New Braunfels, Texas

Well, we just got back from our little trip down to New Braunfels/San Antonio. It was pretty fun, if you don't count all the fighting and yelling (the kids, not Josh and I!) We left early Saturday morning and stopped at the Snake Farm in New Braunfels before heading over to check in at our hotel. HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT! We had seen the snake farm on the show "Dirty Jobs" and it looked pretty cool. I visited their website, which was very nice, and it said that on the weekends they did snake feedings and a crocodile show. Well, obviously we had planned to see these things thinking that Ryley would really like it, and had planned our trip to make it to there by 2 pm on Saturday, but when we got there they said they only did it on Sundays! Grrrrr. The whole place was a DUMP. No air conditioning either. Way miserable. We felt so bad for the other animals there. They had lemurs, birds, monkeys, horses, and other animals, but they were all in these really small cages that did not look very well maintained. It was really sad. Ryley did like seeing all the snakes and crocodiles but it was not worth the $40 we had to pay to get in. The moral of the story: If you're in New Braunfels drive right on past the snake farm!

Sunday we decided to go down to San Antonio and visit the holy places there: the San Antonio Temple grounds and the Alamo. It took us a while to remember where the temple was but we finally found it and walked around the outside for a little while. It is one of the smaller temples that isn't open all the time, but it is a very beautiful one. It's set on a hill in an upscale neighborhood and can be seen for miles around. It is especially beautiful at night. If you get a chance to go see it, it is worth the trip! The kids mostly enjoyed the fire hydrant on the street outside the gates.

After climbing on the fire hydrant for a while we drove down to the second most "holy" place in San Antonio, the Alamo. We enjoyed walking through the shrine and remembering the Alamo and listening to a tour guide give a brief history. We got there early enough that it wasn't too hot yet and there wasn't a really long line to get in. When we left there was a huge line outside! We also found a newer section of the museum that we had never been in before (which is amazing considering all the trips we've made there!) They had lots of displays of old guns and pottery and books and things that were really interesting. Ryley really liked the guns and swords. Maddie was partial to all the old buttons and jewelry.

After the Alamo we went down to the Rivercenter Mall on the Riverwalk and had some lunch. The we walked all the way back to our car (it was quite a ways away!) and headed back up to New Braunfels. The kids took some naps after all the walking we had done - thankfully! We stopped by the house of one of Josh's friends that recently moved away. They are an older couple and I think we pretty much wore them out with our three kids running around. They knew we were all coming though - we warned them several times. They were really great about it and I don't think the kids caused any major damage to their beautiful new home. The kids really enjoyed their back porch and digging for shells in their front yard, which is in the process of being landscaped. It was really nice to see them again.

Well, that's enough for now. I'll try to post more tomorrow about the rest of our trip. We sure are glad to be home!