One of the perks of my husband’s job is that we often get to tag along when he has to travel for work, especially in the summer. He was going to be attending a conference in San Antonio the first week of the summer and I knew I didn’t want to stay home. So, we loaded up the car and I planned a week of exciting adventures for the boys and I while dad worked. It was about an 8 hour drive from our house but we broke it up with a few stops and once again the boys were road trip champs (all thanks to the snackle boxes)! We stopped for lunch and a stretch at a new place called HomeRun Dugout in Katy, Texas. Top Golf, except it’s baseball, is the best way I could explain it. The boys loved it, all three of them. I’m happy to report that I didn’t strike out that often but my right forearm was sore for three days. The food was good and the atmosphere was great. There was even a wiffle ball field right in the center that you could pay to play on. The only thing I didn’t really like was the price. That $300 ticket slapped us in the face on the way out. It was fun, but if you plan to do it make sure you budget for it. (Just a half hour of play would probably be enough, and would cost significantly less)
We arrived in San Antonio around 3:00 and checked into our hotel, The Grand Hyatt. The hotel was super nice. It had a few restaurants, a rooftop pool, and connected directly to the river walk. We spent the first afternoon exploring the nearby Hemisfair park with the boys. They had a playground and a splash park. We spent 20 minutes alone in that red spinning chair you see in the picture. We grabbed dinner in the park at Dough Pizzeria and by chance stumbled upon a new love of Burrata. The waitress suggested it, we tried it, and we loved it! We learned that the restaurant was featured on The Food Network and can see why, everything was excellent.
Sunday was dad’s first day at the conference and our first day of adventures on our own. I have learned that if I want to keep these boys from fighting 24/7, I have to keep them busy. Keeping them busy requires me to put on my big girl panties and take them places on my own, even though I don’t like to do that. So, I mentally prepared for this week on my own and Sunday morning we hit the ground running. We started with pancakes in the hotel at Bar Rojo followed by a cannon ball competition at the rooftop pool. My apologies to all the single ladies who were trying to read and relax by the pool. After about two hours we headed to the river walk to find some lunch. We ended up at another pizza place, Fiume Pizzeria. I’ve learned that when given a choice my children will always choose pizza. After lunch, we headed back to the hotel and explored the terrace, the game room, and spent more time at the pool. When dad finished work that evening, we got in the car and headed to The Historic Pearl. The Pearl was one of Texas’s largest breweries from 1883-2001. It has now been transformed into a vibrant neighborhood full of shops and restaurants. It definitely has that old town charm. We had dinner at Southerleigh Brewery, which is housed in the original Pearl Brewhouse. The drinks and dinner were delicious. If visiting without kids you’d want to spend some time in the attached bar, it even has old boiler tanks that they turned into seating! It was raining during our visit, otherwise I think I could have spent hours just walking around and taking in the sights. If we find ourselves back in San Antonio, we will definitely pay The Pearl another visit.
On Monday, dad headed off to another day at work (sorry dad) and we headed to Legoland Discovery Center. Legoland is located in the Shops at Rivercenter which was only a 5 minute walk from our hotel. A few weeks prior while planning the trip I came across the Go City pass which allowed us access to 2,3, or 4 San Antonio area attractions with one pass for one price. It was super simple to use, just scanned the app at the attractions. Legoland was the first attraction that we used the pass for. We opened Legoland at 10 that morning and left around 2 that afternoon. The boys had a blast! We checked out the Lego city, rode a few rides, watched a 4-D movie, and played on the playground. We spent most of our time building Lego cars and testing them on the ramps. I think it was definitely worth the money, it kept my boys entertained for 4 hours and not many places can do that. We headed back to the hotel to rest, change, and wait for dad to get off of work. Once he got off, we headed over to the Tower of the Americas. Using the city pass, we were able to watch a few 4-D movies in the theater (not that impressed) as well as go up to the observation deck. The boys are obsessed with all things tall so I knew they would love the tower. I made reservations on Open Table to eat at Chart House, which is the restaurant at the top of the tower. It slowly spins while you eat so that you get an incredible view of the city. Branden and I had been before but we wanted the boys to experience it too. The food was delicious and you just can’t beat dinner at 750 feet in the air! This was probably the best behaved Baylor has EVER been in a restaurant.
