Before School Started, We Departed

 "Guns have metamorphosed into cameras...Now nature tamed, endangered, mortal , needs to be protected from people."

-Susan Sontag

 

A family on the Riverwalk.

Summer was winding to a close and so much needed to be done to prepare for the fall.  It's a feeling I hadn't had for fourteen years, but the ritual carefree summers, school in the fall, and the countdown to spring begins; is once again a part of my life as my little one started her first year of school.

We decided to take one last trip to Seaworld to use those season passes before they expire and enjoy the last of summer.  Zoey was ecstatic, but I was nervous we would have to leave John behind once again.  Fortune smiled on us and last minute John finished the job, so we picked him up in Ozona, (a few hours south of here) and made our way to San Antonio once again, arriving late Friday night.

In the gardens at the Alamo.

Our hotel was right near the Alamo, which we hadn't visited previously, so I insisted we visit the
landmark on our way to breakfast.  The small mission/museum/battleground contains beautiful gardens, accounts of famous historical figures, and intriguing artifacts.  This provided an excellent brief history lesson for Zoey and a nice detour for the morning.

Driving into Seaworld in the summer was much different than it had been before. Steady streams of cars clogged the entrance and a flood of people poured forth and through the gates.  Strollers, large families, and mounds of backpacks and bags jammed up the checkpoints until we were allowed  into the park. 

The sun reflecting off the  dark pavement combined with 100°+ temperatures caused us to all feel overwhelmed by the heat almost immediately.  We ducked into indoor exhibits to find relief from the heat, but it was only temporary.  We decided to try a roller coaster and found that most of the visitors were either watching the aquatic shows or escaping to the water-park, leaving little to no lines for the roller coasters.  YAY!

One good-looking couple in downtown San Antonio.

Karlie, John and I traded off Zoey duty on the larger rides and thoroughly enjoyed the cool breezes and thrills of the coasters.  Zoey had recently gone through a growth spurt and now qualified for the 42" height restriction rides.  Approaching each new ride lead to lots of anxiety for her, even tears at times, but immediately after each ride she insisted on going again and again, which was fine due to the lack of lines.

Having already seen all the water-shows, we decided to brave the water-park.  The lines were massive and the  pools were crowded, but we enjoyed ourselves, not even noticing the heat the rest of the day.

On the Riverwalk.

Dinner in downtown San Antonio was an amazing churrascaria (Brazilian Barbeque) named Fogo De Chao, followed by a couples evening on the Riverwalk as Karlie took Zoey to bed.  I couldn't have asked for more.


We rose early the next morning to travel towards Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch, a drive-thru safari, expecting the animals to be most active early in the morning.  I had seen these safaris on Travel Channel and the like, so once I found we had one here in Texas, I didn't want to miss out.

The nice lady at the gate took our money, handed us bags of undesirable looking pellet feed and told us to not feed the animals by hand, but to drop it on the ground...I don't think many people follow this rule, us included.  There were deer of every sort, a couple lazy rhinos (in enclosure), wildebeest, mountain sheep, buffalo, big horn cattle (bigger than the buffalo to our surprise) and the like.  The elk were super docile and patient, sticking their head into the car and accepting a single morsel of feed at a time.  

The ostriches on the other hand were anything but docile.  They showed no fear of cars or human contact,  They would spot the car and charge, then bravely stretch their neck through window into your space (if you were still in that space and not climbing over the seat) and quickly, almost violently snatching feed from our hands or wherever they could find it, sometimes trying to take a finger to two too...greedy birds.  These assertive birds even caused some cars to quickly roll up windows in fear of the overgrown chickens.

Entering the zebra area, signs warned that they do bite.  We observed the warning and began tossing feed to the roadside, when John realized, the zebras had devised a way to get hand fed despite the warning.  The result was a big toothey grin, allowing you to toss the feed pass their quivering lips into their gaping mouths. A hilarious sight.

The tour ended with a walk through monkey, parrot, kangaroo, giraffe and lemur exhibits.  The petting zoo was full of disinterested, overfed goats and one young deer. A nice gift shop displayed many souvenirs we neither needed, nor have the room for in our tiny home, so we settled with a coloring book for Zoey to remember her adventure.

