Family Trip

It is scary trying to drive around a new city with your children depending on you for lunch and you have no idea if you will be able to find a familiar stop before they pass out. However, I have decided to take on this challenge twice per week in order to find new and exciting places to explore. Summer time fun has beckoned me and I'm going to heed the call. So the other day I got smart and packed some emergency lunches for my two kids and headed off on the 30 minute journey towards downtown.

The expressways here in San Antonio reminds me of a high impact rollercoaster, curving around in loops and coming to unexpected slows after speeds of 65 miles per hour. A person can easily be distracted when soaring high into the sky on the bridges of the expressway when the skyline of the city is visible. This is apparent by the huge mass of car paint scraped across the bridges' safety barriers.

I decided to take the children downtown for a stroll through the Riverwalk, this is apparently San Antonio's signature attraction. I've waited four months to gather the courage to drive downtown for this exciting moment. Trying to find parking downtown is crazy. We went on Tuesday at about 11:00 am and trying to find a parking space was still a chore. However, it is well worth this small headache to just be in the hypnotic atmosphere of the downtown area. There are trolley's that adorn the streets, horse drawn carriages, and even a floater cruiser. I won't speak much on these attractions today because I haven't had the pleasure of actually experiencing them, but I will say that they bring a certain beauty to the downtown area that is simply classic.

After the children and I finally found a place to park we began our short walk through the streets of downtown. The city was bustling with activity, there were a group of ladies in colorful square dancing dresses (my apologies for not knowing the formal name for them, but I'm a city girl), families out enjoying lunch on a terrace or sitting outside of cafe's, people arriving at hotels, visiting the many shops and boutiques, and just enjoying the view. The children spotted the Children's Museum and wanted to check it out, so I obliged.

When you walk into the museum the first thing that you see is a red antique looking trolley, and there are children jumping all over it. You can also see what looks like a giant tree house filled with wonderful secret caverns to entice children to want find out what is inside. My four year old daughter couldn't wait to get pass the entry gate to get started playing. At first I felt bad for my son because he is fourteen and I didn't think that he would be happy about having to hang around and watch my daughter having fun while he wasn't. But after we got in past the giant tree house (which is designated for toddlers), there were lots of interesting things for both of us to enjoy. As a matter of fact, I think that my son had a better time than my daughter did. The museum has everything you can concieve a child would want to use there imagination to do. From computers to an archeological dig to being a chef. I enjoyed watching my children pretend to harvest food from a garden and then cook it up for me. My little girl came over to take my order while my son played chef and cooked it up for me. When he was done cooking he brought it over to me and said "BAM!" as though he was Emeril from the Food Network (if anyone is familiar with that). Anyway, as a mom I enjoy little stuff like that. I couldn't believe that I found all of this family fun for just $6.95 per person. I finally looked at the clock, because my stomach was telling me it was time to eat, and noticed that we had been there for hours. So I gathered up my clan and we said so long to the San Antonio Children's Museum (located at 305 E. Houston St. 210-212-4453).

That trip was such a success that I can't wait to get started planning our next adventure. I'm can't wait until I learn enough about this blogging thing to be able to add web links. I welcome tips and suggestions.