Merry Christmas!! I know it's very late. But I was busy. Nathan's mom, dad, sister and grandmother came out from PA to spend Christmas with us. We had a great time together. We opened presents and even went to Waffle House for a late breakfast. We cooked turkey and all the fixin's. Courtney loved having Grandma and Grandpap here. She also got the most presents I think. She still has some toys that haven't been opened yet. It was so wonderful to see family, and just hang out together.
The day after Christmas, Courtney and I flew down to San Antonio to visit my parents and older sister. We were also able to have a short visit with my Grandmother, who was also there visiting my parents. She left a couple days after we arrived, but it was great to see her.
My mom had been checking out different things we might like to do while we were there. On our to do list was, feed the deer at an Army base (or post, if you prefer), the Alamo and riverwalk downtown, a tea party with friends we knew from Japan, Seaworld, the San Antonio Zoo, a few movies and a Safari drive.
First was the tea party complete with tea cups and scones. This is not an unusual event in our house. My mom has a friend who lived in England, and introduced her to teas, she fell in love with it, and now when an opportunity presents itself, we have a tea party. No we don't typically dress up, or talk with British accents or drink with our pinkies out. It was basically a breakfast with tea, but more fun.
Next, we went downtown to the Alamo and the riverwalk. We walked around a bit, and took a horse pulled carriage ride. Courtney loved the horse. Not surprising, she loves all animals. We finished the day by eating at the Rainforest Cafe. Again, another one of Courtney's favorites.
On Monday our destination was Seaworld. However, God had other plans for us that day. As we were turning into Starbucks (yummy), my mom had almost no brakes on their van. The brake petal went all the way to the floor. So my mom called my dad (who was at work), and then called Midas (they had their brakes done there just 2 weeks before), and we waited for a tow truck. After about an hour of waiting, the tow truck showed up, and we realized all four of us, my mom, sister, Courtney and me, were not going to fit in the tow truck. So my sister took Courtney to go get some lunch and my mom and I went to Midas with the van. After discovering the problem with the van and finding out it would take 3-4 hours to fix, my mom rented a car to go pick up Courtney and Kristin.
After we had told Courtney we were going to go see animals, she was wondering why she was now wandering around Walmart with Aunt Kristin. So we decided to take her to Ft Sam Houston Quadangle, which has deer you can feed for free. (Ft Sam is an Army post where deer live, it still seems strange to me too.) That was actually a lot of fun. The older deer were eating right out of our hands and didn't seem to alarmed by us being there. The younger deer were a little more skittish, and would only eat the bread we threw on the ground. We made it home just in time to hear the van would take another 2 hours to fix, and Midas was closing for the night. So that meant another day in the rental car.
We decided to go to Seaworld in the morning. I've been to Seaworld in Orlando back when I was like in 4th or 5th grade. I remembered so much from that trip that I was really looking forward to going again. I love dolphins. I always have, and probably always will.
We made it to Seaworld without any problems, thanks to our nice rental car. There are a few theme parks such as Seaworld, Busch Gardens and Sesame Place, that have something called, "Here's to our Heroes." With an active duty or dependent military ID, you can get in these parks for free once a year. I'm not sure how long they will continue doing this, but they have done it for the past few years. I also know they are doing it for 2009. So, Courtney and I were free. For more information, www.herosalute.com.
Our first stop at Seaworld was, can you guess... Dolphin Cove. For those of you who have never been to Seaworld, Dolphin Cove is a huge pool that has about 13 dolphins in it that you can feed and pet. Every hour, the dolphin staff puts together a certain amount of fish trays for guests to buy. When those sell out, you have to wait until the next hour to feed the dolphins. So you buy little fish and hold them over the side of the pool and the dolphins come right up to you and eat the fish, and if you are fast enough, you can pet them. I could have easily stayed there the whole day just watching them swim. Out of the 13, there were 4 babies and they were so funny. They did not want to be petted, they just wanted the fish. It seemed like their motto was, 'grab as many fish as possible before this feeding time is over.' But the older ones were more affectionate and were willing to wait for the next fish while you petted her. After we ran out of fish, we decided we should move on to make sure we made it to all the other shows and animals. Reluctantly, I followed everyone else.
