Steve and I had the privilege to take a little mini holiday the other week. Our original plans for our 5 year anniversary (which we celebrated on February 17) was to go on a warm destination (think Jamacia, Cancun, etc.), but once we found out we were expecting...I didn't really want to do that kind of destination knowing that I couldn't fully enjoy (and Steve probably wouldn't enjoy a pregnant wife in a bikini :) ). I did some research and we decided to visit San Antonio, Texas. Both of us wanted to see Texas so this was a perfect opportunity.
It was cheaper for us to fly into Phoenix and stay the night, than it was to fly direct to San Antonio. We thoroughly enjoyed our 12 hours in Phoenix and can't wait to go back (not to mention that the weather was awesome!).
We decided to go and watch the Calgary Flames play the Phoenix Coyotes. Want to know how to make a grown man cry out of excitement. Accidentally book a hotel that is directly across the road from his favourite store - Cabela's :) Steve was one happy man!
We also decided to splurge for the 12 hours and rented a Camaro. It felt pretty "ritzy" to be in it, but Steve's Mustang has a lot more "push" to it than the Camaro does.
While in San Antonio, we did many things. The weather wasn't the greatest...it was cold! (in fact, there was a day that it was warmer in Lloydminster than where we were!!!!). But we made do and had a fantastic, relaxing couple of days. It was so nice to be able to sleep in and eat whenever we want...not to mention, eat hot food!! :)
We visited the Alamo (which is a must see in San Antonio - it's that important piece of history that we knew nothing about...and almost still feel like we know nothing about. But you still have to go through it and read everything...because....well you just do!) :)
We headed to the Natural Bridge Caverns one day. I so wish that I could remember EVERYTHING that the tour guide told us...especially, with how far under the ground we were....but I can't. What I can tell you, is that the day that we did the Caverns (and from there we went to the Natural Park), was probably our most enjoyable day. The caverns are amazing to look at (it is all natural!)! On kinda of a different note...I was super thankful for my bootcamps during this tour. It was a 3/4 mile tour and we had to do a lot of climbing....thankfully, this pregnant momma didn't run out of breath!
From the Caverns, we drove to the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch. I wasn't sure if this would be something that Steve would enjoy, but I'm sure if you asked him to tell you all about it...his face would light up as he told you about the crazy Ostrich's! We enjoyed our time so much, that we decided to drive through twice.
At the Wildlife Ranch, you drive your vehicle through the ranch. They give you bags of animal food and you can toss the food out to the animals (some come right up to the vehicle....or in the vehicle as you will see in the following pictures). You drive along at your own pace and are allowed to drive through it as many times as you want. Most of the animals in the Wildlife Ranch are different varieties of deer (or they looked like the deer family at least!), zebras, mini donkeys, cows, and our favourite - the ostriches.
This little guy, just dazed up at us....he almost had this hangover look going on.
As you will be able to tell in the following pictures...one of the rules is you are NOT to feed the animals from your hands...you are to TOSS the food onto the ground. NO ONE obeys that rule..incuding the animals :)
Check out those horns!
Sorry for the dark photo's! This little guy would have climbed in I'm sure if his horns didn't keep getting in the way!
And then we got to the crazy Ostrich's!!!
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| Don't they just look sycho! |
They aren't very patient birds at all. And there peck I'm sure has got to hurt! We thought that they would be delicate creatures...goodness NO! They went after that animal food like they hadn't been fed ever! And when Steve wasn't putting food on the paper fast enough...they would look at him square in the eyes (keep in mind, their head is in our vehicle) with this look of...give me food or I'll peck your eyes out! :) It was hilarious! I wish that I had gotten video of the first ostrich cuz it was def the most crazy one out of all of them.
And then the precious - ugly - mini donkeys came along. Amazing that they know to tilt their head while I dropped the food in.
At the end of the ranch are the giraffe's. They are penned up...so you aren't able to feed them. The one on the left is a baby that was born in May 2011 (so I suppose, not really a baby anymore). The one on the right is the momma. They were so very tall!
Our last day in San Antonio, we headed down to Corpus Christie to tour through the USS Lexington. It is a retired fighter ship. Both Steve and I agreed that Steve's dad, Bob, would love this tour! You go through it at your own pace, and one wouldn't think you could last 3 hours...which we did and we still didn't go through it all! The most amazing part of it for me was standing at one end of the ship and seeing the other end. I have a whole new appreciation for fighter pilots that take off and land on these ships. There really isn't a lot of room for error at all!
Our final night, we finally took the Riverboat tour. We stayed one block from the Riverwalk...which is another must if you are visiting San Antonio...we always walked to our meals! Steve was a good sport and let me take/drag him on the Riverboat...but in the end, he loved it (it helped that we had a great boat driver!). The Riverwalk was very pretty during the winter...I can't imagine what it would have been like to see it in the Summer (amazing I'm sure!).
We had a great vacation and celebrated Valentine's and our 5 year anniversary while there.
I am so blessed to have such an amazing and fun husband!
Happy Tuesday!