On Tuesday we woke up early enough to be able to have breakfast with dad before he headed off to work for the day. We decided to just walk down the river walk and stop at the first place that looked good. We decided on The River’s Edge Cafe & Patio because we are suckers for a good patio. We all had coffee (or decaf coffee milk) thanks to Grammy starting that bad habit early in our kids :) and shared a couple breakfast items. Then dad headed to work and we headed to the pool, then the splash park, then the playground where we made some friends and played for most of the day. In the evening after work, we let Brooks choose where we had dinner and his request was spaghetti and meatballs. We walked the riverwalk in search of Italian and came across Paesanos. The sign on the door said reservations only but my sweet husband seems to be able to sweet talk his way into anything, and they sat us right away. I know I‘ve said that everything in this blog so far was delicious, you can tell that I’m not too hard to please, but I mean it this time when I say it was DELICIOUS. Run here, don’t walk, and get the Shrimp Paesano. Once my kids were finished their spaghetti bath, I mean dinner, we grabbed ice cream next door at Justin’s to reward them for their excellent restaurant behavior.
On Wednesday dad headed to his last day of work and we used our go city pass again to get our learning on at the Witte Museum. I saw online that they had dinosaur bones and thought it would be interesting for the boys. We couldn’t walk here but it was a short 7 minute freeway drive. The boys enjoyed looking at the exhibits, digging for dino bones, and going into the science treehouse. After an hour or so, they were bored with it. They just don’t have the attention span to last longer at a place like this. I am glad we did it though. I really wanted to go to the Doseum, which is a pretty epic children’s museum a few minutes down the road from the Witte but it wasn’t an option on our go city pass and I was trying to save some money. If we had spent one more day in the city, we would have went there. After the Witte we made a stop a HEB for some snacks before heading back to the hotel for some more pool time. When dad finished up work we walked to the Alamo for a quick visit, went inside the supposedly haunted Emily Morgan hotel, then let Baylor choose the dinner place for the night. His choice was Rainforest Cafe. They loved the animals and the fancy cups but the food was nothing special, just another chain restaurant. What was special was that our Uncle Matt (who was also in town for the conference) joined us for dinner and we had a great evening spending time with him. We headed in early to rest up because now dad was off of work and we planned to end this trip with a visit to SeaWorld!
We spent Thursday as a family and I was happy to have my wingman back! Entertaining these boys can be quite exhausting. We started the morning with a quick google for “coffee near me” and landed at Commonwealth Coffeehouse. This was the cutest little coffeehouse situated in a renovated old house which to my surprise overlooked the splash park! The very splash park I had brought my kids to three times this week! I could have been drinking coffee here all week! We sat on the patio sipped our coffee and fancy hot chocolate, and pouted because we wished we would have found this place sooner. I mean check out the picture of those lattes! After breakfast we headed to SeaWorld, it was the last attraction on our city pass. It was Branden and the boys first time and I hadn’t been since I was a kid! We saw the dolphins, beluga whales, and orcas. We rode Journey to Atlantis at least 10 times. We tried to coax Brooks onto the large roller coasters while trying to comfort Baylor because he wanted to go but wasn’t tall enough. Around 4:00 Brooks decided he wasn’t scared anymore and the adrenaline junkie in him showed his face. I could still hear him screaming “ Oh yeah, Oh yeah!”. We rode everything we could until 6:30 when mom and dad just couldn’t go anymore. I had sacrificed my socks to Baylor so that he wouldn’t get blisters and I was paying for it! The boys were sad to leave which I’ll take as a sign of a great day.
I’m typing this as we drive home because we filled our days with so much fun that I have to type it all before I forget the details! I’m sad that Branden didn’t get to join in on all the fun but we are lucky we get to tag along with him to have these experiences. RIP to Baylor’s red glasses, they are lost somewhere in San Antonio and we are now in the market for new frames. Can’t wait to be home to relax and rest up for the next place we bring the boys!
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