San Antonio

Alamo

Yesterday morning after a delicious breakfast at the Drury (which is now our favorite hotel chain), we drove to Mission San Jose, which is one of four missions run by the NPS. The kids each earned a junior ranger badge, and we had a one hour guided tour with a park ranger. Next, we parked in the Riverwalk portion of San Antonio. I always seem to forget how expensive parking is in big cities. We had lunch at Casa Rio beside the river before we toured the Alamo. Nadia and I shared a meal, and I ordered four sopapillas for dessert for the kids and me. I have fond memories of eating those in Texas when I was a child. I had paid for audio guides for each of us. We ended our time with a 30-minute narrated cruise along the river. We ended our afternoon at our hotel. Oliver and Ian swam for a little bit. 

Mission San Jose 

We weren't able to take advantage of the full kickback menu last night because the traffic out of the city meant our trip to Bracken Cave was going to take longer than anticipated. Everyone except for me did get a hotdog. Oliver had some popcorn, and Paul and the boys got some free soda before we left. Since we had eaten a substantial lunch, we just had a small meal for dinner. We supplemented what we got from the Drury with some food we had in the van. If we had been able to stay until 5:30, we could have had meatballs, mashed potatoes, vegetables, etc. We were told to arrive between 6:00-6:30 at Bracken Cave. We walked around the site a bit. During the Civil War they used guano from the cave to make gun powder. There was a talk at 7:00. The bats started exiting the cave around 8:22. It takes about three hours for all 20 million pregnant bats to emerge from the cave. It was an incredible experience! There are about 2 million bats (males and menopausal females) that hang out under a bridge in Austin, Texas. When my brother was working on his master's degree there, we talked about those bats as well as the ones at Bracken Cave. Seeing these bats had been on my bucket list. I am so very grateful I was able to witness this experience. I had to fight back tears. I felt like crying just because it was such an amazing experience and also because I was thinking about my brother, who passed away six years ago. We recorded videos of the bats on my phone, Nadia's phone, and Paul's phone, and I attempted to take some photos with my camera. At Carlsbad Cavern they don't allow you to take photos or videos when you're in the bat viewing area. I am thankful they don't have those rules at this location.

Aside from the morning we flew out of Baltimore, the kids haven't had to get up early any day so far on this trip. Since we are spending the day at Six Flags Fiesta, we don't need to leave our hotel until after 10:00 am, which is later than usual. After our experience with very long lines at Canada's Wonderland last year, I opted to buy flash passes for the kids so that hopefully they can ride all of the roller coasters today. Since the food is very expensive in most amusement parks, I bought a pass for Paul and me that includes one drink, snack, and meal. We're planning to share the food and drinks with the kids for our lunch and stop at Culver's for dinner after we leave the park. We'll be driving to Dallas this evening. I lived in a suburb of Dallas for 2.5 years when I was a child. We're spending two nights at an Embassy Suites hotel, which *had* been our favorite hotel chain until this stay at a Drury Plaza hotel. The Embassy Suites still has the best breakfast, but it's not much better than the breakfast at Drury. We've never arrived at the right time to take advantage of the free food/drinks during Embassy's "happy hour," but from what I've read the "kickback" at Drury is far more substantial. Tomorrow night we should be able to check out Embassy's happy hour so at least we'll know for future reference what it's like. Due to the length of the drive from San Antonio to Dallas, we won't arrive in time to visit it this evening.