Blog Challenge - Day 4...Somewhere Out Of Tarrant County

It will come as no surprise to you that my blog for this challenge is about our recent trip to San Antonio. San Antonio is in the county of Bexar, Texas...therefore qualifying it as a great topic for this particular challenge. Betcha didn't know about Bexar County...or maybe you did and I'm just Texas county challenged. Anyway, we had a fab time on our trip. Two days was just enough as more than one night in a hotel room with my sweet stinker, Molly, would not have done well for my usually sweet demeanor. The big girls were especially excited about this trip and more than ready to check out the sea life. Paul and I are huge fans of the ocean and have been to lots of aquariums...so, we were excited too. Gracie Claire was also pumped about seeing The Alamo. She has been learning about Texas Symbols in school, so she was excited to actually get to see one in real life.

When we arrived in SA, we headed right to The Alamo. Seriously ridiculously crowded. We circled, circled, and circled some more trying to find a place to park. We finally gave up and Paul dropped the big girls and I off to go get some pictures and he drove around and picked us up when we were done. The line to get in was not worth standing in, so we took a few pictures and headed out. Gracie Claire's reaction..."Where's the Alamo?" Me: "Right there in front of you." GC: "That's it?!" Me: "Yes! It's a famous historical sight that you learned all about! Isn't it exciting to see it?" GC: "That's it?!" HA!

These pictures seriously crack me up!

Sea World was a ginormous success! Our main focus for the day was to see as many of the shows as possible. We figured we could ride rides at any theme park...this one was for huge sea animals. How I love huge sea animals. I have an odd fascination with them. I was once known for collecting all things dolphin...dolphin figurines, stuffed dolphins, and I think I had a dolphin key chain at one point. This collection was still around when Paul and I started dating. The first gift he ever bought me was a dolphin garden gnome/key hider for the yard. I still lived with my parents back then, so I had no yard of my own for my new dolphin garden gnome/key hider. It was a sweet thought though. :) I think he paid like $50 or something ridiculous like that too. Too funny.

Anyhow...back to the topic at hand. As we entered Sea World there was this huge Shamu stained glass. Pretty, no?! :)

Our first stop was to meet the Shamu mascot. The girls were thrilled...

Sea lions were our next stop. The show we saw was one of the best. The reactions from the girls made it completely worth it! Seriously though...funny/amazing show.

So excited for the show to start! The smile on my big girl's face says it all!

(L) Love my girls! (R) The show has started! :)

Oh no! The fish have been stolen! The sea lions, walrus, and their friends found out the cute little otter was the culprit!

Our next, most exciting stop, was to visit Shamu! Gracie Claire was especially excited about seeing "Shamoon", as she calls this AWESOME animal. Really though...God is so cool. These 8,000-12,000 pound creatures are UH-MAY-ZING! They are not only beautiful, but so, so intelligent. Confession...when the whales swam out and started doing their thing, I got teary. There--I said it. I cried over an Orca.

(L) H to the U to the G to the E! (R) GC posing with her new pals. :)

After the Shamu show, we visited Rosita's Cafe for lunch. Let's just say that Rosita should stick to teaching children espanol on Sesame Street and quit her chef job. Gross.

We were like 2 feet from these gators. Again...amazing.

We also visited these creepy, but cool, guys along with stingrays, tropical fish, and dolphins. The dolphin show we saw starred one too many acrobats and not enough dolphins. I want to see dolphins flip and fly...not people. Therefore, there weren't many pictures to share from that show.

My only other goal for this trip was to get a good picture of the girls in front of the Shamu statues throughout the park. As you can tell...it was sunny and breezy. :)

Overall our trip was a huge success. It was nice to get away from Tarrant County and spend time together. Thanks to Shamu for being a great hostess. We shall return.