This year our little family decided to head out of town for Thanksgiving...no traditional dinner, no cooking all day, no post-feast naps (okay, maybe we DID all take a nap). Instead we hopped in the car on Wednesday night after work and drove 2 hours south to San Antonio!
Levi, Olivia and I came to San Antonio last year to visit Sea World. This time, we checked out the zoo, the River Walk, and the Children's Museum! It was a lot of fun, as you'll see from the pictures...
We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express about 3 blocks from the River Walk downtown. The hotel occupies an old 19th century jail, which explains the exterior and the bars on the windows! It was a very neat old building with a lot of character...
We arrived late Wednesday, just in time to put the kids to baths and bed. On Thursday, Thanksgiving morning, we went to the zoo!
She's super excited, can you tell?
I think the petting zoo was O's favorite part...really, why can't you brush the lions like you can the pigs?
Caleb was very good about riding in his stroller...he sat up like a big guy and took everything in!
Always wanted to ride an elephant....
At the zoo we went on a train ride around the park. lots of fun!
Truth be told, we didn't spend nearly as much time at the zoo as we were expecting to. We thought we'd spend all day there, but we ended up being done by lunch! Exploring with an energetic 4-year-old is an interesting experience...look! there's a lion -runrunrunrun - look! there's a zebra -runrunrunrun - look! there's an elephant - runrunrunrun...
yeah. we were done pretty fast.
Awww, we love our Caleb! Yes we do!
So...we went back to our hotel downtown and set out on foot to find lunch by the River Walk. We ate at a very nice restaurant called Luke (there's actually a German umlaut on the "u" but I don't know how to do that on the computer).
It was delicious! Levi had some wild salmon, I had a filet, and Olivia had mac n cheese.
Oh, and Caleb slipped out of the stroller because we had forgotten to strap him in. Now that was embarrassing!
See? he's fine. No worse for wear. I don't know anyone in San Antonio...
Olivia making funny faces at lunch. It was such a lovely day to sit outside and enjoy our (very non-traditional) Thanksgiving meal together! :)
Best part? No cleanup! We all went back to the hotel and took a nap. :P
That evening we explored the River Walk for the first time. Can I just say - wow! We loved it. It was so unique and interesting and beautiful. I've heard that it's hot and humid in the summer but in November it was fantastic.
A friend had recommended NOT taking the stroller down on the River Walk because it is so narrow...and I'm glad she did. It wasn't too crowded on Thursday evening but when we went back on Friday it was very much so. So instead, Levi carried Caleb in the Snuggli. It was so cute!
And it was funny to see people's reactions. There were many who pointed and said, "Look at the baby!" He was quite comfortable, though... took a few naps, watched the people walked by...
Olivia was dying to go on a boat ride...we watched the riverboat tours go by all afternoon but knew that our kids' attention spans would never make it for a 1 hour tour. Finally, we saw the river taxi! it was $5 for a one-way...and the driver was very nice and made our trip about 30 min all around the River Walk!
It was dark by that time, so we had a lovely nighttime ride!
About half of the restaurants were closed that night, but we ate a yummy dinner at Cafe Ole:
It was very busy but the food was great!
We all slept very well that night...and GASP! even slept in until 7:30 the next morning!
We were living on the edge.
We also had done everything we'd planned for the weekend on the first day...so we had to improvise! Not too far from our hotel was the San Antonio Children's Museum...how lucky was that!
So off we went. Olivia had a lot of fun!
Being a lion
Driving the trolly
Milking a cow.
Flying a plane
Shopping for groceries at H.E.B!
Finally, we went back to the River Walk one last time...there was a particular restaurant we wanted to take our kids to but it was closed on Thanksgiving day...
Rainforest Cafe!
It was fun! Both kids had fun looking at the animals on display as they moved around, and watching the whole restaurant light up for the thunderstorms.
And once again, delicious! I think we ate our weight in food in those 2 days.
Speaking of food...I think Olivia's looking pretty yummy to that tiger! :)
And then it was time to go home. We had a great trip. Lots of fun packed into two short days but it was worth it!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! :) Hope yours was filled with as much fun, love, and family as ours was.
.JPG)
