San Antonio/Day One (3-14-2012)

Today...drive to San Antonio, pick up Kevin at the airport, settle in at hotel ON THE RIVERWALK! Woohoo! This is the view from our 2nd floor room...

We immediately went out to explore the grounds before the hotel's happy hour began, starting with the rooftop pool...

Karen checks out the map of the riverwalk...

 I had to stop and pose with the statue of my favorite saint...Saint Anthony. He is always helping me find lost things! Thank-you Saint Anthony!

We took a little walk down to the Alamo and surrounding area...

we managed to get back in time for our first hotel happy hour, and later took Kayli for a late-evening dip in the roof-top pool...

this building was pretty cool to watch turn colors, while sitting at the pool...

another big day tomorrow, can't wait!

Day Two @ Galveston Beach (3-13-2012)

Up early, breakfast in the hotel lobbby, saw some interesting "vacationers" showing up for breakfast in barefeet and pjs?!!! Well, if we'd known we didn't really have to dress for breakfast...haha!
Anyway, we wanted to get an early start on our "beach day", so we didn't waste any time getting our gear together and setting off for a nearby public beach. We wanted to try a public beach today so we could get away from the stone slabs we had to sit on at the beach near our hotel. We were so happy with our choice, as we not only had more sand, but a public potty, a snack shop, and a gift shop!

Foggy, hot, muggy...fine with us...

the first day at the beach, I discovered that the elastic threads in my last year's swimsuit had disintegrated, leaving a "thread bare" patch! Good thing I brought a spare suit! The water was warmer today too!

time to start making a sand castle, let's get digging!

as noon approached, the fog began to disappear, we began to see the blue sky, and "magically" buildings began to "appear" that we realy had not seen at all when we first arrived!

Karen helps with the finishing touches...

still keepin' my eye on those sneaky waves!

at the end of our "beach day", with Kayli's souvenir sand castle from the gift shop tucked safely away in the beach bag, we headed to the ferry boat. Thought is would be fun to show Kayli what a ferry boat ride was like. More AWE...

now, we were ready to find a "happy hour" somewhere, and it had to be "casual" so we could "come as we were, sandy, sweaty, beachy!" What would we do without Matt's "smart phone?" He found us a place right along seawall blvd, that fit the bill perfectly...even had a "swim-up-bar"...

What a fun day!

Galveston Beach (Monday, March 12th)

The agenda today? Pack up and head to Galveston! Karen, Matt, Kayli, and I arrived at our beach-view hotel by mid to late afternoon, checked in, dragged our suitcases up to our room, and immediately put on our swimsuits! Our hotel was on "seawall blvd" which meant the sea/beach was a walk across the street. A busy street, I might add, but still very do-able. We went from hotel to beach in 5 minutes!

Lots of people out walking, running, biking, and playing. The sky was overcast, but the weather was warm and humid...as evidenced by the curling of my hair! I couldn't even keep my bangs from curling..sheesh! This part of the beach, had lots of stone slabs scattered here and there, intermixed with the thick, wet, grey sand! Kayli didn't waste any time getting started with her bucket and shovel...

it was time to introduce Kayli to the ocean, so we headed for the water...

Ok, pose for a picture, then, I think, hmm, probably should put Kayli's life jacket on before sending her out to sea, ha ha...

Kayli's cousin, Matt offers to take her out into the waves...

"ohh, I don't know about all these waves. Are you sure we should be doing this?"
Ok, yeah, this is kind of fun...

Matt says "I think I'll swim out a bit further while you play in these waves"...

Hey, what's he doing wayyyy out there?

Can you believe I'm swimming in the ocean, Mom?

I better keep my eye on those waves, though, they are pretty sneaky...

here comes Matt, he's swimming in with the waves...
Oh yeah, I can do that too...

C'mon in mom, the water is, um, nice... uh huh, nice and cold...

let's spend a little time in the sand now...

and we get to do this again tomorrow!!!
We went out to dinner tonight at this really cool place...

the Kemah Boardwalk is home to fabulous waterfront restaurants, amusements, charming retail stores, festivals and seaside shows every day. It's described as being like a summer fair all year long! What a great atmosphere it provided! We ate at the restaurant called "The Aquarium" which had, you guessed it...a HUGE AQUARIUM in the restaurant! Kayli was enamored by the huge fish, eel, sharks, and anything else that was swimming or floating around in this huge tank...

this was a fabulous place to walk around and just enjoy the beautiful weather and surroundings!

stay tuned for tomorrow...

First Few Days of Spring Break (Starting Sat. March 10th)

I naturally took PLENTY of pictures to document our FUN, FUN time in Texas! We did sooo many things and went so many places that I've decided I will have to post pictures in segments...by event, place, or time. So, without further adeu, we begin the trek to College Station at 8:00 a.m. Saturday morning...
Kayli was a great traveler, watching her new DVD (Barbie and the Mermaid Tail Two) about 3 times (enough to learn the lines of all the characters, of course)...

we arrived at Matt's apartment around 8:ish, and brought the rain with us! Matt said it had been overcast all day, but no rain until we arrived! Loved Matt's place! (The view from those windows is a full view of their "resort-like pool!")

As soon as the car was unloaded, we headed out for Mexican Food and the ever-so-refreshing-and-long-awaited Margarita!

First thing in the morning, Kayli ran to the window to see the beautiful pool...

Unfortunately it was still raining, boohoo...but fortunately there's always shopping to be done! I asked Matt if he could find us an off-the-beaten-path-jewelry-accessory-kind of shop, and he pulled out his trusty phone, googled the key words, and we were off and running! Great find...Karen, Kayli, and I all found some FABULOUS accessories for an equally fabulous price! We moved on to some "mall shopping" and found a department store that we don't have back home. Matt gave us the grand tour of the campus and town, culminating in a trip to the "only-in-t*e*x*a*s-drive-through daquiri store!" Yep, you heard it right, we drove up to the window and ordered from a menu of frozen concoctions! What did I order? Well, a margarita, of course...I'm on a roll!
By dark, the rain had stopped,  and Kayli was begging to swim in the pool, so she and Matt put on their swimsuits, and we all headed out to the pool. Karen showed me around the clubhouse, while Matt and Kayli took an evening dip in the pool...

you can see the clubhouse with the workout room on the top floor. There's a theatre with big screen for watching games. There's a kitchen, computer room, printers, etc. Outside, there are cabanas and grills, and according to Matt, things get pretty crazy out here when the sun is shining!

back inside, Matt pulled up Netflix and found a long forgotten episode of Land Before Time that we all settled in to watch. Naturally Kayli was thrilled with this and even though a few years have passed since she was immersed in this cast of characters, she just picked up where she left off...

Tomorrow...we're off to Galveston Beach!!!

Happy St. Pat's Day!

Ohhh how I hate to see this Spring Break come to an end! We are having sooooo  much fun!!! Happy St. Pat's Day from the Riverwalk! A quick post before we're off to Happy Hour, head to toe in green! Will fill in the rest of the vacation photos later...

My Handy Dandy Notetaker!

Since we live half our lives in the car, always getting on one interstate or another, to get somewhere quickly, we always seem to be running into traffic jams! If I get on the interstate going one direction and see that it's jam packed on the other side, I will often grab my handy pen and notepad and write a quick "no interstate" note to remind myself not to come back that way. So, recently, we hopped on the interstate and there's the traffic, all bumper-to-bumper, creeping along, on the other side. Well, as I start in with "Just look at that traffic! We are NOT going to come back that way for sure!" Kayli yells "Give me the pen mom!" "I'll make the note!"
and she did...even added a symbol, I guess, in case I couldn't read, haha...