Vacation all I ever wanted... vacation...had to get away...sing with me now!!!! Lol! What y'all know about the Go-Go's??
This is the deluxe vacation edition of the Loving Loring blogspot so hold on to your hats....I'm about to blow your mind (as my Daddy would say) with some awesome vacation pics and give you a little narrative with it.
You ready?
This was our first ever real family vacation this year. After seeing some awesome pics from some friends on Facebook of Sea World in San Antonio, I decided to go for that this year. It was a 9.5 hour car ride, so best believe I made some investments to be prepared...
Food...check
Juice boxes...check
Headphones...check
Neck pillow...check
Portable headrest DVD players...check
Kid DVD's...check
And the list goes on. However the most important thing was the time to depart from both Little Rock and San Antonio. We left around 2am each time and it was perfect. Although Brooklyn was a little slow to fall back asleep..she SLEPT once she did. I'd say she and I slept from about 3:30am until 8:00am. Then we stopped for breakfast and a break and I drove from 8:30 or 9 until we reached our destination which was about 12:00pm both ways. Needless to say, Kelvin was an absolute trooper carrying the majority of the driving burden both ways.
Kiddie Park
Once we checked into our hotel,we didn't waste anytime getting started on the itinerary (hey...I'm a planner) that I had set forth for the trip. So, we started out at Kiddie Park. This is an amusement park of sorts that's all about the little kiddos. There were about 8 different rides all very small kid friendly and for around $12 they get a wristband that gets them unlimited access to all the rides. It was a fairly small park that put me in the mind of Funland at Burns Park in North Little Rock, but it was fantastic. There was even a little concession booth which you know I was all over...lol! I was nervous that Brooklyn would be too scared to ride the rides alone but she certainly fooled me!! We couldn't get her to leave! We also managed to get in on a ride or two ourselves...
San Antonio Zoo
With this one I did something that might shock those who've traveled with me before....I deviated from our schedule...gasp!! Lol! When we were on our way to Kiddie Park we passed the zoo so we decided we might as well check out San Antonio's zoo...it had to be better than Little Rock's...lol! Yes, my friends...it was better and it didn't cost as much to get in and you didn't have to pay for parking!! Maybe I'm just a slow thinker but something seems backwards about that to me... Anyhoo, I decided not to take a whole lot of pics of the animals there though to reserve camera space, but I did get the most important ones...
Day 1 Dinner...a Bust
I have never had a bad recommendation from a hotel concierge until now. We told her we wanted to eat a steak somewhere casual that wasn't a chain restaurant so we didn't have to change clothes. She sent us to a restaurant called Little Red Barn. This was a greasy spoon looking joint where the waitresses and hostesses dressed like cow-girls and instead of a menu they brought a wooden board about the height of Brooklyn and set it beside the table. The two items we were interested in eating were of course unavailable and the shrimp I ordered for Brook was undercooked. Last but certainly not least, was the trip to the bathroom with sewage coming up through the sink....YUCK!!! I had seen enough!! So much for "asking the locals"...Rachel Ray...lol!
Pool Time!!
San Antonio was absolutely hopping while we were there. Although I'm sure it was an amazing city it was also the hosting city of a big Lutheran youth conference that consisted of over 25,000 teenagers right there in downtown!!! Hormones everywhere!!!! So of course, they crowded out the hotels including ours. One reason I booked the hotel I booked is because the rooftop pool intrigued me. However on day 1 there was way too many wild teens at the pool for me and my little one to have a good time. So, instead we opted to hit the pool first thing in the morning on day 2. Much better!!! It was a great start to our second day of vacay!!
Sea World San Antonio!!
Once we had our relaxing morning at the pool it was time for some big fun in the sun at Sea World. Silly me...I thought we were only going to be there for 2-3 hours. That turned into 6 hours of an awesome time!! We had a method that seemed to work pretty well...we did all the water stuff first so we could be wet at the beginning and dry out over the course of the day. It also kept us from being overly hot. That worked well too!! My funny story from it all was my turn on the water ride. When it was finally my turn to get on I ended up being crammed next to this really big guy who I of course didn't know. Although displeased at first, it turned out to be such a great thing. When we made our way to our final huge and sudden descent into the water, he made for a great face shield as I spent the entire drop with my face buried in his arm and shoulder...lol!!! I sent a text to Mama and Brandi afterwards to inform them that I had just cuddled with a complete stranger...lol!!! I gotta put that pic on here first before I add all the rest. That's me on the far left on the front row with my face behind the guy with the white shirt on....lol!!! Hilarious...after the fact, that is!
Fireworks on the Roof
It only made the trip even more awesome that it fell during the 4th of July holiday!! This was something else I kept in mind when it came to the hotel I selected for us to stay in. We were able to watch the fireworks from the rooftop party area by the pool!!! Once again Brooklyn fooled me because I just knew the sound of the fireworks would be too loud and scare her but as you can see...it didn't bother that girl one bit!!
San Antonio Children's Museum
This place was awesome!! Man, my kid is a lucky one with all the great stuff she had to do on summer vacay this year. This museum included art and an art station for the kiddos to make their own. It also had a few exhibits for the kids to look and learn at a few animals but most of the learning was real-world stuff that was mini-sized for kiddos to do. Brooklyn was a banker, a customer at the bank, a western store worker, an air traffic control person, an airplane passenger, a grocery shopper, a waitress, and a farmhand all in one day!!! It was awesome!! It'll look like she and her Daddy are the only ones who went that day, but that's because I'm behind the camera...lol!
Something for the Grown-Ups
We couldn't go on family vacay and not do anything for the grown-ups!! So what did Kelvin and I want to do....shop!!! We went about 50 minutes backwards from San Antonio to San Marcos and.....WOWZA!!!!! We hit the mega jackpot of all outlet mall shopping!! We spent 6 hours at the mall that to me only felt like 1...lol!! There were 2 outlet malls (San Marcos Premium Outlets and Tanger Outlets) right next to each other that had any and every designer and brand you could ever think of and since it was a holiday weekend they all had super great sales!!! They even had more expensive designers like Gucci and Prada! I just about lost my mind!!!! Here's just a few of the deals I managed to get:
- 3 pairs of 7 jeans for less than $100!!!
- Coach- one pair of flip flops, an overnight bag, a makeup bag, an ipad case, an oversized purse, a wristlet purse all for less than $300!!
- a host of cute little numbers from NY&Co, Charlotte Russe, BCBG, Body Central, and more!!
- 3 dresses, 2 pairs of boots, and 4 outfits for Brooklyn from Children's Place and Carter's for less than $75!!!
Finally a Good Dinner Recommendation...
We opted for authentic Mexican food for dinner our last night in town and it was absolutely wonderful!! I got this recommendation from a local (one of my co-workers) and it was right on the money!! As you can see, I was wiped out by the time we made it there...
Happy Trails....
So, there it is...a re-cap of our very first family summer vacation. Hopefully you enjoyed the pics as much as enjoyed the trip!! See you next post!
