Our Last-Minute Mini-Vacation to San Antonio

If you follow, you are aware that I am a planner! We actually had a conference planned for this weekend... until last weekend. Several things lead up to our deciding not to go, but that's not what's really important. What's important is that I found this awesome townhouse in Alamo Heights where we were able to stay for LESS than the little camping cabin where we were supposed to be staying.

So Thursday morning, we drove down. We stopped in Gruene first to have lunch at The Gristmill.

We loved the country store. James picked out a salsa, I got some amaretto honey pecan butter, and Daphne got a toy to share with the cats and a puzzle. Then we drove on to the snake farm where I'd taken Daphne about ten years ago. It's grown, but not too much. It was so nice to have some pretty up close and personal interactions with the animals. I think it's been D's favorite thing so far, and maybe all of ours. I will say that after about ten minutes in the snake houses, Mal was freaked out and ready to be outside.

We had a laid-back evening, and visited the Witte Museum yesterday. D straight-up saved a bird's life. It was little, and it was "stuck" on a rooftop garden area. She sat with it a long time because it was quite terrified of people being around. Eventually, it let D pick it up and once it was held up higher than the concrete walls, it could see the trees and flew up to one. It was a good 30-minute process. D is definitely the animal whisperer.

Mal liked everything. Like, he gets into something and never wants to stop ever. So there might have been some crying and fits and stuff, but eventually I got over it and acted like the mom again. I think James really enjoyed the Splendor of the Range exhibit.

After the museum, we walked over to Koi Kawa Japanese Restaurant for some sushi. We came "home" for a nap and to unwind a bit, then later got back out to Cheesy Jane's for dinner. Well, James had dinner. I just got a peanut butter and jelly malt. It was fabulous. Fun place, too.

We let Daphne have this morning "off" (read: she slept) while we took Mal to The DoSeum. Yeah, it was full of 0-10-year-olds and D would have hated it, but Mal LOVED it. We spent a good two and a half hours there, maybe longer, and Mal actually fell asleep nursing in this room that made it look (and sound) like you were under the ocean waters. 

We took our fate into our own hands and attempted lunch out immediately after that, and it turned out not too bad. We ate at The Pig Stand and had the obligatory pig sandwich, but we actually ADORED the patty melt even more. Mal had a blueberry corn dog (yeah), of which he ate little, with a scrambled egg - he devoured - and apple sauce. He napped long and hard when we got home.

Later, with Mal in the stroller, I walked to Whataburger to get breakfast/lunch for D, and otherwise, we've just had a quiet afternoon in. That's one reason it's nice to be in an apartment/house instead of a hotel. We can go outside and look for cats or walk around the yard. The neighborhood is cute, and everything is amped up for Fiesta. It makes me wish we were here next weekend to experience it... maybe. If it's like SXSW in Austin, maybe not. But it seems like a very neat celebration, and we're loving all of the decorations.

Tomorrow, we're going to try to get to the zoo. We're kind of winging it, which is both weird for a vacation involving me, but also necessary because our kid gets overstimulated very easily and needs some serious down time. The younger one, I mean. Well, and my husband. And the older kid needs *a lot* of down time.

Oh, and an update: In the past week or so, Mal has started trying to imitate words. He'll say "pizza" now ("dee-dah") and today mimicked my saying "Don't die!" when he was climbing on furniture. He just smiled and said, "Die!" over and over. Then later, in the bath, he noticed a mound of bubbles. When I said, "I see all of those bubbles!" he said, "bah-bah!" and did THAT over and over again, too. He also tried to say "muffin," which was "mah-mah" which almost sounds like "mama," which he will also say on occasion now. It's just all of a sudden that he has an interest in repeating sounds like that. Pretty fun, and he's super proud of himself.