Phoenix

 

Tuesday morning, we began our day driving from Tucson to Phoenix. After driving a little less than an hour, we stopped at Casa Grande National Memorial which was constructed by Native Americans in the 1300s. We watched the video, explored the museum, and the kids each earned a Junior Ranger badge. Nadia and I enjoyed watching a great horned owl who was preening himself on a high spot in Casa Grande. Keeping with the Native American theme, after we drove another hour, we had lunch in Phoenix at Fry Bread House. Nadia didn’t order any Native American food, but the rest of us did. I ordered a native taco which consisted of cheese, lettuce, and refried beans on fry bread. Ian was brave as he ordered a spicy beef taco on fry bread. Paul and Oliver just had cheese on their fry bread. We spent more on food on this trip than we usually do, but we were able to try new foods, and I used credit card points toward Airbnb and Turo (rental car) for our trip to Hawaii in August. I also used credit card points to have one free night at a hotel on this trip. We did use some gift cards for meals on this trip. On Monday night we had dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Tuesday night we had a free dinner at Drury.

After lunch we drove 30 minutes to the Musical Instrument Museum. It’s a BIG museum that contains many instruments from all over the world and from many different time periods. It was interesting to see how creative people can be in creating instruments from a wide variety of objects – even garbage! We saw the very first Steinway piano. I played an upright Steinway piano when I was growing up. The kids also enjoyed a room in the museum which contained instruments anyone could play. When I plan vacations, I try to plan a wide variety of types of activities in part because the five of us have diverse interests. Museums that primarily feature things you just look at with your eyes don’t usually pique the attention of any of our kids, but they actually enjoyed this museum. I take after my mom in my vacation planning. If she were alive, I know she’d like that I even include things like industrial tours (Tabasco factory this time) in our family vacations. Paul loves military history; we visited two battlefields, a WWII museum, and one aircraft carrier. The kids love amusement parks; we went to two Six Flags parks. We all enjoy the beach, zoos, aquariums, and National Parks. Paul and I enjoy guided tours; we toured a Creole plantation. I think my top four activities on this trip were Chiricahua, the bats at Bracken Cave, the swamp tour in Louisiana, and Carlsbad Caverns. My favorite foods on the trip were the beignets in New Orleans and the salad I had at Bon Temps Grill in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Because our flight was leaving at 6:00am on Wednesday morning, I wanted to pick a hotel that was very close to the airport and offered a free shuttle. We checked into the Drury around 5pm on Tuesday night. We forgot the lesson we’ve learned in the past not to buy gas for the rental car at a gas station that’s too close to the airport. We paid a little over $4 per gallon. Hopefully we’ll remember in the future to get the gas a little farther away. When we left Pennsylvania, gas was right around $3 per gallon. Throughout our trip we typically paid somewhere between $2.40-$3.00 per gallon. I chose the Drury because it offered a free shuttle 24 hours a day. The first couple of hotels I considered didn’t start their shuttle service early enough for us to be able to use it. When I checked in, I told the woman I was disappointed we couldn’t take advantage of the free breakfast as we had seen in San Antonio that Drury has a nice breakfast. She told me to see her during the free dinner. She prepared a bag for us that contained ten mini blueberry muffins, three oranges, two apples, spoons, napkins, and five small yogurts. I was very grateful! It took me back to the 2020 and the “grab and go” breakfasts that hotels offered due to COVID. Honestly what she packed was better than what was typically given in those bags. There were four other nights on the trip that Paul and I could have gotten 2-3 free alcoholic drinks per night at the hotel. Each time I considered asking if they had non-alcoholic options, but I didn’t end up asking. It’s been quite a few years, but in the past, I’ve enjoyed drinking either a virgin pina colada or a virgin strawberry daquiri. Last night I asked if there was something I could drink that was fruity flavored without alcohol. She made me a sour cherry without the whiskey. It was delicious so I had a second one and shared some of it with Nadia. She didn’t even mark my drink card because it didn’t have any alcohol in it.

