San Antonio Fourth of July

While our friends jet-set off to fantastic places like Iceland and Brazil for much more exciting vacations, Ben and I (sans honeymoon) generally save our travel budget for various plane tickets to visit family that is spread all across the South and the West.  This last, long, very hot weekend, was spent in San Antonio, visiting Ben's sister, her husband and their two boys.

Handsome Husband, Adorable Baby

It was a quick visit (I am basically OUT of vacation days, again see Honeymoon), spent mostly drinking water to stay hydrated and finding shady spots to avoid the sun.  In hindsight, visiting the middle of Texas in the middle of summer wasn't our wisest decision ever, but we still managed to have a good time.

Car Seat Photo Montage

Tongues Out!

And, finally, kisses!

We were not the model San Antonio tourists, forgetting the Alamo and other must see sites, requiring a return visit soon.  But we did manage to fit in a decently full day at Sea World, watching the dolphins feed and spending time in the air condition world of the penguins.  We went to see Shamu, of course, and I have to say that I walked away from the show pretty disappointed.  You get their early and sit through what basically amounted to a series of commercials claiming all the good that Sea World does and even one requesting that everyone with a smart phone text some number with the word "world' to donate $5 to their efforts for conserving the oceans.  You know, after you already paid $17 dollars to park and $9 on a soda.  And then the killer whales finally come out, to the soundtrack of some terrible, trying to be inspirational but failing, music.  They do some great tricks, splash quite a bit with their tails and swim around the arena, momma whale with the baby calf in tow.  That part was admittedly fun; however, what I am disappointed in is the trainers and the actual show itself.  Don't they talk about the whales anymore?  What their names are and how their personalities differ?  How they are trained and what they spend their days doing when they aren't in the show?

No idea what this whale's name is... but I wanted to know!

I feel like Sea World really needs to take a look into the quality of their shows.  Teach the kids something!  You have a captive audience, use it for good, not for guilting parents into donating money to some random charity.  Alright, sorry, rant over.  Here's a picture of the world's most smiley baby looking too cute at Sea World:

You are welcome.

Overall, we had a great weekend and got to spend some great time with our adorable nephews, enjoy some of the local cuisine (aka margaritas and other tequila cocktails) and even found some cochitos, which is always a happy win in my book.  We plan to head back soon, when the weather is colder here and we are yearning for a little bit of sunshine and a couple of bottles of Dos Equis.