Summer Fun in San Antonio
Summer Fun in San Antonio
May 2004
On Bethany's last day of school (Thurs, May 20), the whole family picked her up, then kept on going down the highway to begin our mini-vacation in San Antonio. We spent the first night with Lindsey's parents on "Trill Hill". No surprise, the girls were fully entertained by the zoo - 2 dogs and 3 cats.
On Friday, we met the Hoang family - Kiet, Alisa, Tanner (4) and Mia (1.5) - for the first day of the weekend assault on Sea World. We caught a few shows and played in the "kiddie" area before the kids started to crater. On the way out, though, we stopped by the Dolphin Cove which became the highlight of the first day. The dolphins are close enough to touch! Fish are available to feed, so Papaw made sure everyone had a turn feeding the dolphins. We could barely tear the kids away from the dolphins, but Papaw took Caroline home with him for the weekend and the rest of us headed over to our next lodging venue - the Hyatt Hill Country Resort. After naptime, we headed to the lazy river and beach located right on the property. Bethany had to warm up to the "lazy river" idea, but all of you know how much she likes to play in the sand! Later that evening, we gathered on "The Lawn" for a little of our own fun and games. The hotel provided s'mores afterwards.
On Saturday, we were back at Sea World to hit the waterpark. Sorry, no pictures. Bethany braved the wave pool, had fun in the splash zone, but we were most impressed that we got her to go down the "Sky "Tubin'" ride. Here's the description:
Board an inflatable family raft and slip-slide your way down a 12-foot-wide water slide that stretches more than 500 feet from the top of the slide tower to the splashdown pool. Along with the slippery slopes come rapids, pools and watery surprises such as geysers, spurts and sudden showers.
The first trip down she was almost crying (but trying to have fun). When Tanner and Kiet headed up the stairs to go down again, she wanted to go, too. This time, she was laughing the whole way down. After a late lunch in the hotel room and a long nap, we checked out other hotel amenities, like bike-riding and the playground (yeah, more sand) and later, more s'mores.
Our third morning at Sea World on Sunday included a few more shows and more of Bethany's first roller coaster ride. She and Schuyler were the very first ones in line and nabbed their spot in the front car. We also went to see the animals we'd missed on the first day. The sea lions, Koi fish, and of course, we couldn't pass up...the penguins! (Bethany's Grammy has made a fan out of her granddaughter.) More lazy river at the hotel that afternoon, then we all loaded up to head back to "Trill Hill" for venison burgers and to check on Caroline. All 4 kids found plenty to do between the animals and back deck. Thankfully, nothing was broken and the kids didn't discover the sewing room! We took Peanut back to the hotel with us that night so she could have a chance to play in the water on Monday. The next time you visit us, ask to see the video of how wound up all the kids were back at the hotel that night in our adjoining rooms. We thought we would never get them to sleep!
On Monday morning, the weekend crowds were long gone and we had the lazy river and pools to ourselves. Caroline had a blast in her newly discovered water playground. She wanted to go around on the river more than Bethany. Of course, after hotel staff had spent the early part of the morning getting the sand out of the river near the beach, Caroline made sure the sand made its way back into the river. She had no fear wading into deeper parts of the water and kept Mommy and Daddy on our toes!
By Monday evening we were back home in McKinney.
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