After dinner Paul returned the van to the airport and then took the shuttle back to the hotel. He passed an integrity test that night. Multiple times he was told by a rental car employee that everything was fine, and he could go. But he persisted in telling them how the plastic engine splash guard under the vehicle had been cracked several days earlier when we drove over on object on the highway. We shall see how much they charge us for that. The part costs about $150. We did purchase rental insurance through Priceline when we rented the vehicle through Dollar. It seems the way it works is that we pay Dollar whatever they say we owe due to this damage, and then we submit a claim to the rental insurance and hopefully get reimbursed. The rental insurance was much cheaper through Priceline that buying it directly from Dollar. Hopefully that decision won’t come back to haunt us. I already know it was a mistake to pay for the toll charges through Dollar. We only were on toll roads one day out of the two weeks we had the van. Ouch. Paul and I have rented vehicles a variety of times over the years including in other countries (France, Spain, Italy, Mexico, etc.), and this is the first time we have had to report any damage. We have only paid for tolls through a rental car company twice. We didn’t have a choice in Florida last year in February. In the future I’ll try to research that ahead of time so I can make a better decision. The next time we plan to rent a vehicle is in Hawaii in August, and we’re using Turo, so we won’t have to worry about toll charges that time. Also, I always get the rental insurance directly through Turo when we go that route. Even without this damage claim, the rental car was definitely the most expensive part of our trip. We had a 2022 Pacifica and drove a total of 2,882 miles over a period of two weeks.

Look how large a octobasse is!

We had requested the 4:30 shuttle. Considering the driver took us at 4:20, we could have requested the 5:00 shuttle and left at 4:50. Our plane started boarding at 5:20, but we weren’t checking any bags and due to TSA Precheck went through security very quickly. Leaving by 4:30am was a case of better safe than sorry. We flew from Phoenix to Seattle and then Seattle to Baltimore on Alaska Airlines. That definitely wasn’t the most direct route, but we paid a grand total of $30 for our five tickets so it was worth it to have our trip take a bit longer. Paul had the window seat on both flights, and we had some beautiful views of Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, and Rainier. We could have checked our bags for free on these flights, but that wasn’t the case with our flights to New Orleans via American Airlines, so we just went the carry-on route again. It takes less time to get to the gate if you aren’t checking any bags, and you know your luggage won’t get lost. We had very little time between deboarding and boarding in Seattle and had to take a train to get to a different terminal, but we made it on time with a few minutes to spare.

Over the decades there have been changes in the SOP of hotels and airlines. Some seem like improvements, and others do not. I miss the free meals they used to serve on flights that exceeded a certain length of time. I considered ordering a meal from Alaska Airlines, but it would have cost $62.50 before tax to order each of us a breakfast. In addition to bringing the breakfast food from Drury, we brought some granola bars and other snacks to serve as our lunch. We’re had dinner with my sister and her family at their home. It’s rare to be in a hotel that gives the tiny little bottles of shampoo. On this trip that happened two out of fourteen nights. I think having large bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash in the shower is a positive improvement as it has to be more environmentally friendly. Airlines used to provide the screens and also the headphones for watching movies and such. Now you need to bring your own. The boys forgot to bring earbuds. Nadia shared one of her earbuds with Ian, and I let Oliver use both of my earbuds on all of the flights. Ian forgot to pack toothpaste, but between the rest of us we had enough to share with him. Because we brought five small carry-on suitcases for a two-week trip, Nadia didn’t bring a sheet like she has many times in the past. Thankfully, almost every hotel we stayed in provided an extra set of bedding for the sofa bed. She typically just uses a blanket and a pillow from the set provided. I will really, really miss her when we have our first vacation without her, but it will definitely be simpler and cheaper to choose lodging because two queen beds are much more common than two queens plus a couch. This was the first flight Paul had to bring a passport for a domestic flight. I've had a "real ID" for five years. The last time Paul renewed his license, he tried to get a real ID, but they wouldn't accept his social security card because it was too tattered. He got a new SS card but hasn't needed to renew his license again yet, so he used his passport as his ID at the airport.

We’ve now been to 49 out of 50 states! After we visit Hawaii in August, I hope that in 2026 we make more progress with visiting all of the Canadian provinces and more of the continents. Two women sitting next to Paul and I at Bracken Cave had been to Antarctica and were trying to convince me to not exclude that one. I still have no desire to go to a place that cold! There are about 13 states I’d like us to return to so that we could visit some places we haven’ been to before. We spent the night at my sister's house. We are driving home this afternoon. I miss Milo and my own bed very much. It's wonderful to be able to visit new places, see different animals, and try new foods, but there's nothing like home sweet home.

