow, but it's set to be 98 degrees tomorrow and I'm thinking we're going to want to run through those water rides OFTEN.

This was Ripleys.  Brian said it was some tunnel that was dark and it felt like you were tilted, so the boys had to hang onto the rail.

And then there's the aligator that ate so many dogs that there were dog tags and dog collars in the 18 footer.

And the mask made out of human skin....ick!

And the mastadon.

And the boys in front of a chunk of the Berlin Wall.

The Alamo

At Alamo Square, outside the Alamo.

Just walking around....we didn't go, but it's the Tower of the Americas.

Then, the Riverwalk boat tour.

This is gargoyles on a building.  Brian couldn't see it, so he asked me to take a picture.  The guide said the people who built it were very superstitious and put gargoyles and protectors into the architecture.  But, less than a few days after it was built the Great Depression hit and they lost it to bankruptcy.

Beautiful view along the way.

Water was a commodity on this hot day.

 This is where some of the Germans used to live when they settled in.  It's not longer residences.

Then, we finally ate....and yes we chose inside after a long hot day, though sitting on the riverwalk would have been relaxing too.