The long awaited Vacation blog!

Some of you have seen them through other sources (snapfish/facebook)...but for anyone who has not...this post is for you! We took a week trip down around the Texas Coast/San Antonio for our vacation this summer. I got really sick (virus) on our last 2 days...though Tylenol/Motrin kept me feeling good enough to endure. It was the nights that killed me...I could barely swallow my throat was so sore and I was achey and had fever. I ended up going to urgent care the minute we arrived home just b/c I didn't want it to get worse! Antibiotics and lots of sleep (had to call in sick one day) seemed to help.

We started off our trip by going to a waterpark in a small town of Sheridan called Splashway Water Park. We've been there once a few years ago and have enjoyed it. Then we headed to Corpus and we enjoyed the Texas State Aquarium and USS Lexington while we were there. Our next destination was to Mustang Island State Park where we camped out near the beach. That was pretty much our only really "beach day"...and David's first time at the beach...so we had alot of fun there. However...the mosquitos that reside there are HUMONGOUS (is that a word, really?)!! And there were ant piles near our tent which proved to be very bothersome!!

The next day we weren't really sure what we were going to do...we were scheduled to go to South Padre Island...but they had just had hurricane Dolly come through and we had to call to find out the condition of the place. Our hotel was unharmed and the day before apparently had gotten electricity up and running...so we decided to make the trip. It was pretty boring there actually...but we swam in the hotel pool and rested up from the previous whirlwhind days. There was work crew out at EVERY hotel with huge billboard type trucks screaming "disaster relief". I think our little hotel (~17 rooms) was lucky b/c it is small and not as close to the beach as some of the huge hotels that had windows blown out and such. They were already selling t-shirts that said "I survided Dolly" at the souvenier shops...which were mostly all open already. The beach actually had A LOT of glass in the sand due to broken windows...and A LOT of trash/debris washing up...so we didn't really spend much time there...Sydney just really wanted to go see it...so we stopped to look around before we left for our next destination.

The next day was less than exciting for me. We went to Kingsville...and toured The King Ranch. It was maybe good for a Texas history buff (like JOSH), but not so much for me or the kids I think. Sydney did like looking at the old riding stuff and cars in the museum there...as well as the collection of branding iron brands they had displayed out at the ranch.

Our last 2 days were spent in San Antonio at Sea World and Fiesta Texas. My lil' sis Mauri joined our crew for Fiesta TX and we were so happy to have her with us! Best things we did? Dine with Shamu at Sea World (Syd loved seeing the whale up close and it was a good buffet!), Sundae's with Scooby Doo (and friends), and getting the flash pass for rides at Fiesta TX which saved us a ton of time---well worth the money...and we got them online and I found out at the park that we got the better price...so even more cool!