Tuscon

Our bodies had adjusted to the two-hour time difference, but adjusting to a different time in Arizona due to them not following DST has proven more difficult. We all woke up earlier than we wanted to this morning. Our first stop was McDonald's for breakfast. I could not believe how expensive the breakfast sandwiches were! I remember when you could get two egg McMuffins for $3 and later two for $4. At the restaurant in Willcox, they were over $5 each!  Thankfully, we had a gift card that covered our breakfast. I'm grateful we usually get a free breakfast at the hotels. Drury have excellent breakfasts. We're planning to get a free dinner at the Drury in Phoenix tomorrow night, but we won't be able to eat breakfast at Drury on Wednesday morning because our flight leaves too early in the morning. 

We all appreciated that we didn't have any lengthy drives today. Our first drive was a little less than one hour long. We stopped at the San Xavier del Bac Mission which was founded in 1692. The first one was demolished by an Apache raid in 1770. The structure we visited today was built from 1783-1797. Paul and I would have enjoyed taking a guided tour, but the kids don't enjoy guided tours anywhere near as much we do so we just did a quick self-guided visit. Next, we drove about 30 minutes to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. It's a rather unique site as it's a combination of a zoo, botanical garden, aquarium, and natural history museum. We spent more than two hours there. When we were driving out of Chiricahua yesterday, we had to stop twice so we wouldn't hit animals that were on the road. The first time it was on account of two wild turkeys. The second time it was due to a group (maybe 10?) of what we thought were wild pigs. At the Desert Museum we learned that they were javelinas which aren't pigs but are peccaries. We skipped the exhibit where you could touch a stingray because that cost extra, and we've done that many times at no additional fee at many aquariums. 

Our next stop was Saguaro National Park, which was only seven minutes from the Desert Museum. We watched the video in the Visitor Center, the kids completed their Junior Ranger books, we explored the cactus garden, I stamped our passports, and we bought a magnet, t-shirt (for Paul), and hoodie (for Nadia). We drove the Bajada Loop, which is mostly on dirt roads. We hiked three short trails. We saw many different kinds of cacti and on the last hike we saw petroglyphs. The temperatures were in the 90's while we were there. We had dinner at Texas Roadhouse that was extremely close to our hotel. The kids wanted ice cream from Sonic afterwards. We had discovered on Saturday night that shakes are 50% off after 5pm at Sonic. Oliver's peanut butter shake was only $1.84, for example. When I checked into the Days Inn, I discovered the room I had reserved couldn't be occupied because of an electrical problem that was discovered in that room this morning. The kids had been looking forward to it because it contained three queen beds plus a sofa bed. Nadia was going to sleep on something other than a couch for the second time on this trip, but due to the issue, they ended up putting us in a room with the standard two queen beds and a sofa. Paul and the kids took a dip in either the pool or hut tub after dinner. We've had a good vacation, and we are ready to go home in the near future. I miss Milo and also my own bed. The Seiberts have been doing an excellent job caring for Milo in our absence. 

So very beautiful!!!

Yesterday morning our day began at White Sands National Park in New Mexico which is located close to an Air Force base and an Army missile range. If they are testing missiles, the road into the park is closed. They weren't firing anything yesterday. Our first stop was the visitor center where we got out junior ranger books and badges and purchased a magnet and a t-shirt (for Nadia). I also rented a sled and purchased some wax for the sled. The plan for the day included a hike in the park, but we opted to give the kids more time to sled down sand dunes. The first part of the road is paved; the rest of the road in the park is packed sand. We stopped at two different locations in the park for the kids to sled down some sand dunes. Ian said he liked White Sands as much as the Badlands, and the Badlands has been his favorite National Park for the last almost 4 years. Thankfully, it wasn't as hot when we were at White Sands as it was the previous day. 

