Vacation Recap

[trickykitty]

We managed to get into San Antonio Sunday at around 5pm. We stopped for gas at the Natural Bridge Caverns Rd, but decided to do those later and instead get to the hotel for their evening dinner-ish thing and swimming.

The hotel provides continental breakfast, a dinner equivalent to the continental breakfast (with up to 3 free adult drinks and typical offerings of nachos, hot dogs, baked potato, salad, a soup and a pasta of some sort), and late evening popcorn and soda. Apparently there was/is a recall on eggs while we were out, so while we got scrambled eggs the first morning, they replaced them with grits the other mornings, which was laughable.

Monday was the all-day tour of downtown, and the boys were pretty interested in it. Since it was my birthday, we had Saltgrass for dinner. By the time we got back to the hotel that night, my feet were already sore, my body a bit achy, and I was overall tired and grumpy, so I really wasn't looking forward to going to Six Flags the next day. Mom and I talked it over and we opted to stay an extra day, driving back into town Thursday instead of Wednesday. (I blame the continental dinner with complimentary drinks and popcorn, ha, ha, ha. That video reminds me, at one point Little Bit put 4 mini blueberry muffins on his plate and even wanted to bring an almost entire waffle and 2 sausage patties back with us to eat when he got home - there's something wrong with that child.)

Tuesday we took our time. We went to Target and CVS for some errands and a little shopping. I also bought a new floor fan because every time the A/C in the hotel room cut off during the night there was nothing but the sound of family members breathing/snoring which constantly woke me up. I wasn't about to deal with 3 more nights of that and decided on getting a floor fan that would provide white noise and still be able to come home with me afterwards. The afternoon was filled with the Natural Bridge Caverns and a couple attitudes and tempers flying off the handle. I don't think you can have a family vacation without that happening at least once.

Wednesday we went to Six Flags Fiesta Texas. There were little-to-no lines for the rides and a great cool front blew in providing excellent cloud cover, lovely winds, and a few sprinkles. Little Bit was excited to do rides with me as it was the first year for him to be tall enough for the bigger rides, while Eldest only wanted to do some Midway games for prizes and go to the water park. By mid-afternoon we split up with Mom taking Eldest into the water park where she could sit and move as little as possible. Little Bit started freaking out when he saw that one of the coasters he was begging to go on shot out of the loading dock at a cool 60mph (the Poltergeist), and it took some encouragement to get him to stay in his seat and give it a go. Half way into the ride he looked at me and said never mind, I was right, the coaster is a blast! We rode it a couple more times that day. We also rode The Superman and The Iron Rattler more than a few times, and all other big rides at least once (except the new Batman Ride, which just looked like an annoying headache and potential barfing with a long line, so we chose to re-ride the other rides instead). By close to 9pm, most park guests had either left to go home or made their way over for the final laser and fireworks show, and we could have kept riding without ever getting off and having to wind back through the stiles, but we also had to meet back up with Mom and Eldest, and they all wanted to watch the fireworks. Drat!

The boys really enjoyed hearing Ender's Game on the way to and from and kept asking to hear it in the vehicle even when we only had a short drive to our next destination. We had just started Speaker for the Dead on our way back home, but by then we were all tired and falling asleep while listening and the disk kept skipping for some reason. So that will be up for listening to over the next couple weeks at home.

I woke up yesterday morning with some sort of rash on my leg. I thought maybe it was a reaction to a bug or something else that might have been in the grass of the lawn we sat on during the laser and fireworks show. After getting home and doing minimal research online, it looks to be a particular kind of heat rash called Golfer's Vasculitis. There's been little study done on it, but it corresponds with heat and heavy walking and is typically just above the sock line, so my guess would be it's some kind of circulation issue that, as the name implies, affects the vascular blood vessels in the legs. It's neither itchy nor painful or hot, and not bumpy at all. It should go away in a couple days and what little sunburn I got should also subside - so I think I did pretty well on that front.

Now to get some laundry and house/room cleaning done, followed by happy gaming, since it's the Anniversary Event time in The Secret World. Woot!