Our wild San Antonio adventure

Hanging out at the Children's Museum

Dad went to Atlanta for a long weekend visit, so we hit the road to adventure. Really, we just went to San Antonio. But it was very fun.

We headed down bright and early Saturday morning. Our first stop was the Children's Museum. We are regulars there -- one of the staff members even recognized us. She seems to really enjoy Hazel.

Anyway, there was a special program this time. An architect talked to us in a special room. He talked about making cities prettier and more useful places, then we all worked with the architect's interns who helped us decorate cartons to look like buildings. Hazel and Turner worked with our intern, while I was stuck with Mom. Turner was happy to decorate the floor with Sharpies and glue foam pieces to a piece of paper. Hazel was excited to have any craft project on her hands. In the end, I snuck off to hold court with another couple of interns and the head of the museum's special programs. I told them all about where we live, our address and how to get there from San Antonio.

Our friend from the zoo

We enjoyed the rest of the museum as usual before heading off to a new destination -- a hotel! This was no ordinary trip; it was an overnight visit! We were excited because we knew our hotel had an indoor pool, so first thing after we checked in, we put on our swimsuits and headed back to the first floor. Unfortunately, even though it was inside, the pool was ice cold. So Mom got in the hot tub and let us put our toes in. We kept trying to sneak in until she told us we'd turn into kid soup if we got into the hot water.

After a nice bath, we headed out again, this time to another new destination, an awesome restaurant called Cerroni's Purple Garlic. It was an Italian place, and we were excited about pizza and eggplant parmesan. We were greeted at the door by a "kids eat free" sign and after ordering, headed outside for an even better surprise -- a HUGE sand pit loaded with other kids. Mom was happy we could run off and play while she enjoyed some nice jazz music and her food.

Zoo train

Our night at the hotel was uneventful. We had one king size bed and Turner had trouble settling down at first since he hasn't spent a whole night in a bed with the rest of us before. But after that we slept soundly until about 5:00 a.m., when Turner woke up with a cold.

About an hour later, we headed to HEB bright and early for some Tylenol for Turner, then wolfed down a big hotel breakfast before heading out to our next fun stop -- the zoo! We got there right when it opened so it wasn't crowded, we had a front row parking space, and the animals were all wide awake. I wanted to see the zebras, and at first they were in a pen. But then we saw a guy go in, open up their gate, and then the two zebras ran out full speed into their larger area to chase some antelope and some strange large birds. The guy also let a warthog into the large area, who also seemed happy to be free.

The car ride back to Austin

Hazel and Mom were excited to see the monkeys. We got there at the right time for that because they were eating their breakfast of lettuce, radishes and other veggies. They all seemed to really like carrots.

Two other things that were neat were the crocodiles and hippos. We watched one of the hippos go from the land into the water and blow a big underwater air bubble. The hippo lifted up its feet and floated, and we learned that a hippo going from one place to another is no small feat. Turner really liked the fish in the hippo tank.

Hazel made up a game called "Home Team"

We saw a baby dwarf croc go from swimming to land, and had a great view of a huge Nile croc who was underwater with only a tiny bit of its snout poking out of the water. It was really impressive.

Turner was really into all of it. Mom thinks he likes the zoo more than any of us. 


After the zoo, we took a train ride around the park before heading home. When we got in the car, we told Mom we had fun in San Antonio. The next time she looked back at us, we were all asleep, a sign Mom took to mean that the weekend was a success.

Turner was in charge

When we got home, it was a gorgeous afternoon so we enjoyed our backyard. It felt good to be back in Austin.

It was a great weekend adventure, and we were glad to see Dad when he came back Tuesday.

To see how much fun we had, click here.