The Sea World of Amazing Shows
On the Thursday we went to Sea World San Antonio and the highlights were:
Shamu…
The dolphins, sting rays, and pink flamingoes…
The amusement park…
The Shamu show…
The waterpark…
Azul – dolphins, acrobats and a Beluga – show…
(Mum got chased out by security when she tried to sit and watch the Belugas play after the show. Note: Sea World is not a zoo where you can just sit and enjoy the animals, it is about entertainment -the shows and the rides)
the 4-D theatre with its wobbly seats and random water sprays…
It was great. In the evening we had a three and a half hour drive to Houston but we were all ready to sit down for a while. I won’t put too much about the *dinner* we had en-route. It is not something we really want to remember. If you catch my drift 😉
San Antonio
Lots of walking…
Beautiful buildings…
The Alamo…
Cool Statues…
We saw a fellow Aussie…
A fun Playground…
The Riverwalk…
…and a fun boat ride on the Riverwalk where we got to relax for a moment…
a side trip to Market Square with its Mexican markets…
and the yummy Mi Terra restaurant and Bakery for lunch…
More walking around town…
Another full day topped off with a fun dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe on the Riverwalk.
To San Antonio via the Hill Country
We couldn’t leave Austin without visiting Zilker park and with it’s Barton Springs pool and super important fun playground and minature train ride.
Our first stop in the Hill Country was the Natural Bridge Caverns.
Then a next door wildlife safari park. You could drive through the safari area (we were very glad to be in a hire car!)
Plus they had a petting zoo too. Although the animals were very keen and friendly which was a little intimidating. Mum wasn’t so excited when one of the goats started to eat her shorts either!
They also had some other enclosures that we could walk around.
Then it was on to San Antonio, where we would stay for the next few days. Upon reaching San Antonio we headed down to the Riverwalk for a nice dinner before another well earned nights sleep.
To Austin via Dinosaur Valley
The next day mum had another full itinerary for us:
The next morning we rose early (thank you Lachie) and headed to Glen Rose to Dinosaur Valley State Park just over an hour away. There we threw caution to the wind and risked our lives walking up and down hills and crossing rivers to view dinosaur foot prints. We got a little wet and muddy, but it was fun.
To cement the concepts we went to Dinosaur World also in Glen Rose and saw over 100 lifelike dinosaurs. We also did a little fossil digging and played on the play ground.
Unfortunately there are no photos, but dad had the best fried chicken ever for lunch that day.
We then headed to Austin where we planned to stay for the evening.
After a rest at the hotel, we walked around downtown Austin. Austin felt very green, clean, young and hip:
Lachie’s adjective of choice is “handsome”. So if he sees a tree that he likes it is a handsome tree, or perhaps a handsome building or handsome bridge. We decided that Austin really catered to all types of tourists when they advertised “handsome coffee” 🙂
Stopped for an ice-cream…
and then waited on the bridge for the bats to come out and play. They were awesome! 750,000 little screeeeeching bats came out at sunset from under the bridge were standing on! Definitely a sight to be seen and a highlight of our trip.
Fort Worth was about the Cowboys
After a good breakfast (and a blue-steel impersonation) we said good buy to Dallas and drove to neighbouring Fort Worth.
Fort Worth was all about the cowboys, Texan Long Horns and the animals.
Some of the animals were real some weren’t. See if you can spot the difference…?
(although mum nearly fell off hers!)
The petting zoo…
We did some rope work…
Ate a colourful local restaurant…
and ran on the grass…
Found a stable with a baby camel, a baby llama and a baby reindeer…
We had another fun Texan dinner before retiring for another night.
JFK’s Dallas
The first things we noticed about Dallas were the very big roads, very tall funky buildings and lots of cool statues around the place to keep the walks interesting…
But what we’ll really remember about Dallas is the JFK museum and memorial…
Could you see the crosses on the road?
(Even Lachie remembers JFK in his own way. He was more recently heard riding a stick, ahem horse, around the back yard yelling “yeee-haaaa! I’m John Kennedy. Yarr yarr go horsey go!”)
We didn’t play in the gardens…
We did play on the grass.
We did lots ot walking and a tram ride…
And tried out some of the local cuisine…A highly rated Smokehouse for lunch and a sports bar for dinner. It was non stop fun and action.
We returned home to our room in the evening to rest our weary feet and enjoy the stunning Dallas Skyline.
What an awesome first day!
Yeee-ha! Here we come
We used to carry on our bags on the flight when we travelled.
Not anymore! Particularly when we also have two car seats in tow…
Even though it was close to midnight NJ time by the time we picked up our hire car and got to the hotel in Dallas, we were in good spirits are ready for an adventure!
Welcome to Texas 🙂
Eli @ 4.1y
Eli’s favourite joke at the moment…
     Question: why is six scared?Â
     Answer: because seven ate nine!!!
Girls Night Out
When you get an email offering $13 tickets to see the world class Moscow Ballet troup who could resist? Not us!
So we glammed up…
(leaving the boys at home with pizza)
Headed to New Brunswick, who were kind enough to entertain us with a parade while we waited:
(yes – it is Good Friday)
Grabbed our seats…
…and sat back to enjoy the show!
Elimena was a champion! She usually goes to bed just after 7pm and the show was started at 8pm – not a recipe for success. Plus it was a Friday night which is always hard after a long week. However the planets had aligned and this seemed like too good an opportunity to miss. It was an adults ballet with no narration – but it was Cinderella and we have watched it almost daily for over a year now and so I’m not sure she needed the narration…? So hesitantly I booked tickets figuring that it was so cheap that if disaster hit we could bail at intermission.
Me of little faith!
Elimena was incredibly good. There was not a single complaint – even on the walk back to the car. She clapped and laughed and oohed! and ahhed! with the crowd. It was such a lovely evening. I was so impressed – I can’t wait to have more fun outings with my beautiful angel 🙂
Yeeee Ha!
Preparation for Texas…. the count down is on 🙂
Wallamble 