I love staying in hotels. I love the cold, dark rooms. I love that you can sleep late and no one cares. Well, unless you have to get up and see the sights, and then people care.
We got up at 9:00 and I sent the family down for breakfast with instructions to bring me back a bagel and cream cheese. I wasn't specific about a drink and that scared me a little after last night's episode (I reminded them it was last call for the soda machine and popcorn; they went down and returned with sodas for everyone except me). They did well, though, bringing me me what I requested plus a muffin and orange juice. Go family!
We looked at the map and decided to start at Hemisfair Park. The plan was to see the Institute of Texas Culture and then the Tower of the Americas.
We found this little bear statue that was donated by Berlin in 1968. David enjoyed looking at all the old buildings on our way through the park. It's a really pretty park with lots of water features and historic buildings; Darcy saw an awesome playground. Emma played photographer and caught some pics of Darcy.
Truth be told, we "saw" the institute, but didn't get to tour it. There was construction all around it and I didn't want to try to walk through it all only to find out we couldn't get through and have to walk back. That will have to wait for another trip.
Side note: Darcy kept asking to do things and I kept telling her no. I was told that I suck all the joy out of life. This would come back to haunt her at lunch.
We bought our tickets for the Tower and whooshed our way to the top. Emma and I enjoyed finding landmarks and identifying them. David and I used the opportunity to get our bearings for the day.
They had a claw machine that both girls just had to play, and they also found a defective Zoltar fortune teller. He was out of fortunes and just took their money. I swear, though, if I wake up in the morning and I have two thirty-year-old girls in the next bed, I'm suing Tom Hanks.
Something new to David and me was the Skies over Texas 4D movie ride. It's a cute little 15 minute movie that gives an aerial tour of the state; however, the seats move and there are interactive effects (let me just warn you about covering your mouth when the bull sneezes). The girls found cute trinkets that they were able to buy courtesy of Granny and Papa, and of course you can't go to a souvenir shop and not try on hats!
From there we hoofed it over to the Alamo. It was so dang humid that when Darcy suggested snow cones, we agreed. David was excited about the Alamo because of the historical aspect; Darcy was excited because of the feline aspect.
As part of our unit on historical fiction, Darcy and I read Alamo Cat by Rita Kerr. Although it is fiction, it is based on fact. It is the story of Ruby LeGato, a kitten found by a night patrolman at the Alamo. She was given special permission by the DRT to live on the grounds, and had the only known babies to ever be born there. She lived at the Alamo from 1981-1986, and she is buried there near the security building. As soon as Darcy found out that Ruby was a real cat and is really buried at the Alamo, her mission became one of finding the grave and leaving a flower for Ruby. Fortunately, we were able to do that even though it is in an area for personnel only. We found an employee on his lunch break near Ruby and after explaining our request, he let Darcy in (notice the tiny purple flower on the grave).
When we were researching the real Ruby, we found out that there is a new Alamo cat whose name is CiCi. We asked about her at the gift shop and the employee went and found her for us. She isn't always up for visitors (she's 17, I believe) but today she was feeling good and we got to meet her. We bought a book about her as our souvenir.
Now we could finally tour the shrine. I enjoyed it because I was able to point out facts to Darcy from our reading. Our current book is Girl of the Alamo by Rita Kerr, and it is the story of Susannah Dickinson's experience at the battle. I was able to point out names from the story and Darcy knew whom I was talking about and his part in the battle.
Darcy was starting to get a little cranky and we decided we needed a break. Emma had been to San Antonio a couple of summers ago with her dad and they ate at Dick's Last Resort. She told Darcy about how rude the waiters are and so the girls decided that we had to eat there for lunch. After another long walk, we found the restaurant and had a blast!
Each kiddo got a balloon animal and our server was appropriately rude. Since it was after 2:00 it wasn't crowded at all and we had a lot of one-on-one time with our server. The girls got bibs, Darcy's drink had about a dozen straws in it, the server wouldn't let her order chicken tenders (she settled on ribs), and he gave Darcy a balloon. Darcy made him a card that he took to the next table and loudly announced that he was going to read his letter. This is what he read:
Front: This letter is from your friend. Read the back.
Back: You stink! :(
Well, you can imagine his feigned shock and horror! He immediately stood up and made her a hat.
Since Darcy got a hat, he decided Emma needed a little something, too. He took her to the back and they stayed gone for about five minutes. When they came back, this is what we saw:
He said that now we knew what a real air head looked like. Emma wore her balloon hair the entire rest of the day. The server did sneak up on her and pop one balloon when she wasn't looking, and on the way out of the restaurant another server popped another one. Everywhere we went after that, people would comment on Emma's hair and I don't know how many asked to take a photo. I keep telling her that we will probably see her on Pinterest soon (she even went swimming with the three remaining balloons in her hair, although the number went down to two in the pool).
Lunch revived us all and so we grabbed a red bus to the mercado. Everyone enjoyed shopping in the little stores. I found a scarf, Darcy got some teeny tiny guitars for her Littlest Pet Shop world, and Emma found a really cute dress.
It was now 5:00 and we were all worn down. We took the red bus back to the hotel and made a brief stop at Walgreens for some Benadryl spray. My stupid bee-stung arm is a mess. Oh! I also got bit by a fire ant on my ankle when we were waiting at a bus stop. I'm a doofus.
We hit the manager's reception for drinks and snacks, then came up to the room to relax. My cousin Beau is in town with a friend, so David got to visit with him in the lobby while the girls swam in the rooftop pool (not as cool at night, I'm told). Unfortunately, I'm out for the day. My body can only take so much before it tells me very, very loudly that I have gone too far. I plan on taking a hot shower and staying in bed for the rest of the night. I may have to pretend to be a kid at Sea World tomorrow so that I can ride in a stroller if I can't walk. I'm only half kidding!
David has taken the girls to see the river walk at night and they want to go back to the tower if they can go by river taxi. I hope they have fun and take photos for me to see.
You can read a little about Ruby and CiCi here: http://www.purr-n-fur.org.uk/featuring/mus11.html
That child was so distracted that she missed a dozen questions on greater than and less than (which she knows), and she skipped 33 multiplication problems (the easy ones - you know, multiplying by ones, fives, and tens). Her grade was a big, fat "F." David stopped by to make sure the cable guy knew what all he wanted to have done and he and I decided that we wouldn't say anything until after she finished all of her work for the day. It took the rest of the day to get her work done and it was after dinner before I could talk to her.
