This summer we took our first family vacation just the 3 of us. All our other vacations so far have included either my family or brent's family so Brent and I were excited about it just being us 3 this time. We started our vaca with donuts at the house then we headed to San Antonio to experience the river walk with Preston.We didn't have a hotel booked when we hit the road but we got lucky and found availability at The Menger Hotel which is an old, historic hotel right across the street from the Alamo. It had a lot of charm and was within walking distance to the river-walk. We read some reviews and came across that the hotel was haunted. I've never stayed at a known haunted hotel before and thought it was fun to know that although I didn't believe anything would happen. When we got back from the River Walk and was getting ready for bed, I was sitting on the bed watching Preston eat donuts when all of a sudden the bedside lamp that was not on suddenly came on. Brent was standing right there but I don't think he noticed. I said to him, "hey, did you just notice this lamp turning on?" He said he didn't notice but thought it had been turned off. I then started to second guess myself because surely the lamp didn't just turn on by itself but I was pretty sure I saw it come on out of the corner of my eye. I told Brent, that was really weird and he agreed. Besides that, nothing else "haunted" related happened but that was enough for me. It did freak me out a little.
That evening after getting checked in, Brent said he was hungry for some mexican food so we headed to the river-walk to see what all was available. We stopped at the first place we saw and sat outside to enjoy all the sights and sounds. Brent and I enjoyed some much needed drinks and Preston loved the chips and queso. After dinner we bought our boat ride tickets and took Preston on his first boat ride down the river. I've never done that before, so that was new for me.
It was fairly hot so after the boat ride we went back to the hotel and hung out on the balcony and watched Preston wave "Hi" to all the people taking a horse and carriage ride. Then we called it a night.
Donuts before we head out
Arrived to The Menger Hotel
Preston checking out the sights of the hotel
Making it known Preston was here
Exploring the halls of the haunted hotel
Visiting the Alamo
Dinner on the River-walk
Brent's new shades
My new shades
Watching the Mariachi Band
Making our way to the river boat
We made it on
Hanging out on the balcony
Waving to all the horse and carriage rides that went by
Is that Preston's haunted ghost...
Kisses for Daddy
A quick donut snack before we go night night
The next morning we loaded up and hopped on over to New Braunfels to spend the day at Schlitterbahn. We took Preston to every kiddie area they had and he loved each and every one of them but probably the most exciting was watching Preston ride a couple of the adult tube rides. I didn't think the park would let anyone less than 48" tall ride anything but they said as long as they rode in their own tube, anyone could go down. So we gave it a shot and Preston did soo good. He held onto the handles of his tube with dear life but yelled "faster, faster" after each little rapid. Brent and I were soo nervous of course but we kept Preston between us and held onto his tube the whole way down. At the new park, they even let little ones ride the open-air body slides that come off the pirate-treasure kiddie play ground. Preston had no fear going down and he absolutely loved it. We finished off the day by watching Preston play at the new park in the submarine kid area. He went down the fast slide over and over again. Such a fun day!!
Loving life at Schlitterbahn
That evening, we continued my family tradition of eating at the Gristmall in downtown Gruene. The wait was 75 minutes but we didn't mind waiting and watching for our name to be written on the massive chalkboard. Brent and I enjoyed a few drinks and Preston had fun exploring all around. When we did make it to our table, Preston was soo exhausted that he sat there pretty quite which is very unusual for him but good for Brent and I. We got to enjoy our dinner and didn't have to handle Preston too much. I got my traditional chicken fried steak with the sliced potato fries and it was as good as I have always remembered. After dinner, I told Brent that I wanted to go to the General Store and let Preston pick out a toy and take a picture of him and Preston sitting on the bar stools with the candy cigarettes like we did the year before with Bub and Jerod. I told him that we were starting a new tradition and I hope we can take a picture there every time we go back to New Braunfels. Preston ended up picking out 2 toy horses that he ended up sleeping with that night, it was too cute!
Tradition staying alive
The next morning we drove back home but first stopped at a well-known BBQ restaurant just outside Austin called Salt Lick. It was really good and a very unique place. After lunch we headed back home to start repacking the car to go camping at Turner Falls. Brent was looking forward most to this part of the vacation and was more than excited to take Preston camping. When we arrived, we found the perfect camp spot and Brent tried to show Preston how to put up the tents but Preston was more interested in finding rocks. After camp was set up, we got our bathing suits on and headed out to play in the big fall and riverbed. I tried taking Preston underneath the fall but it was a little too slippery but we ended up finding the perfect playing spot on the side of the fall. I got to sit and feel the water run over me while Preston threw rocks up the fall while sitting it a little pool of water. After that, we took Preston over to the riverbed and played with him there. He is a big rock fan and had fun throwing more rocks down the river. The sun was starting to go down, so we grabbed a snowcone at the front (because I wanted one really bad) and then headed back to camp to cook dinner. Brent build a small fire and cooked hamburgers for us which were really good.
After dinner we went on a very small hike (too hot and too steep) and Preston got to see a deer for the first time. The deer must be use to all the people because he was frightened at all and just continued eating while we watched him. We had a little more daylight left so Brent took Preston for a ride in the car to cool off and to let Preston drive. Preston loved that and we saw more deer along the way.
Nighttime fell and it was time to get inside the tents and try to sleep. After being in the tents for a little while, I determined it was just too hot for Preston to sleep in those conditions, so Brent let us sleep all night in the car with it running. Such a good hubby!
Leaving our hotel in New Braunfels
Camping Day has arrived
That pretty much concluded our vaca for 2014. I wonder what next year will bring!!
No comments:
Post a Comment