After we left White Sands, we drove over four hours across New Mexico and into Arizona to visit Chiricahua National Monument. As Arizona doesn't follow daylight savings time, we gained one hour as we drove. We passed Fort Bowie National Historic Site. In my earlier itineraries, I had us stopping at that site as well, but somewhere along the way I eliminated that one from our plans as there doesn't look like there's much to see, and getting to the visitor center involves driving on a dirt road and then hiking for 1.5 miles each way from the parking lot. Chiricahua is absolutely stunning. If I were to rank my top ten National Park sites, I would absolutely put it in the top ten and most likely in the top five. I think my top five (in no particular order) would be Olympic, Bryce Canyon, Mt. Rainier, Chiricahua, and Big Cypress. Others that would be in my top ten would include Kenai Fjords, Redwoods, Carlsbad, and Crater Lake. We stopped at the visitor center for junior ranger badges and books and purchased a magnet, t-shirt (for me), baseball cap (for Paul), and cactus candy (Oliver bought). I was already impressed as we drove along Bonita Canyon Drive, but then I was in awe as we hiked three trails that together form a 3.3-mile loop. It took us a little less than two hours to hike that trail partially because I stopped and took pictures many times. I could have spent an entire day hiking in that park. Thankfully it was "only" in the 80's, and there was some shade which meant the experience was much better than at Guadalupe Mountains where it was about 100 degrees out. The pictures won't do it justice but let me say if you are ever in Arizona, I highly recommend a stop at Chiricahua! I liked it better than the Grand Canyon or Petrified Forest, which are the two National Parks in Arizona. I think this one should also be a National Park. Arizona has asked for that change, but they were told it's too small. That doesn't make sense to me as it's not a tiny park, and the Gateway Arch in Missouri is a MUCH smaller site, and it's a "National Park." Anyhow I give this park 5 out of 5 possible stars. The pictures don't do it justice. 

We had dinner and spent the night in Willcox, Arizona. We ate at a Pizza Hut, which was more expensive than the other pizza place we ate at on the trip but much cheaper than most sit-down restaurants. We bought some food for lunch today at Safeway. The prices at the grocery store were alarming! We spent the night at Rose's Motel. I picked it because it was a reasonable price and also had a room with three queen size beds. Nadia has slept on a couch every other night on the trip. The downside was this one is the only one on the trip that doesn't include a free breakfast. We went to McDonald's for breakfast. Today and tomorrow, we'll be in Arizona (Tuscon and Phoenix), and we begin flying back to Maryland early on Wednesday morning and lose three hours while we fly.

Fort Worth and Guadalupe

 On Friday morning we had a short drive from Arlington to Fort Worth, Texas. Our first stop was the Fort Worth Stockyards. We had a guided tour and also watched a cattle drive. If the schedule had permitted, we would have seen the rodeo that night, but when I was planning the vacation, I couldn't figure out a way to include that in our itinerary. Thankfully, the kids did see their first rodeo last year in Pennsylvania. Nadia and Ian bought Oliver a cowboy hat as an early birthday present. Oliver got himself a ring. He has wanted a ring for more than a year. Paul was opposed to this idea since he himself doesn't like to wear jewelry of any kind. It was a compromise on his part to agree to wear a wedding band. I didn't have any issue with Oliver buying a ten-dollar ring with his own money. Our second stop in Fort Worth was the zoo. This zoo has cheaper admission rates than the one in New Orleans, and they also participate in AZA reciprocity, so we received a 50% discount on all five tickets which meant it was much cheaper to visit this zoo. I thought it was a better zoo. A few years ago, USA Today had a list of the ten top zoos in the country. The Audubon Zoo was 7th on that list, and the Fort Worth zoo was 2nd. US News and World Report also has both zoos on their top 27 zoos in the country list. We didn't see any kangaroos in New Orleans, and they are one of my favorite animals. In Fort Worth one of the highlights were watching a baby elephant play in the water. When he trumpeted, his mom came a running to him! We also enjoyed watching a giraffe interact with his parent. Paul especially liked seeing the rhino in the water. 

After we left the zoo we began the long drive to Carlsbad. We stopped for dinner at a family-owned pizza place along the way. Pizza is definitely the most affordable option for dinner. Paul wouldn't mind if we had pizza every single night. Oliver would object the most strongly to that notion, and I'm also not a fan of having it anywhere near that often, but this was the first time we had pizza on the trip. I had driven from the zoo to our dinner stop. Paul was driving from dinner to our hotel. We gained one hour on the drive as we left CDT and entered MDT. We were in Texas for most of the drive, but near the end we entered New Mexico. At one point Paul got in a passing lane to pass a few vehicles, and it turned out there was a large metal object on the road in the passing lane which we ran over. The rest of the drive was rather stressful as we didn't know what damage had been done. All Paul could see was a plastic guard under the vehicle had been damaged. The vehicle has been running fine, thankfully. Since it happened on a Friday night and shops are usually closed on the weekend plus Monday is Memorial Day, we haven't figured out yet if we need to do anything before we return the vehicle on Tuesday evening. I'm very thankful it's still been running fine as many times out west you can go for many, many miles without seeing any businesses of any kind.

Our first stop on Saturday was Carlsbad Caverns. My top three caverns that I've been to are Luray, Mammoth, and Carlsbad. I think Carlsbad is my most favorite. At one point my grandparents lived in Artesia, New Mexico, which is not far from Carlsbad. Unfortunately, a couple of months ago they announced the indefinite suspension of all guided tours due to a lack of park rangers. That was very disappointing. You still need a timed ticket to enter the cave. Thankfully I did get five of those for us. There were many people at the park yesterday who didn't have reservations and therefore weren't able to enter the cave. There was a bat flight last night, but again that didn't fit in our itinerary, and I think the one we saw at Bracken Cave is more impressive (plus they don't allow any photos or videos to be taken of the bat flight at Carlsbad). We opted to take the elevator down to the cave rather than climb down and up the equivalent of a 75-story building by way of the natural cave entrance. We spent about an hour down in the caverns. It was just as amazing as I remembered. The kids each worked on two Junior Ranger booklets after our tour. The one booklet that was for 13+ took Nadia awhile to finish, and Ian eventually threw in the towel on completing it. Nadia and Oliver earned two badges at Carlsbad, and Ian earned one. Carlsbad Caverns are underneath the Guadalupe Mountains.

I often use the term "National Park" loosely to refer to all of their sites whether they are monuments, historical sites, battlefields, preserves, seashores, etc. There are 433 national park units, but only 63 of those are actually designated National Parks. Some people make it a goal to visit all 63 National Parks. I don't have that as a goal because some of them are located in places like Guam or are really difficult to get to (like many of the ones in Alaska). On this trip we will have visited four of the 63 National Parks - White Sands, Carlsbad Caverns, Guadalupe Mountains, and Saguaro. We plan to visit two more in August in Hawaii, which will put us at almost half (30/63). It was about 100 degrees when we were hiking at Guadalupe Mountains. We had planned to hike a trail that was a little over 4 miles round trip. In light of the heat and how much of the trail involved scrambling over large rocks, we didn't make it to the end of the trail, which was a disappointment to me as I had also missed the slot canyon in 2021 due to my broken ankle. We hiked for a little over two hours altogether. At one point Ian got lost and started climbing the trail up to the peak (which is a 9 hour round trip hike). Thankfully he figured out his error and rejoined us. Hopefully he learned his lesson not to hike alone. We had dinner at the only restaurant along the highway for more than an hour - Cornudas Cafe. Thankfully we got there before it closed at 6:00 pm. We were their last customer for the day. We ended our day driving to Alamogordo, New Mexico in preparation for visiting White Sands National Park today.

 

Six Flags over Texas

Nowadays Six Flags has 24 amusement parks across the USA. Today we went to their first one. When I was a child, I visited this particular Six Flags. The one we went to in San Antonio didn't exist at that time. It was at this Six Flags that my bubble was burst as to my ability with playing games at amusement parks. I didn't realize I wasn't actually winning the prizes at West View Park. When I asked my dad to play a game at Six Flags, he explained that he had paid for our admission to the park, and that only covered the rides. I assured him that I was very good at winning prizes in these games. He replied that I had been given prizes in Pittsburgh because I was related to the owner of the amusement park. Since that day, I've never been tempted to pay money to play a game at an amusement park, ha ha! My kids have never played a game at an amusement park. They've been to six different Six Flags parks. I think their favorite is the one in New Jersey. They've been to a total of 32 different amusement parks so far. I am hoping to take them to Kings Island in Ohio at some point in the future, but other than that I don't have any plans to take them to new amusement parks in the coming years. I'm thinking we will probably only go to Knoebels next year. 

The park opened at 10:30 and closed at 6:00. We were there at the opening but left before it closed. A few of the big rides (including roller coasters) were closed today. The lines in general weren't long, but the kids did make use of their flash passes. Their favorite rides were the New Texas Giant and Mr. Freeze roller coasters. Some of the rides (such as the flume) were much better at the Six Flags we were at two days ago. I rode three rides with the kids, and Paul rode one of them with us. We had *very* little driving time today as we drove for about 20 minutes from the hotel in Dallas to Six Flags and then drove less than 15 minutes total from Six Flags to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings to Walmart for some more groceries and finally to the Comfort Suites. In contrast, tomorrow will be the day of our trip that involves the most driving time. We'll be spending 4-5 hours in Fort Worth before we drive to Carlsbad, New Mexico. We're stopping for pizza along the way. We will have a little more time in Texas on Saturday afternoon at Guadalupe Mountains National Park. 

Dallas

Yesterday we spent 6+ hours at Six Flags Fiesta in San Antonio. There weren't many guests there that day who traveled there via a personal vehicle. The vast majority came in a school bus. We had never purchased a flash pass before at a Six Flags. Paul referred to them as "insurance" to make sure the kids could ride all of the roller coasters. The park wasn't crowded. Some lines had a 45-minute wait without the flash pass, so the flash pass definitely was helpful but wasn't essential. Nadia had the flash pass on her phone, and she was the one who used it for herself and her brothers. I was going to use one of the flash passes for the white-water rapids ride, but after I got fairly wet riding the flume with Oliver, I decided I didn't need to get wet again. I knew that Ian and Nadia wouldn't go on the white-water rapids of their own initiative. Paul didn't ride any rides, and I only rode the flume. We had only purchased three flash passes so I couldn't ride a roller coaster with them if they were using the flash pass. It was very hot (high of 98 degrees). Many of the food service stations were closed, and the ones that were open almost always had very long lines. We had prepaid for a package that included two drinks, two snacks, and two meals. Paul had a Coke, and the boys shared a Powerade. Nadia and I just had (free) water all day to drink. Oliver, Ian, and Nadia shared a meal that consisted of a pulled pork sandwich and macaroni and cheese. Ian and Nadia shared a vanilla milkshake (snack). Paul had a slice of pizza and would have eaten the bag of Doritos chips that came with his pizza if they hadn't been stale. Paul and I shared some garlic knots (snack).  Ian's favorite ride was the Iron Rattler and Oliver's favorites were the flume and the Wonder Woman single rail roller coaster. Ian left his glasses at the one roller coaster, so the last part of the day was spent going to various places around the park trying to find his glasses. Thankfully, I was able to locate them. Considering Paul didn't ride any rides, and I only rode one ride, I wish more theme parks operated like Knoebels and allow non riders to enter the park for free. We only plan to go to three amusement parks this summer. We've already been to two of them - Knoebels and Six Flags Fiesta. Tomorrow will be our third and presumably last for 2025 - Six Flags over Texas, which I went to when I was a child. 

After we left the park yesterday, we drove to Culver's for dinner/ice cream. Due to traffic and a stop for gas, our trip took a little longer than anticipated, but we arrived at an Embassy Suites in Dallas around 10:15pm. The one downside of this hotel chain is they always charge for parking, but the upside is the breakfast is amazing (including made to order omelets). When choosing which hotel and which room, I usually make the decision on my own. In this case I had discussed options with Paul because this one was a little pricier than we are usually willing to pay for a night. The reason we opted to splurge a little is because this suite contains two bathrooms and what is in essence three rooms. Paul and I have a king size bed, the boys are in a room with two double beds (they typically share a bed when we're on vacation), and Nadia as usual gets the sofa, but the living room area has a door she can close. There are also sinks outside of the bathrooms. Typically, the five of us are sharing one toilet and one shower when we're on vacation. 