The trip was a great end to a great summer, and the wildlife park is a definite must see if you are ever out that way, but be sure to get in early in the day to avoid tired animals and long lines, it was worth the effort.

(The video is a bit wiggly at first, but gets better...sorry :)

Girl's Weekend

 "Adventure is worthwhile"

-Amelia Earhart

Living in Midland has is truly beneficial financially, but that's about it.  Ask anybody what there is to do around here and they'll run out a long list of places to go:  San Antonio, El Passo and Lubbock have offerings (5, 5 and 2 hours away), Carlsbad Caverns (2.5 hours away), Balmorhea State Park and Springs (2 hours away) and some scattered lakes (2 hours for the little ones, 5+ for anything serious).

 I'm no stranger to travel for recreation since my family and I used to travel regularly traveled 2-3 hours to go to the Stanley Basin, (video clip borrowed from You Tube),  but we also had a world

of weekend and afternoon recreation available to us  at our front doorstep by-way-of nature trails, the south hills, hot springs, caves, lakes and the Snake River Canyon.

Although making the best of Midland, sometimes it's nice to get out of dusty old Midland a bit, and a trip to Texas by my dad and Brenda was the opportunity we needed.  They were flying into San Antonio on their annual pilgrimage to Corpus Cristi to visit Greg and Gail Lossing.  John had to work, (big shocker there) so Karlie, Zoey and I decided to make a weekend of it and go together to not only have dinner but visit Sea World again and see what else tickled our fancy.

We started off dark and early Saturday morning through the back roads of West Texas, because that's the only way to cross from the I-20 down to the I-10.  Along the way I had seen a historical marker on our previous trip and I was not going to pass it up this time.  The pull-off was more of a drop off so I passed the exit and circled back on the wrong side of the road, onto a dirt road dodging cavernous ruts in my rough-and-tumble Toyota Camry.  We got as close as the road would allow to the Stiles Courthouse (built in 1911) and walked into the ruin.  A dilapidated fence surounded the structure so we felt it imperative we cross the missing barrier and explore.

Impressive stone steps and walls, a few burnt timbers (dumb arsonist in 1999 burnt the beauty which was a residence at the time), and rusted metal was strewn throughout.

 We climbed, posed and photographed ourselves throughout the building as we explored. 

The back side had a rounded stone roof structure with no supports.  No knowing it's purpose it left us to speculate if it was storage, an oven, or what.

Cold from the chilly morning air, we hurried back to the car and set off for Sea World.  It was a special event at Sea World, Wild Days.  Although I knew it was Wild Days, I had no idea how fun it would be for the little one.  We started off at the aquarium to view the sharks and spotted eagle ray feeding.  If you've never seen these animals, find them, they're hilarious and amazing as they glide through the water with their long cartoonish snouts.

We made our way next to the Wild Animal show, a bit early, and made a cockatoo mask, got Zoey's adventure discovery map stamped, enjoyed petting a young (4 year old) alligator, and feeding and petting a young wallaby.

The show had many other enjoyable animals, each of which Zoey declared she wanted to hold when it went on stage.  We wandered the park enjoying the animals, riding roller-coasters and rides, and stamping Zoey's adventure card at each of the educational booths.  Five stamps earned her a free whale-tail necklace which she cherished.  We finished our day at the dolphin tank, feeding and petting the sweet, almost smiley animals as they clicked and whistled at us.

We found our hotel with ease, cleaned up, and met my parents and our gregarious friends.  It was great to see everyone happy and healthy and having a good time.  Memoo, Grandma Brenda, gave Zoey a pretty little purse that she has yet to take off 3 days later.  After  some great burgers, lots of laughs, and warm hugs, it was time for them to hit the road and us to hit the sack.  

The next morning we started our day out with a walk through Olmos Basin Park, which made me sad to live in a town devoid of such beauty.

We next went to the San Antonio Botanical Garden and wandered through the numerous exhibits: the fountains...

