All packed up.......

We're packed up and ready to go.... am soooo looking forward to sipping umbrella drinks by the pool... or gambling... or whatever else my little heart desires.....

BAR will be blogging spuraticly but daily and we are sure to be posting up pics..... we can't wait...


yay!

It begins...........

The countdown begins to destinations unknown.......................

Two more work days left and i am.................   gone............   for a whole week............

Regular blogging will contintue until we head for our super secret vacay....
Cryptic blogging will commence on Monday.............  


oooo  the excitement!

Irony

Heathrow has never been more efficient!  Passengers' glee as border agency strike SPEEDS UP passport control.

Stuff like this just makes me shake my head and chuckle.
It'd be very easy to slip into a long tirade about the inefficiency of government in general, but my blood pressure is where should be right now, and I'd like it to stay there.

.

Just how big IS Texas?

I always laugh when people speak of an hour non-stop commute somewhere to be 'too far' of a drive.  

Growing up in Texas, an hour's drive is nothing, though it won't get you very far across the state percentage wise.

How big is Texas?  Well let's not get all caught up in square miles, etc. etc. etc.  Allow me to speak of it in terms of driving.

If you start out in Jacksonville Florida on I-10 and let's say that you want to drive all the way to Los Angeles, CA, when you hit Houston Texas after about a 13.5 hour drive, you are a little more than half way to LA.

Now, suppose that you stop in Houston and now you're heading West on I-10 your halfway point to LA is now El Paso, Texas, which is another 10.5 hour drive or so., then from El Paso to LA is 11.5 hours.  

If you drive on I-10 from the Texas/Louisiana border to El Paso, you will be on the road for about 12 hours (if you drive straight through).

Now, going from Brownsville, Texas (the very south most tip of Texas) to the northern most Texas town, Perryton, you will be on the road for close to 14 hours.

Now, remember, the speed limit in Texas is for the most part 70mph....   that's pretty far....   Texas is huge!

Trip Photos

Fun was had by all.

That is our beloved Alamo.

Scooter happily posing by a cannon used to defend the Alamo.

The Alamo Barracks in the background, in the foreground is the well.

Me leaning over with Scooter while she feeds a dolphin.

Scooter excited over the dolphin taking the food from her.

This is just too cool not to post.

Shamu jumping.

Shamu giving us a nice view.

toward the end of the day, flamingos feeding.

The Steel Eel.

One tired scooter being carried by Kx59.

It was a long hard day, but oh so much fun.  We have loads of other photos but not going to bore you all with all of them.

The Way It Should Be

What a wonderful morning of sunburn and leg muscle soreness it is!  We spent the whole day at Sea World yesterday and what a day it was.

One thing that took me back a little was that before they open the gates to start letting people in, they silence the crowd and point everyone in the direction of the US Flag and play the National Anthem.  I was surprised and pleased.

San Antonio has a couple of military bases near by and so I figured that was why (saw lots of airmen there yesterday) so I asked the security guard checking our bags before going in, "Does every Sea World play the Star Spangled Banner before they open?"

His reply was a big smile and simply, "Yes ma'am, every one."

I really like that.

I do have to say that places like Sea World, while they make a load of cash off of the animals, etc., they do raise awareness of sea mammals and the more that we learn about these amazing animals, the better off the animals are in the wild.  I don't think that it's any accident that since these types of parks and shows started opening up that awareness and concerns have been raised about the welfare of those mammals in the wild.

It was an amazing day and I will post photos when we get back home.  Scooter and I enjoyed ourselves and Scooter will remember her experience for a life time.  (she got to pet a dolphin)

Today is our last day here.  I'm waiting on Scooter and Kx59 to wake up and then we'll go get some breakfast and go for a walk to down the river a ways and go explore La Villita de San Antonio.

I love staying in hotels..... not

We are in a hotel on the Riverwalk in beautiful San Antonio.

Between my better half flopping around in the uncomfortable bed (we have a tempurpedic at home so the bed is less comfortable than we're used to, plus you can feel every movement your other half makes) and the drunks down the hall coming in using their outside voices at 2:30 this morning, I am one sleepy woman this morning.

It's nice being awake early though because my beautiful granddaughter is sleeping on a roll-away bed close by, no doubt dreaming of peeling cows.  (haha)

If you don't know what I mean by peeling cows go here and read it about it.

Yesterday was a nice drive in, I love the drive between Houston and San Antonio, it's really pretty.  Check in at the hotel was a bit crazy.  My uncle and mom are also on this trip and so a lot going on at the check in kiosk.  Unfortunately, I did a HUGE boo-boo.  I left our the hubby's rather expensive camera sitting at the kiosk in all the confusion.  He was is totally pissed off at me and I feel bad about it.  Naturally no one turned it in, so someone at this fancy hotel has a nice camera.

We went to the Alamo yesterday, been there a gazillion times, but hey, you can't go to San Antonio without going to the Alamo.

Today is Sea World where Scooter and I will have a dolphin encounter.  We'll get to pet a dolphin and have it do a couple of tricks.  Scooter will get a kick out of it.  I will post photos when we get back to Houston.  She is going to be one happy little granddaughter today.

Well, time to wake up the sleepy heads.