We then went to the sea lion show. That was very cute, but a little short. I would have loved to see more. Next was the Shamu show. We didn't want to miss this. We got good seats, and waited for the show to start. If you've never seen a killer whale in person, then you are missing out. (On a side note, killer whales or Orcas, are not whales, but dolphins. In fact whales aren't really whales at all. There are no guidelines to define what a whale is. For more information, and maybe more confusion, check our www.dolphincommunicationproject.org. You can find the differences between whales and dolphins under About Dolphins - FQA. As well as, why whales aren't whales.) Now where was I? Oh yes, killer whales are another one of God's amazing animals, and another personal favorite of mine. I'm not sure what Courtney was expecting, even though we kept telling her we were going to see Shamu, she was just happy to be eating popcorn at the time. Then the killer whales came out jumping and splashing and showing off, and Courtney was hooked. She couldn't stop smiling and anticipating what was coming next. They say Disney is the happiest place on earth, but I disagree, Seaworld is the happiest place on the earth. If you ever go, take a minute to stop and look at all the people watching any one of the shows at Seaworld, and just see how many smiles you see. I am already planning my trip back and saving up, so I can feed the dolphins to my heart's content.
The Shamu show was amazing. Complete with a baby killer whale showing off his hard learned tricks. They are truly graceful and very powerful. The showed ended with 3 killer whales doing jumps in sync and then posing with their tales in the air and mouths open on their respective platforms, almost like they were smiling. Words cannot express the excitement I felt being there and seeing these wonder creatures and their trainers interact.
We got some lunch and wandered around and looked at a few of the other animal exhibits. The next show was the Beluga whale show. This was an incredible show. Not only were there beluga whales, but also pacific white-sided dolphins, professional high divers, and synchronized swimmers, all working together to put on a show worth watching. Even more special was one of the beluga whales was a mommy, and her little baby followed her everywhere she went. It was so sweet.
We finished off our day at Seaworld by going back to Dolphin Cove to feed the dolphins again. We spent more money on little dead fish, than we spent on food for ourselves. It was totally worth it, and I would do it again in a heart beat. I was so sad leaving, but because my parents live so close, we will be able to come back soon.
While I was in San Antonio, I was able to meet up with a friend from high school. We were cheerleaders together, and it was so great to see her again. She just got a job as a level 3 NICU nurse, and I am so proud of her.
Happy New Year!! Again, I know I'm a little late. We spent new years eve not doing much, just hanging out at home.
Next on our to do list was the San Antonio Zoo. It was a nice zoo, not to small and not to big. They were doing construction, so I will be interested in seeing it after they are finished. We saw lions and tigers and kangaroos, oh my! There was a sign pointing to which direction the different animals were located, and the sign said lions, tigers, kangaroos this way. I thought it was funny.
The next day, we went on a Safari. However, it could have been more fun, but we went on a Saturday, and they were really busy. But we did get really close to a lot of animals. A Llama even ate out of my hand. I have discovered, I am not a bird person. There were ostriches and emu's wandering around freely, and anytime one came close to me, I put my window up. The people in the car in front of us, were letting them eat out of their hands. Sorry, but no thank you. I'll stick to stinky fish and dolphins.
In between going to all these places, we also went to the movies. We saw, Marley and Me, Yes Man and The Tale of Despereaux. We also rented The Duchess and Eagle Eye. To say the least, we had a very eventful and fulfilling trip. It was great. And I am most happy to say, that there were no issues or delays with our flights either.
We are very happy to be home, even though we've been back for almost a week, it has just taken me a while to blog. I hope everyone is having a great 2009! God Bless!!
