Scowden Family: Girls Weekend in San Antonio

The boys had a golf tournament so my neighbor Shannon and I decided to take the girls (Ellie & her daughter Marin) to Sea World in San Antonio. We headed south on I-35 towards San Antonio and popped in a couple of movies in the dvd player and got ready for our road trip. Surprisingly the girls did great on the road. Although we hoped they would fall asleep sometime during the 5 1/2 hour drivebut no luck...until we were only 1 block away from the hotel that is. We finally nestled down at the Hotel Palacio del Rio for the weekend. The room was great and it was right on the river walk.

Since there is lots to see and do at Sea World we went ahead and splurged. We got the 2 day pass so that we could experience it all. The first stop was at with the Anheuser Busch Clydesdales: Bush, Bud and Diamond. Believe it or not, the horses were the biggest hit of the weekend. Who would have thought that we go all the way to San Antonio's Sea World and the girls can't get enough of the horses?? Go figure!

Diamond was our favorite horse. He was a ham and loved to have his picture taken. Gorgeous!

We also got to see some dolphins up close and personal at the "Feed the Dolphins" exhibit. Although we didn't stay for the feeding, they were really neat to see. After a couple of hours of walking around the park we were ready to cool off so we headed to the splash area. There was a HUGE wave pool, a lazy river and lots of other water activities. It was so fun to see Ellie go up and down with the waves. She just loves water!! Then it was time for the night time Shamu show "Believe". Ellie just loved "Amu". She danced along to the music and would cheer when Shamu jumped up out of the gigantic pool. My favorite was when at the end of the Shamu show Ellie yelled "Iluvuamuuuu!!" I'm not sure how she knew to say that but that alone made the whole weekend worth while. I really wish we would have had a video camera to capture that moment. Priceless!!

waiting for Shamu....

End of the 1st night...see you tomorrow Sea World!

Saturday morning we started off the day with a walk around the River walk and a boat ride which was way too hot. I'm sure it was over 100 degrees out and 110% humidity. YUCK! So we headed back to our hotel room to rest up for fun filled 2nd afternoon at Sea World. The girls must have been exhausted from the night before because we had no problems putting them down for a good nap. When we finally got to Sea World on Saturday, we saw another really neat colorful acrobatic show called Viva! which was lots of fun. We also got to see another adorable show filled with sea lions, walrus and other little creatures. And for the weekend encore we caught up with "Amu" again for the last show of the night and said stopped by for a quick goodbye to our new friend Diamond.

Hangin' out on the River Walk

Getting ready for our 2nd day at Sea World

Sunday we packed our bags and got ready to head back home. Both Marin and Ellie behaved incredibly well. We never really had any melt downs or fighting. They were just best buddies all weekend long!