Good Time with the Family in Texas

We’ve spent the past week doing the grandparent (and great-grandparent) thing in Cypress, Texas at son Jeff’s with his wife Mariann and 9-year-old daughter Sarah. We got in kind of late on Monday evening, so didn’t do much that night. But the next evening grandson Michael and his wife Debra came over with their son, 5-month-old Aiden—our great-grandchild! A cutie-pie, as you can see here. Great to spend some time with them all, since we haven’t seen them for over a year. We all went out to dinner at our favorite local Mexican place, La Hacienda, a family tradition.

Grandson Michael, Debra and Aiden

Since the weather is typically hot and humid Houston area summer weather, we spent a fair amount of time paddling around in the backyard swimming pool, and inside watching movies.

On Friday/Saturday, we took Sarah with us on a side trip to San Antonio, to finally see the Alamo (Jack and Carol’s fun) and go to SeaWorld (Sarah’s fun). Some things had changed at SeaWorld since our decades-ago previous visit—they now have a LOT of killer whales. At the show in Shamu Stadium, there were five in the pool at once! And they have big roller coasters now. But the sea lion show seemed exactly the same. It was a pleasant day and Sarah really enjoyed it. At one point, Carol was washed against a fence and almost knocked down by a giant bow wave from a roller-coaster type boat ride and lost her hat and got completely soaked to the skin. But it was her own fault, because she was trying to get wet to cool off—just got a little too close to the water, egged on by a little boy, sopping wet and hanging tightly onto the fence, who I’m sure was hoping to see exactly what happened. (LITTLE BOY: “Get closer, get closer! CAROL: “What is it like?” LITTLE BOY: “It’s like having lots of rocks thrown at you!” SPLASH!!! CAROL: “Glug!”)

Soaked, lost hat, but cool.

 

Watching the killer whale show in Shamu Stadium

Besides all the Shamus, we saw penguins (in a nice cool dark building), sharks, seals, dolphins, flamingos, puffins (flashback to our Newfoundland trip), sea horses, and much more. Sarah and Carol rode a few little-kid rides (the little-kid roller coaster was almost too much for Carol).

We spent the night in a Howard Johnson’s motel—first time in a LONG time we’ve stayed in one of those. It had a nice swimming pool so Sarah and Carol went for an evening swim.

The next morning we headed for the Alamo. We have tried for several years to make it to San Antonio to see the Alamo, but something always came up that prevented it. We were afraid it might be a letdown, but we both found it to be an overdelivery. The old mission where the siege and final slaughter took place—the Shrine of Texas Liberty, as they call it—is small and well-guarded and has long lines, but there are lots of other old buildings on the grounds, and it’s all in a very nice and shady garden with lots of room to move around and sit and view all the various memorials that people have erected over the years. An informative film and museum explains the complicated history very well—we now are much better informed on this dramatic era (which had a BIG effect on U.S. history, leading to a massive addition of land later taken from Mexico in the Mexican War). Mexican commander Santa Anna was definitely a Bad Guy dictator—self-proclaimed “Napoleon of the West”—and his own arrogance led directly to his downfall and Mexico’s subsequent loss of some big chunks of land to the U.S. Fascinating tour. Plus we got to see a lock of Davy Crockett’s hair. Carol loves Davy Crocket—actually she loves Fess Parker who played Davy Crockett in the TV show of her childhood.

Carol and Sarah in front of the Alamo, the Shrine of Texas Liberty

We walked a couple of blocks to the famous Riverwalk—again, we thought it was better than anticipated. It’s a cool, shady oasis in the heart of the hot city. Just walk down the steps and you’re in a different world altogether. Very European-looking, with all kinds of sidewalk eateries and drinkeries. We had a nice Mexican lunch on the sidewalk and watched all the tour boats going by. All in all, a delightful time and we enjoyed getting to spend some quality time with Sarah, who is a funny and easy-going traveling companion.

San Antonio's Riverwalk (note Carol got a new hat)

On Sunday Carol went to church with Michael, Debra and Aiden and we then babysat Aiden for an hour or so at Jeff and Mariann’s house while Michael and Debra went to pick up an elliptical machine they were buying. The baby cried most of the time, but Mariann finally got him to drop off to sleep. Ahh. When Michael and Debra got back, we all got into the pool and splashed around. Aiden looked so cute in his little floater device. He seems to love the water. Mariann made a delicious spaghetti dinner, topped off by some leftover birthday cake that Debra had made (it was for the birthday of a little girl she babysits). Nice time with the family.

Aiden's nifty pool float

We left Texas Monday morning, stopping at the San Jacinto Battleground State Park, and we’re now in Lousiana, driving to Lafayette where we’re going to stop for a visit tomorrow with nephew Franklin. He and his wife Joanne are babysitting their granddaughter for a while, at their daughter Lanah’s house in Lafayette.

San Jacinto Battleground monument in Houston