Trip to Texas, Day 2: The Alamo and the Riverwalk

After breakfast at the hotel, we were ready to go.

No idea what this building is, but it looks neat.

Walking at street level today.

Here we are, at the side of...

...the Alamo!

Remember the Alamo! (Which was first a Catholic Mission)

You could not take pictures inside, so here we are at the back exit.

There were cannons out in the courtyard.

A very old tree!

What was so interesting here?

Tiny snails!

Heading back down to the Riverwalk,...

...we walked until we found...

...a restaurant we wanted to try.

We sat inside as it was raining off and on, but we could still see the boats going by on the river.

Paesanos Ristorante had some delicious Italian food.

After that filling lunch, we strolled back to the hotel.

Catherine atop the bridge.

Taking a break.

Going up to cross the river again.

And back down on the other side.

To be continued...

Trip to Texas, Day 1: Travel to San Antonio

Towards the end of October, we were able to go on a family vacation to Texas.  We spent a few days in San Antonio, then went down to Corpus Christi for a couple days. This was the furthest we have yet gone as a family!

On the road, movies with headphones came very much in handy!

We got to the hotel in the middle of the afternoon, after leaving at 4:30 in the morning.

The view from the back of the hotel.

We stayed right on the San Antonio Riverwalk.

Down they went to the river.

We had to check out the map.

A little grotto-like area.

Underneath our hotel.

We climbed up out of the Riverwalk to look at the San Fernando Cathedral, one of the oldest active cathedrals in the USA.

Kids in front of the Cathedral.

Anthony with Saint Anthony of Padua, for whom the city of San Antonio is named.

Continuing our walk along the river.

Great statue.

Waterfall!

Very cool bridge.

We made it to one of the starting points for the Riverwalk Tour.

Ready for the ride to start.

Joseph liked it.

Catherine and Anne.

It was a beautiful tour and a great way to get an overview of the Riverwalk.

A bridge made famous in a movie. Not that I can remember what it was...

Trip to St. Louis 2014, Day 4, Part Two

After a full morning at the City Museum, we went out to our car for a picnic lunch.  It was a bit expensive to get into the museum ($12 per person, but well worth it for a whole day of fun!), and you could come and go if you wanted.  It does cost to park in their parking lot, which is not very big.  After lunch, we headed back inside for more fun.  To get to the outside part of the museum, you must enter from the inside.  It is called MonstroCity and is a wonderful playground of climbing structures and slides going from the ground to about 5 stories high.  However, it is not a place for those afraid of heights! 

A view from up high.

Let's go up.

Catherine wore out the knees of her pants in just this one day!

Catherine and Dom way up there.

See that climbing tube at the top?

Yep, there are the two daredevils.  I did not climb up in those things!

Joseph on a slide hanging out over the parking lot.

Look at that crazy kid up there!

It's Dominic.

This was the highest up slide outside.

Joseph ready to slide.

The first time I walked across this walkway, I was a bit shaky in the knees.

After a long time, we went back inside for a break.  Then it started to rain outside, so we felt lucky that we had been out there while we still could.  When you arrive at the museum, if you ask for a map of the place, you will not get one.  They want you to just explore and find things.  We had heard about this 10 story slide inside the building and decided to find it.   On that first floor with the crazy climbing, sliding areas, there was this whole area tucked into one side called the Enchanted Caves that we had missed the first time.  Going in there really felt like going into a natural cave.  Back in there was the entrance to a 5 story and a 10 story slide.  Joseph was not old enough to go by himself, so I got the job of going with him, along with Catherine and Dominic.  Climbing up to the top of even the 5 story slide was safe, but rather scary.  It was spiral stairs going up and you could look over the edge down to the bottom if you wanted.  Talk about a major workout, too!

Waiting to go down one of the slides.   The woman sitting there was watching a monitor of the bottom of the slide and she would tell you when you could go down.

Ready for a 10 story spiral slide?  It seemed never ending.

Back in the caves, there was a man playing a big pipe organ.  Really cool to hear while you were trying to climb 10 stories high.

Back in the main area of the first floor, the kids got to play some more.  

Anne next to some of the colorful mosaics, which also covered the floor.

This was a pathway leading somewhere.  I don't think I could fit in there!

One of the holes in the ground leading somewhere...

Hi, Anthony, up there!

Anne went down that hole and popped up on the other side of the room from underneath the big whale.

Catherine looking out from the other side of a big fish tank.

What a wonderful day!  And talk about some tired kids! The kids loved it and keep asking when we can go back.  On the second floor of the museum were a shoelace factory and an aquarium, neither of which we had time for.  I'm sure there were other places in the building we did not explore, so maybe someday we can go there again.  It sounds like they will continue to add to the museum, in fact, we saw some construction of towers going on outside while we were there. 

The next day we packed up and made our way back home.  What a good visit with Sr. Mary Elizabeth, along with some fun St. Louis activities!