This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
Spring Break 2021, Part 1
Apr
28
2021
Like most people in Michigan this year, we took advantage of spring break to leave Michigan for warmer pastures and to find out what it’s like to dine in at restaurants.
Unlike most people in Michigan this year, we went to Texas, not Florida.
Since it was only a week, we chose to fly rather than drive to Texas. Our destination was a VRBO house with a pool. Staying for a week, and with kids that can be loud, we figured renting a house was the way to go. It had 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, which is a good layout for a family of 6. Plus a kitchen, dining room, living room, washer/dryer, and back patio and pool. Better features, less crowded, and a similar price compared to staying in a hotel.
Now on to the chronological recap:
Day 1: Travel Day
We left our home around 10:00am, flew to Austin, got a rental car, and headed out to San Antonio. Direct flight to Austin, that’s why we didn’t fly to San Antonio. The rental car process was easier than I remember. The only mishap was that the Alamo and National counters were manned by only one person so there was only one line, but they didn’t tell you that until you went through the ropes course and got to the front of the empty Alamo line, only to be sent to the back of the National line. How hard would it have been to put a sign at the entrance to the Alamo line saying “Go over there to National” or something?
Anyway, we arrived to San Antonio just before dinner their time. We stopped at the Costco just outside SA to get some supplies for the week, plus a Costco pizza for dinner. The only real traffic we had was getting into SA.
All in all though, I’d say Texans weren’t bad drivers. I didn’t have a preconceived notion of Texas drivers, but for the most part they were competent. Which is above average if you check in other states.
Then it was just get to the rental house, unpack our luggage and the food, and get the lay of the land.
Plus I had to get the other groceries. Costco was about half the stuff for the week. The other half came from HEB, which is a much-beloved grocery store chain there in TX. Thanks to online ordering and curbside pickup, I just drove over there and texted a number, and the cartful of groceries that Some Wife had ordered were wheeled out and put in the back of the rental van by a young man who kept calling me “boss”.
After that was unpacked, the rest of the evening was spent watching the kids at the pool and seeing how their TV worked. It was streaming only, which was not the best plan. I’m not signing my username and password into someone else’s equipment.
Then it was evening, then morning, the next day.
Day 2: Alamo Day
The plan was for each day to have a morning activity (before it got hot), then spend the afternoon and evening at the house just relaxing.
So our first full day in Texas we started with a trip to the Alamo. Now that I’ve seen it, I can remember it.
I always pictured the Alamo looking like this:
But that’s really just the Alamo church. The Alamo itself is a compound of something like 2-3 acres. The church is one part of it, but there are other buildings and walls. It’s just hard to condense that into one memorable shape, so they took the one memorable shape and promoted that as the face of the Alamo.
Here’s some shots of inside the fort. At least I call it a fort.
And thanks to the placards around the place and also an informative little movie, I now know the history of Texas better than before.
After walking around the grounds and also taking in the gift shop, it was time to head to lunch. To get there, we needed to walk a couple blocks. We took the scenic route, which there means going along the riverwalk. It was a nice stroll. The younger kids I think will forever remember it as the place where they saw a snake eating a fish.
We made it to the west end of the main riverwalk section and then we had one quick tourist stop before lunch: the San Fernando cathedral.
It’s the oldest church in Texas and one of the oldest cathedrals in the US. It is still a functioning church even. It was a nice bit of architecture, and then we had lunch at Pablano’s which is right there in the courtyard.
I was looking forward to Mexican food so close to Mexico, thinking it would be better than Americanized Mexican food from Michigan. But I was slightly disappointed to find out that it’s pretty much the same. Don’t get me wrong – it was good food. And no complaints about their service or prices or anything.
Then it was along the riverwalk back to the parking spot and drive back to the house, where people read or went in the pool or whatever.
Then it was evening, then morning, the next day.
Day 3: Botanical Gardens Day
We had prepared for this day by getting a family membership to a Michigan botanical gardens and made sure it had a reciprocal membership deal with San Antonio. So it was free for us to go. There was a lot of varied terrain – more hills than was picturing at a Texas botanical gardens. But it made for some nice views.
They had a limited-time showing of origami sculptures scattered around the gardens.
And of course they had lots of flowers
One of the things I was looking forward to was their play river. They have a section in the children’s area of a manmade stream for the kids to play in. I wore my sandals all day just for that purpose. It was open, and it was a stream with rock and they even had little fountain things at the beginning of it. Here’s the view of the start of it from a hill nearby.
We looked at the gift shop on the way out, but it looked like a lot of fragile things so we didn’t go in.
For lunch, we had packed sandwiches and stuff for a picnic lunch. The botanical gardens said no food or drink allowed, so we couldn’t picnic there. But not too far from it was a local park with picnic tables and a river and trails and stuff.
The park had a bunch of birds who knew that people leave food around. But the thing that stood out most to me is the litter.
It’s a public park with lots of trees with overhanging branches at a reasonable height – seems like it was just the accumulation of so many pinatas.
After lunch, we headed back to the house for the standard afternoon activities.
Then it was evening, then morning, the next day.
To be continued …
I made gardens and parks for myself, and I planted in them all kinds of fruit trees.
Ecclesiastes 2:5
This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 6:36 am and has been carefully placed in the Travel category.
April 29th, 2021 at 10:45 am
Looks like great fun! And very similar to our trip there in 2004.
April 29th, 2021 at 8:43 pm
I want to see the snake eating the fish.
May 7th, 2021 at 10:06 pm
Unfortunately, we don’t have any photos.