Anniversary Weekend....

Anniversary Weekend ...

Chad and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary on July 24th. We decided to plan a small trip to San Antonio for the weekend of the 25th. We had planned to drive down early Saturday morning and come back Sunday evening. I reserved a room at the Menger Hotel for Saturday night. Friday afternoon, Chad called and asked if I wanted to leave that night. I was all for it. When I got off work, we hurriedly packed and we were off. Now, I know most Anniversary celebrations are suppose to be just a husband and a wife trip, well we decided to take our children, plus a friend of Ashley’s. Ashley and her friend were going to go to Fiesta Texas all day Saturday. The trip down was nice. We did have to pull over once to feed Chase and give him a small break from the car seat. He did fairly well. It was late by the time we reached San Antonio. Now, we had to find a hotel/motel room for the night. We searched and searched and everywhere we looked the signs were posted “NO VACANCY”. We were surprised. It seemed like the whole city of San Antonio was booked out. We must have stopped at 20 different hotels. We were not going to give up. About 2 am, we finally found a room. The room was a double but clearly they were having some repairs done in the bathroom. It was scary turning on the light in the bathroom because the NOISEY fan would come on also. The fan was UNCOVERED and dropped black pieces of filth on your head while using the potty. The beds however were so comfortable! We slept till about 8:30am. We then got up and ate at a little Mexican Burrito place. The prices were very cheap and the food was fantastic. After leaving the Mexican burrito place, we drove Ashley and her friend to Fiesta Texas. The drive was very nice. It was very scenic. There were lots of shopping places along the way too. One day when I have some money, just to spend, I may go back and do just that! Dropping off the girls was quick and easy. I had my mind set that we would have to wait through a long line of cars and have to pay some type of fee. THAT WAS not the case. The park actually has a drop off and pick up place. It was an easy in and an easy out. Of course, I checked to make sure Ashley had all she needed.(money and coupon, to get in at kid price. That was the special, everyone pays kids price. After dropping off the kids, Chad, Chase and I drove to the Menger hotel. The hotel is located right behind the Alamo and connected to the River Center Mall. It was established in about 1856. Very historical. The inside is decorated so lovely. They have lots of OLD furniture decorating the halls. The rooms are very nice also. We had two full beds. The entrance of the room opened up to a counter topped mirrored wall facing the door. The bathroom was to the left of the counter. You had to go around the wall to get to the beds. It was so lovely. I don’t know how we managed this, but our room had a balcony that overlooked the whole pool area. JUST BEAUTIFUL. There were about 2 rooms with this view, ours and the one next to us. Not all the rooms had balconies. We were impressed. Another neat thing, Any where you parked in downtown San Antonio, you would have to pay a fee. Well, we were able to pay our fee at the hotel and enjoy the benefit of valet parking! Nice. I am not rich nor do I pretend to be but that was nice.
Chad and I got ready to go to the River Walk with Chase in his stroller. We walked down to the Buckhorn Saloon Museum. It is a historical museum that tells of the Texas Rangers and also has ROOMS of stuffed animals from around the world. It was kind of like walking through a zoo without the fear of being eaten alive because there were no barriers. Chase was very captivated by the stuffed animals. The Texas ranger part of the museum was FANTASTIC. They have it set up like an old west town. They had a Pony Express/Newspaper office where the people would type up stories for their paper and also send off boys to deliver the mail! Dangerous job!
The ad called for wiry, gangly boys under the age of 18 to run the pony express! They had a sheriff’s office that held a sleeping prisoner. Wanted posters were posted all over the walls. One poster was “Wanted Dead or Alive, Jesse James, $25,000.00 Reward”.
Another, “Wanted, Dead or Alive, Billy the Kid, $5000.00 Reward”. It was great. They also had a livery stable that advertised renting a horse or horses for a day, week or month. There was a bath stop, 25 cents, soap and towels free! It was a very awesome place. There were wax people in different scenes with a button to push to hear about the history of what was taking place. There were pictures with writings beside them telling the history of how Stephen F Austin and others founded Texas. I loved this.
The museum had a little restaurant and Chad and I ate there. There was a man there with his guitar playing old trail songs and even so modern country songs (George Straight, All my ex’s live in Texas). He also did “Deep in the Heart of Texas”.
Chad, Chase and I strolled back to the hotel to rest. Around 6:oo, our hotel phone rang and Ashley was ready to be picked up. We drove back to get the girls. Once in the car, they told us that the gate person had made them pay full price to get in, ($15 dollars more than kids price). The guy at the gate had taken advantage of the girls. When Ashley asked about it, he totally ignored her. I was angry about that. They also had to buy a locker to place her friends purse in. All the $13 dollar lockers were taken and they had to purchase an $18 locker. The locker machine took their money the first time. Ashley explained this to the locker keeper. He told them that was too bad and made them pay $10 more for the locker. They lost a lot of money that day!!! They ended up putting what little money they had left together to buy supper and a drink. I thought about calling the park and complaining but let it go. It was done. The girls had a great time anyway. It was just HOT and they tired quickly!
Sunday morning, we walked the River Center mall and stopped at Starbucks. We walked lots and decided to go down to the River walk for Lunch. We ate at Casa De Rio. After lunch, we drove back to Waco. Our trip was great. After resting a while, we met Chad’s sister and family at Golden corral for supper. They came down from Africa. We had a great visit. My nieces and nephew have grown so tall! It was so nice to see them. Our anniversary weekend was great!