Vacation...Part 2

So when I left off, we were in Austin.  We went to the Salt Lick BBQ, thanks to Man V. Food, and it was amazing.  Let me tell you.  Brisket, where have you been all my life?? OMG, it was so soo good.  We also bought cowboy hats (to be seen later).

We also went to the Austin Children's Museum, which was pretty kick ass.  The kids LOVED it.  They even had a special little baby area for Miss Maggie.

 And I had no idea PJ would really be rock and rollin' when I dressed him that day..



After Austin, we went to San Antonio, which was by far my favorite place in Texas.  We stayed right in downtown San Antonio, so we were able to do the fantastic riverwalk both nights.  If you ever go, the Riverwalk is awesome.  Lots of stores, restaurants, just a totally cool thing to do.

We also went to the Alamo.

The Alamo was seriously a let down.  It took 5 minutes, you can't take pictures inside, you can't touch the walls (try telling a 2 year old he can't touch the walls.  Are you kidding), and it just wasn't what we expected.  It's also right smack dab in the middle of downtown.  Anyway...

the riverwalk was super cool as I said, and we went to dinner and walked along it both times we were there. 

Our second day in San Antoni, we went to SEA WORLD.

SEA WORLD.

Sea World is awesome.  I can't wait to go back when the kids are a little older because they have roller coasters and a water park and all kinds of cool stuff. 

Anxiously waiting for daddy to buy our tickets...

PJ loves the Aquarium, and the fish/underwater stuff at the zoo, so I knew he'd love it here.  And he did.  He kept being amazed at all the animals and all the cool stuff we saw.

We got to feed some sea lions.

Those fish?  HAD EYES PEOPLE.  EYES.  I went to buy them and was immediately grossed out.  I gave them to John and had nothing to do with that.  I made sure I just watched the sea lions get fed.

Sea World has a new attraction called the Sesame Street Bay of Play, where there's a bunch of little rides for kids under 42 inches tall and Elmo, Cookie Monster, etc., roam the streets.  PJ got to go on his first ride...

He enjoyed it.  Really. :)

We also got to feed and pet the dolpins, which was so cool.

Fish?  Also had eyes.  John decided he wanted to see the dolphin jump for the fish, so he threw the last one, and the dolphin jumped, and made a big splash, promptly sending Maggie into hysterics as she had been sleeping oh so peacefully in the stroller prior to this.

Finally, we saw the Shamu show.  All I have to say?  PJ - amazed.  Me - amazed.  Shamu - huge.



Our final part of the trip, Colorado, will come later.  :)

I'm baaackk....AND

Before I get into the wondrous events that was vacation, let me say.

I GOT A NEW JOB!!!!

At my old firm.  With a good raise, get to wear jeans on Fridays, flexibility in my schedule, shorter walk to and from the train, all around much better.  I CANNOT WAIT.  I start August 1.

So.  Vacation.

We drove a total of 3800 miles.  It was so much fun.  The kids did surprisingly well in the car. There were times when I took one or the other out of the car seat (bad mommy) while driving on isolated roads because, well, they just couldn't take it anymore.  But for the most part it was great.

So here we go!

First stop was St. Louis.  Our hotel was way overpriced - don't stay at the Millenium Hotel if you ever go that way.  But we visited a few places while we were there.

Me and PJ at the Arch.  We didn't go in it, which was fine with me as that thing is HIGH.

John, PJ and Mags at the Arch.

.

PJ desperately trying to get into Busch Stadium.

The pool here was very nice, and it was very hot in St. Louis.  The food was okay, not great, but St. Louis was basically just a stopover point so no big deal.  From here, we went to Hot Springs, Arkansas, which was very nice, but with the kiddies we couldn't go in the Hot Springs.  We were literally there for 12 hours to sleep.  We ate Buffalo Wild Wings.  Very Arkansas-y.

We were on our way to Houston.  Houston was pretty cool because one of the attorneys I work for got us comp nights in the Hotel Sorella, a very fancy hotel.  The hotel was located in an area called City Centre, where there were restaurants and stores right down from the hotel.  The pool here was kick ass and the food was very good.  Houston was also the first place I mastered putting a diaper on standing up.

Apparently, driving 5 miles an hour slower at night helps things in Texas.

The pool at our fancy hotel.

Our fancy hotel room.

100 beers on Tap.  Yardhouse.  Nice.

CHEESE!

I love PJ's face in this picture.

After Houston, we hit up Austin, where we went to the Children's museum which was super cool and went to Salt Lick BBQ.   We heard about Salt Lick on Man v. Food on the Travel Channel, and let me tell you it was FUCKING DELICIOUS.  The brisket was amazing.  AMAZING I TELL YOU.

I'll finish up the rest tomorrow.  I have a lot of catching up to do.

Finally.

Tomorrow we start our vacation.  I probably won't be posting much while I am gone, but I will try to pop in at least a few times.  I will at least be reading your blogs as much as possible.

We are roadtripping.  With two kids.  Besides the obvious - clothes, snacks, diapers, I am bringing the following:

DVD Player with 10 movies
Coloring Books
Mini Magna doodle
some trucks/cars
Soft toys for Maggie

This is for the car.  We are not driving more than three hours at a time, and are hoping to allow PJ to run around for half an hour when we stop.

Any suggestions?  Any thing else we should bring with?  Comment away, and I'll miss you all.