Vacation!

We took a road trip to San Antonio and Corpus Christi over fall break.

This kids are settled in with activities and snacks and ready for the long drive.

Leaving Oklahoma...

We arrived at our hotel and enjoyed the pool and hot tub.

The next day we went downtown to see some sights.

Of course, we had to visit the Alamo.  They don't allow photography inside, so this is all you get.

Photo op outside the Alamo.

 Another photo op in the back courtyard of the Alamo.

Next we walked down the street to visit the San Fernando Cathedral.

This amazing cathedral is older than America.  It was built between 1738 and 1750.

Here's a closer shot of the front window.

I'm assuming this is Jesus.

The sanctuary.

A closer shot of the detail at the front.

After that we walked along the Riverwalk and enjoyed Hard Rock Cafe for lunch.

Here is a tile mosaic on a pillar of a building, downtown.

This sculpture is called La Antorcha de la Amistad, which is Spanish for The Torch of Friendship.

A cool building called the Rivercenter.  Upon further research, I think this is a mall.  Hmm.

From another angle.

A toy wooden soldier outside a toy soldier shop.

Another cool building.

A closer shot of the flag atop the building.  And impressive architectural detail.

This is the front of St. Joseph's Catholic Church.  It is old, but not as old as the San Fernando Cathedral.  An interesting tidbit of information I just found was that this church refused to sell their land to developers, so a mall was constructed around the church--on all three sides.  You can see an aerial shot of that here. 

A different angle of the Torch of Friendship sculpture.

Another cool building.

And yet again.

We were impressed by the array of architectural delights that San Antonio has to offer and we didn't even get to see all of the downtown area.

After lunch we visited the Witte Museum.  We really enjoyed it.  It is a museum of South Texas history, culture, and natural science.  The kids enjoyed the science treehouse.

The next day we went to Sea World.

We got to see Shamu.  How old is Shamu now?  Or rather how many Shamus have there been?  This Shamu had a baby that was named Baby Shamu.

Penguins

More Penguins

Alligators

Sea Lions begging for fish.

For our final day of fun we drove down to Port Aransas, which is near Corpus Christi.  We arrived around 11 in the morning and it was cold, cloudy, and windy.  Not an ideal beach day, but we made the best of it, zipped up our jackets and headed out to see the water.

Ty and Lydia had never seen the ocean.  Here Lydia is testing out the waters. 

Surprisingly the water was fairly warm.

 Lydia's favorite activity of the day was searching for shells.

She came home with a pretty good sized bag.

Getting in a little reading on the beach.

Building sand castles.  And if you noticed, the wind pushed those clouds off and the day turned out pretty pleasant.

 Ty loved the sand.

Birds among the seaweed.

A seagull.

 Shadow photo.  We almost look like we're all four the same height.

Growing up near in an inlet town, I loved to see the seagulls.

 One of Lydia's shell finds.

A jellyfish.  We saw several washed up on shore.  Later in the afternoon Lydia complained that her ankles were stinging.  They were red.  So we went to the hotel.  I bought some white vinegar to pour on it.  I read that white vinegar can soothe a jellyfish sting, as can meat tenderizer.  Now she has an interesting story to tell her friends.

We enjoyed a local restaurant, Blackbeard's Too, for dinner in Ingleside.  They offer shrimp, clams, even frog legs, but also chicken, hot dogs, and burgers for kids that don't like seafood.

The next morning we got up early and made the long drive back to Tulsa.  We made it in 10 and a half hours.  We saw a lot of turkey vultures and even a deer sauntering across the road that morning.

I miss that ocean already! 

Some videos to enjoy: