Road Trip 2008: Day 12 of 17 (San Antonio)

Rooftop pool at the Drury Plaza hotel

Looking down on the RiverWalk

Relaxing on the RiverWalk

Checking out the Alamo

The boys liked to hang their cowboy hats on their bed each night

Tuesday June 3

We decided at breakfast that we would just go ahead and stay another night in San Antonio. We really liked our hotel, the Drury Plaza, and the RiverWalk. It was nice knowing we didn't have to rush around. After the nice free hotel breakfast buffet we went for a swim on the roof top pool. We got a really nice view of the city and the kids thought it was cool swimming on the roof.

After our swim, we got cleaned up and went for a walk on the RiverWalk to the Rivercenter Mall where we saw the IMAX movie, "Alamo...The Price of Freedom". The movie was well done and gave us a good background about the Alamo before actually seeing it.

We walked a couple blocks from the mall to the Alamo mission. We were surprised to see that the Alamo is right in the heart of the tourist district. There was a nice museum\gift shop and the grounds are very nicely landscaped - they don't seem too worried about maintaining historical authenticity. We bought the boys copies of the Davey Crockett autobiography and inscribed it with some memories of our trip.

We were torn between stopping for lunch and getting to the Schlitterbahn Water Park. Adam really wanted to stop and eat and Derek wanted to get to the water park. I wanted to do both, but was inclined to let Adam have his way since he's usually just dragged along. I was letting it play out, but Helen was getting overwhelmed by me not jumping in and forcing a decision. Adam finally decided to forego the lunch and head to the water park so that Derek would "quit whining".

The water park is actually in New Braunfels, about 30 minutes north of San Antonio. We decided to go when we found out that it had been rated the world's best water park 10 years in a row. We didn't get to the park until about 4, which only gave us 4 hours. The park is actually spread across 2 locations and you have to take a tram between the two. It looks like one of the locations was the original park and the other is where the park expanded. We rode quite a few slides, but the boys spent most of the time in the lazy rivers. Who cares about all the fancy schmanzy stuff - just give them a lazy river and they're happy. Again, just like a buffet, I question whether the boys are getting the most bang for our buck. I'm sure a park with just a lazy river would cost a lot less than the parks with all the fancy rides.

After the water park, we went back to the hotel and got cleaned up and then went out for dinner at Rita's on the RiverWalk. Adam's choice. It's a tex-mex place. The food was good and the margarita's were even better.