We flew in on Saturday after a long day of flying since we missed our original early morning flight. That meant we unfortunately lost most of a day that we had planned on seeing things as a family, but the kids were great sports and loved running around the nearly empty terminal in Tampa's airport during our unscheduled layover. When we got to San Antonio and checked into our hotel, we found some tasty (for Tanja and me anyway) Mexican food, and we continued that Mexican cuisine theme for most of our vacation, much to the kids' chagrin. It was funny that we began our search for good restaurants based on whether these Mexican restaurants had kids' menus that served chicken tenders in addition to the usual quesadillas, tacos, burritos, etc.
Sunday we went to Sea World. I was excited and curious to see Sea World as an adult. I remember really liking it when I went as a child, but that was back when the killer whale shows had the trainers in the water with the animals. There was a small area with children's rides, so of course we had to take the kids on a carousel. There was also a small roller coaster that Karina liked riding. It was nice that the park was not very crowded, so we had our choice of seats for the shows and the lines for rides were short for the most part.
It is amazing how high animals like these dolphins are able to leap out of the water.
Here we are in some of the designed photo locations.
And the killer whale finale.
The verdict after the trip to Sea World was that it was a lot more impressive when I was younger. I don't know if that is primarily due to the trainers not being in the water with the killer whales, or whether I was simply more in awe of the animals when I was younger. Looking at it through my kids' eyes, they didn't seem as thrilled as I remember being either (though Karina and Lydia thought some of the shows were hilarious with the animal antics). It's entirely possible that the heat of the day was a contributing factor, but nonetheless, I'm glad we went to Sea World so I could see it through my adult eyes, but I don't think I see the need to ever go back there.
My meetings started the next day, so I didn't get to go with everyone else to their daytime activities. I think the kids' favorite thing to do in San Antonio was swimming in the tiny hotel pool. Guess to them, that probably would be more interesting than the things Tanja and I would want to see and do.
One day, Tanja took the kids to the Texas Ranger Museum. Here are our kids in jail.
And this is the actual car the infamous Bonnie and Clyde were driving when the police finally caught them by firing 100s of shots at the car. Each of them had dozens of bullets hit them.
The other side of the museum houses the Buckhorn Museum and Saloon which has a lot of taxidermy animals like this bear.
And this moose. The kids pretended to kiss it later like we did with the moose in Norway, but none of the pictures turned out well enough to post.
We spent some time in Market Square, three city blocks of small shops selling souvenirs and various Mexican crafts along with restaurants that we liked. I found it a fun and festive atmosphere.
Tanja and the kids made a pilgrimage to the Alamo another day while I was in my meetings (I had been to the Alamo on an earlier trip to San Antonio). This costumed interpreter was apparently very nice and friendly and the girls got a picture with him. When Derek was asked if he would go stand next to him for a picture, he said "No! Play dirt!" as he continued his usual digging in the dirt and playing there. I honestly think he would enjoy going to a sandbox more than any of our elaborate and exciting vacations.
The girls along the outer wall of the Alamo.
I think the cacti are interesting and fun.
Here's the historic Alamo, site of the famous battle in 1836 that is a big part of the education of students in Texas to this day.
The San Fernando Cathedral below opened in 1750. San Antonio as a city is celebrating its 300th anniversary this year.
San Antonio has a very nice 3-mile-long Riverwalk that winds its way along the lazy river downtown with plenty of restaurants, night life, hotels, shops, etc. along it. We were not fans of the one restaurant we ate at along the Riverwalk - I guess you go there for the ambiance and not the food as much, but the ambiance was nice with traveling mariachi bands, boats cruising slowly along the river, and plenty of people watching.
My third day of meetings, Tanja took the kids to a children's museum called the Doseum. The kids liked playing here and only managed to make it through one or two floors. Here are the girls driving around.
Derek was in his element in a digger section where he could play with construction equipment-type exhibits.
Derek went down this slide over and over again.
This was a cool exhibit where the kids could color a picture of a building, rocket ship, or house, and then have it show up on the screen. After coloring, the picture was scanned in, and then your picture would dance across the screen. Karina and Lydia made several pictures to upload to the screen.
This robot was imitating Karina. It would follow the movements of her arms as she did funny antics.
The report was that overall, this children's museum was much cooler and more exciting than any children's museum we have near us. Tanja and the kids loved it.
After my meetings were over, we stayed in San Antonio for a couple more days to spend more time as a family. We took a drive to the Natural Bridge Caverns so the kids could see the caves. Lydia was especially excited to see stalactites and stalagmites (I am unsure where she learned the terms, but I thought it was great that she knew those big words and that she was likely to see them in a cave). Some of these formations seemed a little other-worldly.
After that, we toured some of the missions in San Antonio from the Spanish colonization era. It was fascinating to learn about how the Spaniards grew their empire by making people citizens in newly acquired areas. These new citizens (Native Americans) were indoctrinated in Catholicism, the Spanish language, and Spanish culture in these missions so they could leave their previous hunter/gatherer societies and become more agrarian and stable, and then send back taxes to the throne in Spain. This model led to some interesting intermixing of DNA between native peoples and the Spaniards through intermarriage, something that you apparently don't see to the same degree in people from the British Empire for instance. With British colonies, if you didn't look British, you wouldn't be culturally accepted, which is why in the U.S. so many people still look northern European. In Spanish colonies, the Spaniards married and mixed with native groups, because it didn't matter what you looked like as long as you spoke Spanish, and converted to Catholocism. It was interesting to learn of two very different ways of conquering new land in comparing the British and Spanish philosophies/methods. This is Misión Concepción.
I thought this tree growing sideways at Misión San José was cool looking. I was a big fan of the mission architecture in the cathedrals that are still used today.
Before we hopped on a plane back to Maryland, the kids got to run around a little at a playground (that honestly was underwhelming). They did enjoy spinning themselves dizzy on this merry go round and the spinning seat that Karina sat in.
I'm glad I got to take my family with me on the trip, as it was basically a subsidized vacation with the hotel and rental car paid for (at least for the days that I was working), as well as my plane ticket and food. I was gone the next week to San Diego and did that trip alone since school had started. I miss my family when I am gone and I had a lot more fun with them than without them. We'll see whether I can bring them along on future work trips depending on destinations and schedules, but we were able to make more memories together.
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