Our first stay at an Embassy was in February 2024 when at the last minute (due to snow) we realized we needed to drive to Baltimore the night before our flight. We also stayed at one in Virginia last year in May. Both of those times we weren't at the hotel during the "happy hour." We also were too late last night, but tonight we finally saw firsthand what it entails. At this hotel they provided drinks (adults could have two free alcoholic drinks but we passed on those), pretzels, Fritos, goldfish crackers, cheese, crackers, pineapple, and some fresh veggies and dip. In other words, they provide snacks and drinks (some members of our family had some soda) but not hot food like Drury does. What Embassy offers doesn't replace dinner in my opinion. We had already eaten dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. It was our fifth time dining at one of those restaurants as a family (once per year starting in 2021). I had a coupon for one free slice of cheesecake and a gift card to pay for the rest of the meal and tip. Nadia likes it if we go to one once a year, but I don't think we'll go to one next year given where we plan to be on vacation in 2026. 

Today we were in Dallas, Texas. I lived in a suburb of Dallas for 2.5 years while my dad was a student at Dallas Theological Seminary. He also was a pastor in Cleburne for most of that time. Neither Paul or I enjoy driving in cities, and we've been in several cities over the last week - New Orleans, Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas. We'll be leaving Dallas tomorrow morning, and I think we won't be in a large city again until we're in Phoenix at the end of our trip. None of us are a fan of the traffic! As we live in a rural area, we are not accustomed to dealing with traffic. Today we visited three sites in Dallas - the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, the Sixth Floor Museum, and the Dallas Arboretum. Our hotel is less than 4 miles from the first museum. We parked near the museum until it was time to drive to the arboretum. We walked between the Perot Museum, Subway (where we had lunch), and the Sixth Floor Museum. When the kids were young, we went to SO many children's museums and science museums, especially if we could get in for free with an ASTC membership. The kids first outgrew the children's museums and then also lost interest in science museums, so we've gone to very few of those in the last few years. I wouldn't be surprised if the one we went to today was our last one as I don't think we'll visit any in Hawaii or the places we plan to go in 2026. I used to get a membership that only gave us ASTC reciprocity, but the last couple of years I joined a different museum that gave us AZA and ASTC reciprocity. I will probably let that membership expire this summer. Thankfully, we visited the science museum today for free aside from paying for parking. It was a good science/ natural history museum. We were there a little less than 2 hours. Ross Perot's children donated 50 million dollars toward the construction of this museum. As a side note, Paul voted for Perot in 1992. My grandpa tried to convince me to vote for Perot in 1992, but I voted for the other candidate who didn't win that election.

Our second stop was the museum where Oswald shot JFK. Paul and I aren't 100% convinced he acted alone, but given the significance seemed like a worthwhile place to visit. We had to pay full price there and also at the Dallas Arboretum. I wouldn't recommend the Dallas Arboretum given the cost, especially if you've already been to Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania. After dinner, the kids went swimming in the indoor pool at our hotel. 

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.

Corpus Christi

We spent our second day in Texas in Corpus Christi. Our first stop was the USS Lexington, which is an aircraft carrier. Paul and Oliver spent longer on the vessel than the rest of us. Ian, Nadia, and I wanted to have more time at the Texas State Aquarium. We enjoyed a dolphin show at 11:00 and a shark talk at 11:30. We had to pay full price ($50!) for one of the kids, but the rest of us got in 50% off. At every attraction thus far, Oliver has qualified for the kids' rate, but that will come to an end in August when he turns 13. A few places have had a "teen" rate, which means Ian and Nadia's tickets have been more than Oliver's but less than an adult's ticket. Paul received a senior discount at Vermilionville. It was the first time in his life he qualified for the senior discount.

We ate PBJ sandwiches and such in the van while we drove to Padre Island. Part of the island is a National Seashore. The kids began their junior ranger booklets, but they wanted to finish them later and receive the badges by mail. We enjoyed Malaquite Beach. We would have had to pay to check bags on our flights to New Orleans because we cancelled our American Airlines credit cards. To avoid that fee we each have one small suitcase that be a carry-on. That meant we didn't bring any gear for the beach aside from bathing suits and sunscreen. Although we tried to apply the sunscreen liberally, we still managed to get some sunburn. Hopefully we'll do a better job in Hawaii in August. 