 ...sensory garden, cactus, palm, fern, and such. 

We walked around the small lake, feeding the super friendly ducks and geese (I caught a goose, cuz why not...) and reading about the many local and foreign plants along the way.  They also had several replicas of historical Texan residences throughout which were fun to explore.

Little one poking her head out from behind Karlie.

Our feet tired from two days of walking and our weekend an adventurous success, we stopped by a local Korean market for a lunch snack and set off for home. 

We may have to travel far and wide to have fun while living in Midland, but we make the most of it when we do.  I'm so glad have my sister here to share these experiences with me, it wouldn't have been half as fun without her.

Swimingly in Texas

 "Thaaank Yoouuuu Siiiiiiiirrrr!"  -Marlin

"Wow, I wish I could speak whale." -Dory

-Finding Nemo

photo from http://www.animalport.com

As long as we're going to live in Texas, we should take advantage of a few things we could never do in Idaho, so as soon as we arrived home, John scheduled a family trip for us to San Antonio to visit Sea World.  We had promised Zoey we would take her there since before we left for Texas. She bounced and squealed in excitement when we told her, as we packed the car, as we drove there, and as we walked through the gates.  That alone made the trip worth it.

John decided to include our other "daughter", my sister Karlie, in the family trip, so early Saturday morning we set out for San Antonio.  Finding our way to Sea World was no problem, thanks to GPS and we arrived early enough to make it a full day of fun.  We started by passing the kiddie rides and I went on the obligatory Shamu kiddie-coaster, definitely much smoother than the one I rode at the Twin Falls County Fair.  Then we zipped over to the dolphin and Beluga show.  The show had some beautiful animals and talented performers doing all sorts of acrobatic water stunts.  Although great, there was much more people than animal time, which was a bit of a disappointment. 

This was the second time down!!

Soon we found the Journey to Atlantis ride.  Seeing the tall splash-ride plunge into the water, I wasn't sure if our little girl, although just meeting the height requirements, would be up for it.  Without hesitation she joined us on the ride and rode the entire thing with her hands in the air, much to the astonishment of the trembling teenagers behind her.  After plummeting into the pool of water she was ready to be on the receiving end of the splash from the viewing deck.  Mom ran but Zoey took the whole brunt of the wall of water with joy.   She was even willing to ride a second time at the end of the day (pictured to the left), although she was getting tired.

After a brief lunch, we made our way to the main attraction, the killer whale show.  The animals are as beautiful and majestic as ever (I want one).

Unfortunately for us we made it into the arena late, leaving only the splash zone to sit in.  As it turns out,  they instruct the whales to barrage the audience with their tails; and big fish make big splashes.  The assault of water was less than pleasant.  It seems that splashing the audience is a feature of the shows, and we found out (with research afterwards), that the trainers are under court order not to enter the tanks with the whales due to a death at another Sea World.  Although a great show, a little something is lost when you don't get to see that interaction.

After a few more exhibits and roller coasters, we made our way to the water park.  One of our favorite rides included the four-person raft ride that ended with an underwater view of the Stingray aquarium.Since it was already October, the weather was not ideal, but we made the best of it until the water park closed -too early for our liking. Good thing we have year passes (they are a deal) so we will get to explore that area further at a warmer time.



Zoey was tired and chilled, so we made our way to the hotel we had reserved on the Riverwalk.  After a quick change into dry clothes, we wandered the Riverwalk looking for dinner.  Unfortunately for us, on the weekends the wait for restaurants is extensive and we were very hungry.  So rather than wait for an hour and a half for a place we loved, we settled and found a quick bite as Zoey took a nap on the table.  Karlie and I got our Dos Equis-agaritas, so we were okay despite the fact the food was a bit lacking.

The next day was a chilly Sunday and we wanted to do one excursion before heading home.  We drove by the Alamo, which was closed at the time, and found our way to the Tower of the Americas.  After rounding the tower a few times to get full views of San Antonio, we left for breakfast and then back home again.  The trip was short and sweet, but not to worry; San Antonio and Sea World, we will see you again.