Part 1 of weekend getaway

I know it’s been forever since I’ve done an update. I have a lot of things to talk about; but little time to type it all out! This past weekend Jeff and I took the kids and my mom to San Antonio for a weekend away. We were off to a rocky start on Friday, but things turned around and it turned out to be a decent time. The weather was gorgeous, and the kids were great.

On Friday I picked up our rental van and shortly after getting it loaded up we were on the road. We left around 10:30, loaded up with snacks and drinks. We ran into several traffic jams on our way down there, but managed to check into our hotel around 4. We ATTEMPTED to check into our hotel I should say. Check in was at 3, but they didn’t have a room ready for me yet. This is my 1st of a few complaints on this hotel. Usually we stay somewhere along The River Walk; but our favorite hotel was booked solid and everything else required we either get 2 rooms, or it was just grossly overpriced due to spring break week. So we opted to stay just on the outside of down town.

The kids all comfy in the van; Aleena showing off her cool mask from Quizno's.

After checking in we loaded up and made our way to the River Walk. Because we usually stay on the River Walk we weren’t sure where the best place to park was on the main streets, to get us down in a good spot on the River Walk. We of course picked a bad spot, and it put us on a spot of the River that made us walk over a mile to get to the fun part of the River.

The River Walk when we came down the stairs. And a mama duck and her babies we spotted on the walk

We were hungry and craving Mexican Food. There’s a Restaurant down there that we’ve always gone to, that we love! We never remember the name of it, just know it when we see it. Jeff decided to call ahead and try and find the name (didn’t realize that, just thought he really remembered the name), and was told that it was The Original Mexican Restaurant that we were referring too. So Jeff was on a mission to find it. Let’s just say this is NOT the place we frequent, I realized it as soon as we walked in, but didn’t care at this point, the kids were hungry. $100 later we walked out disappointed. The Salsa looked to be nothing more than tomato paste with some Jalapenos tossed in, the rice was so dry and bland, the iced tea was very sweet but watered down. My enchiladas weren’t bad, mom hated her quesadillas and Joey’s Gringo Burger was raw. That with extremely poor service (waited 15 minutes for a refill etc.. ).. and a hostess with a rotten attitude that wouldn’t even make eye contact with someone. So this place is for sure on my DO NOT GO TO AGAIN list.

All of us before dinner.. We look happy here!! LOL ;-)

After eating there we made our way to an ice cream shop and Aleena and Peyton enjoyed an ice cream cone. I think the rest of us were feeling sick from our “dinner”. LOL.

Then we went to do the boat tour. My mom wasn’t sure she wanted to do this at first, she doesn’t know how to swim and doesn’t like being out in the water. After some coaxing from the kids she finally decided to do it. We had to wait in line for about an hour to do the tour! While waiting in line with Jeff and Peyton we witnessed something that just made me sick, and my stomach in knots. A man just across the river in front of us collapsed on the sidewalk. I witnessed him going into convulsions, and within a minute or two everyone was on their knees around him and doing CPR. He was with several people, appeared to be his wife, grand kid and maybe a few of his kids, if I had to guess he was in his early mid 60’s. His wife was hysterical, sobbing while hugging what appeared to be a grandson, who was also crying. He looked to be about 10 or so. After a minute or so they started to get a large crowd around them and hotel staff was outside on the phone etc trying to call for help. About 15 minutes later the Paramedics showed up, all the while the family is taking turns performing CPR, and the paramedics hooked him up to oxygen, and continued CPR. We on the other side of the River were all in shock and felt hopeless, watching what was going on. Peyton just kept saying “That poor kid”.. talking about the grandson. I’m not sure if the man survived or not, but it was a scary 25 minutes or so for us watching it, and seeing what the family was going through. I remembered being there watching them revive my Grandma, it sucks…. No other way to describe it. A few minutes after they left it was time for us to get on the boat. The kids enjoyed the tour, as well as my mom. Jeff and I have done it many times, but we always learn something new about the history of San Antonio or the River Walk every time we go.

Jeff and Peyton cheesing it up for the camera and the view of the river walk across the street, these were before we saw the poor guy across the river. :-(

After this we went into a few shops and browsed around and headed back to our hotel. Exhausted and ready to sit down.. We took showers, got changed and lounged on the beds for awhile before crashing. Unfortunately since our hotel sat right off of the Highway, and our windows faced the Highway, mom and I didn’t get much sleep. Jeff can sleep through anything, just like the kids. But we got to hear semis barreling past, sirens flying by, horn honking etc. Oh, and I guess I should mention that just on the other side of that HWY was a train track!! Guess what went through every 1.5 hrs, blowing it’s horn and chugging on by?... Yeah.. just something else to keep us up. Oh and between that we got the lovely sound of Aleena coughing through the night! LOL..

I told Jeff on Saturday night that we were even.. I picked a bad hotel, and he picked bad dinner..

OK; this turned into a longer post then I thought it would. I’ll post another update tomorrow with more details and pictures..