When I was reading the Dear Bob and Sue books, I learned that the Homewood Suites offered a free dinner to their guests. We've taken advantage of many free breakfasts over the years, but I had no idea a free dinner might be possible. Doing more research, I discovered that Homewood Suites has really cut back on that since the time those books were published, but I discovered that Drury hotels still offer a free meal from 5:30-7:00 pm. We had never stayed at a Drury before. For this trip I booked us to stay at a Drury for two nights in San Antonio and one night in Phoenix. Because we had a 2.5-hour drive from the beach to our hotel, we were going to be eating dinner closer to 7:00, which is very late for us. So, we stopped for small Frosties at Wendy's (used the rest of the gift card we used for lunch on the first day) to tide us over. I have to say I'm impressed with Drury! I would definitely stay at one of these again if it was available and at a reasonable price. They offer a very nice breakfast, free dinner from 5:30-7:00, up to three free alcoholic beverages per night (Paul and I passed on that last night), and free popcorn and sodas from 4-8 pm. Oliver swam the first night of our trip. The second night the pool was closed. The third night the pool was open but looked utterly disgusting so Paul wouldn't let Oliver get in. The fourth night we arrived at the hotel too late to have time to swim before bed. Even though he had been swimming at the beach that afternoon, Oliver went swimming at the Drury pool last night after taking a shower in our room to completely get the sand off. What they offer for dinner varies from night to night. I really enjoyed the chicken fajitas last night.

This region of the US has been experiencing warmer than usual temperatures. It's been in the low 90's just about every day so far. I brought an umbrella in my suitcase, but it hasn't rained at all so far. The gas prices have generally been at least 50 cents cheaper per gallon that what we were paying in Pennsylvania when we left. So far, the only place we've encountered toll roads was in Houston on Saturday. I'm not sure yet if I made the right choice when we rented the minivan. We only had to scratch one thing from our itinerary so far, which was the San Antonio the Saga light show that we planned to see at the at the San Fernando Cathedral last night. After being presented for 10 years, they are taking a break while they upgrade their equipment. 

Texas day 1

In September 2021 we spent one night in the panhandle of Texas and visited the Don Harrington Discovery Center. My definition of us "visiting" a state is that at the very least we have to have done something of interest in that state - visited a National Park site, zoo, museum, etc. Most states we've done far more than that. The two states aside from Pennsylvania that we've spent the most time are Florida and New York. Nadia and Ian have spent eight weeks in Florida. All three kids have spent at least seven weeks in New York. The states we will have spent more than seven days there by the end of August include California, Illinois, Maryland, Texas, Virginia, Massachusetts, Alaska, and Hawaii. The states where we were there for one day or less include: Wisconsin, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, Colorado, Idaho, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, New Hampshire, Nebraska, and Kansas. We plan to return to Montana, Minnestoa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, North Carolina, and Tennessee, and New York (Nadia might not be with us for all of those trips). Although there will still be sites that we haven't been to in Texas yet even after this trip (ex. Big Bend National Park), I feel like we will be hitting the majority of the top things to see and do in Texas on this trip.

After a nice breakfast, we had a short drive to Big Thicket National Preserve. We had an outstanding experience at Cypress National Preserve last year. The opposite was true yesterday. The kids got their junior ranger books and began working on them in the visitor center. Things quickly went downhill after our short drive to the Kirby Nature Trail trailhead. Suffice it to say that we didn't notice any of the carnivorous plants that the trail is known for. All we noticed were the mosquitos. Nadia in particular was eaten alive. She was bitten at least 100 times. To make matters worse we got lost more than once and turned a 2.3-mile trail into a 4.6-mile trail as we were going in circles. After receiving the badges back at the visitor center, we went to a dollar store for antihistamine (oral and topical). Lengthening that hike meant we had less time at San Jacinto Battleground, but we still had enough time for Paul to see what he wanted to see there. Next, we spent time at Space Center Houston. The highlight of our time there was a tram tour to the Mission Control Center. The Audubon Zoo doesn't participate in the AZA reciprocity, so we had to pay full price there. At Vermilionville we saved $1 each through a AAA discount. At Space Center Houston four of us got in for free through our ASTC membership, although we all had to pay for the tram tour. Today we should receive a 50% discount through AZA at the aquarium. After the Space Center we had dinner at Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen before driving three hours towards Corpus Christi. At the Space Center we crossed off some more license plates as we walked through the parking lot. We only have three states left to find - Hawaii, New Hampshire, and Wyoming.

This is taller than the Washington Monument.