Nick and I were planning on taking a cruise at the end of February. It was going to be our first cruise. But as I'm sure you all know, the Carnival Triumph had a few issues (such as getting stranded in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico & having to be towed back to shore) & so our cruise was cancelled. We still wanted a vacation but since I had to plan it last minute, flights were going to be so expensive. So we ended making a 3 hour drive to San Antonio.
Living in Texas my whole life (& Nick almost all of his life), we've both been to San Antonio more times than we can count. So we decided that for this vacation we wanted to do some fun activities that we had never done before.
Thursday night we checked into our hotel & then walked over to the Riverwalk. We walked around a bit, ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant (where I was attacked by a duck) and then walked over to the River Center mall where we did some shopping. And on the way to the mall, we stopped outside the Alamo & snapped a few pictures. (Because you can't go to San Antonio without seeing the Alamo, right!)
On Friday, we drove to Fredericksburg & hiked Enchanted Rock. I was a little skeptical when we got there. I mean how much fun could it be to walk to the top of a hill, right? Well, it was lots of fun.
We took the trail that goes straight to the top. It was a pretty tough climb!
But worth the stunning view!
Then we went ventured off the trail on our way down & climbed all over the place. We climbed over boulders & bushes & saw lots of cool cacti (or is it cactuses.) We had a blast!
We had to drive back through Fredericksburg to go back to San Antonio, so we stopped for a late lunch & walked around & shopped a little. And we stopped in the Vereins Kirche Museum. It has a replica of what the town looked like in the 1800s. And the docent inside was super cool. He had been a German interpreter during WWII and well he was pretty impressed that I could count to 10 in German. (Don't believe me, well I can...eins, zwei, drei, vier, funf, sechs, sieben acht, neun, zehn.) And when I told him that my mother's maiden name was Roeder, he told me that in German, that means "wheel man."
And while we were in Fredericksburg, I bought some chocolate covered bacon. I tried it that night back at the hotel. It was ummm... Not that great!
On Saturday, we went to the Natural Bridge Caverns. Again, I didn't know what to think, but I have to say that I was pretty impressed. It was a really cool experience.
And I got some awesome pictures.
And see this hole. This is one of the mine shafts that they originally drilled to find the cavern. And they have tours where you actually repel down the mine shaft into cavern & then you get to go in the restricted parts & look around. Sounds super cool! Nick & I definitely want to try that sometime.
When we were done at the caverns, we drove north to Gruene & ate lunch at the Gristmill (which Nick had never been to!) And then it was on the the Outlet Malls in San Marcos where we spent too much time & too much money!
It was late when we got back to the hotel & we were starving. So we walked over to Mi Tierra in Market Square for dinner.
The food was yummy & the decor was groovy!
We tried to go on the zip line & Canopy Challenge obstacle course on Saturday while we were at the Natural Bridge Caverns, but someone (who was not Nick) was wearing flip flops and you had to have closed toe shoes for that. So on Sunday, we went back to the caverns before we headed home.
They don't allow you to have anything in your pockets when you're on the course, so we don't have any pictures of us zip lining. I'm going to be honest with you, I was a little scared to do the zip line. I was first & as I walked up to the platform, my brain was like, "There's no way I'm letting you jump off this thing!" But then the girl told me to sit down & the harness held me & I felt much better. I sat & she pushed me & then it was just like a ride. I don't think I would have been able to go through with it if I would have had to jump though.(Guess I won't be trying skydiving anytime soon!)
Nick didn't really care for the obstacle course, so he got off of it early & was able to get a few pictures of me on it. I thought it was ok. A fun experience, but not worth doing it again.
We had a great weekend in San Antonio. It was no cruise, but Nick & I always have fun together no matter what we do! (And that's why we're still happily married after 11 1/2 years! I sure do love that man!)
