Day 4, A Day in San Antonio

Today we got another late start, as we had another great morning of sleeping in and lounging around. I think Marlon's mom Esther thinks it's horrible that we've been sleeping late, but you all know how busy we've been the last few months that it is such a joy for us to have so much unscheduled time and to have the time and luxury to sleep in and RELAX. It's been just what we needed!

We finally left the house around 1 p.m. and drove the 40 minutes or so to downtown San Antonio. We walked through the Alamo, which we had been to before, and had a light lunch at an authentic Texas diner "hole in the way" across the street from the Alamo. It was the best grilled cheese sandwiches and chili cheese fries that we've ever had!

Then we did some very touristy, almost "cheesy" stuff that we hadn't done before and that was great fun. We went through this "mirror maze" (kind of like a corn maze, but mirrors.) Then we went to the Wax Museum and had fun looking at all the very realistic looking wax figures. The haunted house portion in the basement was fun and scary too! Harrison couldn't believe the one of Arnold Schwarzzenager because instead of being him as our esteemed governor of California, it was him as The Terminator! He didn't realize he was a movie star before being governor and especially a star of that kind of movie.

Then we went to the Ripley's Believe it Or Not Museum, which was very interesting. We enjoyed the various exhibits, especially the big Titanic exhibit.

We finished off the afternoons with snow cones on the plaza.

Then we drove about a half an hour to the other side of San Antonio to meet everyone for dinner--- Jody (Marlon's sister), Meme (grandmother), Bernie and Esther, and Marlon's cousin Lisa and her mom Anita (Marlon's aunt). It was great to spend time with Lisa and Anita, who we usually only see once when we come to Texas.

After dinner all of us (except for Lisa and Anita) went to a show that was the culmination performance of a three week summer camp for deaf middle and high school students. It was a dance show with skits mixed in. Jody knew some of these kids from her school (Jody is a principal.) It was a really interesting and enjoyable show and we were glad we went. It's amazing how these kids can dance when they only feel the vibrations of the music but they can't hear it.

We finished off the evening with ice cream cones at Baskin Robbins. Then we came home, everyone put on their pj's and read for 1/2 hour, and now the kids (and Bernie and Esther) are asleep, Marlon's watching tv and I'm at the computer.

I seem to have SOOOO much more time for blogging while on vacation because I don't have all of my other usual activities/chores/responsibilities that I need to handle.