Sea World

We had the absolute best time at Sea World in San Antonio! My parents met us for the San Antonio portion of our trip. It was the perfect day. Just a little overcast so it wasn't too hot and no one got burned. We went on a Thursday while the schools were still in so there were no crowds. It was nice.


I'm not for sure if we could pick what our absolute favorite part was. The first thing we did was go to the bottle nose dolphin tank where we could buy dead fish and then feed them to the dolphins. The kids loved this and would have just stayed here all day and skipped the rest of the park (of course they had no idea what else was out there).

We then visited the Lorikeet exhibit where Grandpa bought nectar so we could go in and feed them.
The dolphin show was fun.

The kids rode the Shamu roller coaster several times!

But our very favorite had to be the Shamu show. We actually made it for both performances. The first show had 3 killer whales which was fun, but the second show had 5 killer whales and it was very impressive. They did all sorts of jumps and tricks. The most amusing part was when they all came over to one side to splash the audience. I'm sure it would not have been as amusing to us if we had been in the splash zone, but the people were warned.

My kids are already asking when we are going to go again. I think next time we might plan for 2 days at the park because we barely made it to every show, rode a couple kiddie rides, saw all the exhibits and ate lunch and still didn't make it to any of the big rides. One day is not quite enough.

If you are ever in San Antonio, we would highly recommend going to Sea World. It was great fun!

Dolphin Watch Nature Tour

One of our favorite activities on Port Aransas was to go on a Dolphin Watch Nature Tour.

Here we are waiting to get on the boat.


This picture is here purely to document that I was indeed on this vacation. And that my hair type does not agree with humid, salty wind.

We actually asked a man on the boat to take a picture of our family together at the front of the boat. You could see the water and the harbor and I thought it would look nice. He pointed to his wife (who was sitting down) and said "She takes better pictures than I do", so I gave the camera to her. She didn't stand up. And she didn't center it. It was so sad that it was really just funny. All you saw was in the picture was our family on the very right edge of the picture, the rail of the boat and the sky. And SHE was the one who took better pictures. Next time I'll ask someone who has a nicer camera than me. That is surely a sign of someone who could take a good picture!

We were on this boat. This is actually a picture off their website. You can click on the picture to get to the link.

So we finally started off.

We saw TONS of dolphins!
Jumping dolphins.

Several dolphin mothers and their babies.

But the touch tank was where my kids wanted to be.
When we got on the boat, they already had some crabs, fish, starfish, and a seahorse in the tank from the last boat ride.
Halfway through our trip, they threw out the nets and let them drag behind the boat.

They pulled them up and then dumped the contents in a bucket.

They then took the bucket back to the touch tank and took each sea animal out and told everyone all about them. It was very interesting and very educational. The crabs with claws were thrown back in along with any other dangerous animals. They took the barbs off of the little stingray and told us they would grow back and then threw him in the tank.

The kids were then able to pick up and touch any of the animals and fish in the touch tank. There were quite a few crabs with sea anenomes on the backs of their shells and my middle loved to touch all the anenomes and pick up the crabs.

There were squid, several unique fish, a sting ray, and several varieties of starfish and crab that were added to the tank.

There ended up being quite a few minnows who apparently don't survive out of water long. They took them to the back of the boat and let the kids throw them to the seagulls.

The kids had a blast doing this!

As soon as they were done, the kids went back to the touch tank. They absolutely loved getting to see all these animals up close!

This is one outing that we would highly recommend if you are ever in Port Aranasas, TX!

A Few Things I Have Learned About The Beach

We've been on vacation.

At the beach.

We went down to Port Aransas, Texas and stayed in a condo within walking distance from the beach with a beach view. I say condo. That sounds awfully fancy for where we stayed.

I think I got the best deal on the island. It was called "Armadilla Villa" and it had a living room, full kitchen, full bathroom, one bedroom and places for 6 to sleep. And a washer and dryer. And we ended up paying about $65 a night.

It was nice for that amount. Our only problem was that the queen bed had broken box springs and was terribly uncomfortable. And most of the things in the condo were old enough that we were afraid we would break them. But other than that we were completely pleased.

The first thing I learned when going for a relaxing beach vacation is that it is important to have a good nights sleep in order to feel relaxed. If we visit "Armadilla Villa" again, we will be bringing our own memory foam pillow topper mattress.

The second thing I learned was that it was very nice to have our own washer and dryer. We washed clothes pretty much every night. Sandy beach water is a little harder to sink wash out than just pool water. And we seemed to go through several outfits a day because it was so windy and wet everywhere we went.

The third thing I learned is that it is very windy on the Gulf Coast at this time of year. I don't think I got a single picture of the kids in which my daughter's hair wasn't blowing across her face. More wind also means turbulent waves. Which leads to my fourth thing.

(I just want to add at this point that I have no idea why my kids pose in just this order. I noticed that they are in the same order in the picture on the side and I think it's kind of funny. I promise I don't do it on purpose, I just told them to turn around so I could take a pic before they got wet)


I learned that it isn't very relaxing to take 3 kids ages seven and under to the beach when it is windy and the waves are turbulent. I had visions of us sitting in our folding chairs, sipping diet cokes while the kids frolicked in the ocean. It ended up that the waves came in and rose so quickly, and that the undertows were so strong that we felt we needed to stay fairly close to the kids at all times.

The fifth thing I learned is that my kids absolutely loved the beach!






The sixth thing is that she loved to sing and dance in the waves! It was amusing. She has a "brilliant personality".

The seventh was that at this time of year, the tide was up so far that there really wasn't room for making sand castles. In fact there really wasn't a dry spot on the whole beach to lay down a blanket, towel or even set up a chair. Just when you thought you had found someplace safe, the waves would roll in and completely cover the only dry spot left. So instead of building sand castles, we bought little fish nets and bucket and the kids caught all sorts of things in them from little bitty crabs, fish, shrimp, and even blue button jelly fish (which are the only ones that don't sting). We also borrowed the boogie board from the condo and the kids had the best time on it.

The eighth thing we discovered is that not every beach has shells. A park ranger informed us that there are only certain areas where the channels are dredged. The shells will wash up on the beaches near these channels. Fortunately the Port Aranasas beach is one of them. We went on several beach combing adventures and found tons of whole shells of every kind and even several halves of sand dollars.

I believe the oldest loved beach combing the best. He loved finding all sorts of cool shells. But he pretty much enjoyed fishing and the boogie board too.

The middle loved the boogie board the best. And standing out in the surf going one on one against the waves. Instead of using his net for a net to catch fish, he turned it the other way and used it as a sword to fight the waves. It was kinda like Don Quixote fighting the windmills.

Her favorite part was just sitting in the ocean and letting the waves crash over her. That and catching fish and other assorted animals. Which I'm sure comes as a big shock. :)

The last thing I learned was the value of having accommodations within walking distance from the beach. We were so sandy and grimy by the time we made it off the beach that I honestly can't imagine the state our car would be in had we rode home in it every day. It was so very nice to walk back to the condo and rinse off outside with a hose.

All in all, we had a great time at the Port Aransas beach. Since we went off season, it wasn't very crowded and the kids had an absolute blast. There were plenty of shells, Marie life and waves to keep them occupied. So it was great for our family.

But if I ever go to a beach with just me and the husband,.... it's Bora Bora baby!

This was our first big trip as a family to the beach and we decided to just go to the closest one, so I'm just curious if you've been to a beach, which one would you recommend?