Sunday morning, we packed up the car and headed on our 5 hour drive to San Antonio. The boys were fantastic in the car thanks to our new DVD players.
Around 1:00, we pulled into our hotel on the Riverwalk, the La Mansion pronnounced "La Moncion". This hotel was Matthew's choice after hearing such great things about it over the years from his parents. This charming historic hotel was quite amazing. The doors to our room on the first floor opened out to the quaint little pool in the courtyard area, which all the rooms surrounding this side of the hotel faced. I didn't get any pictures of this, but you can see pics of it on the website- La Mansion del Rio. The service was impeccable! I was extremely impressed with how we were treated the next morning when we checked out of the hotel to head to Sea World. All in all, our hotel experience was pleasant with exception of our room size. It was pretty tiny. It would have been fine for just Matthew and I, but the four of us were somewhat crowded. However, I know there are different types of rooms, so we plan to upgrade when staying here in the future (Matthew said he doesn't want to ever stay anywhere else on the Riverwalk since he liked it so much, so I guess we'll be back!).
After checking in at the hotel, we took a stroll on the Riverwalk. The boys did fine for the first hour until Luke had a meltdown. He was throwing a fit and screaming, which was quite embarassing, so we left the Riverwalk to give him some time to calm down. After our little break, we returned to the river for dinner and quickly found the first Mexican food place we came across. I was pretty sure hunger and the long car ride were both culprits for our boys unpleasant attitudes at this time. Dinner was average, but this would not have been our first restaurant choice had we not had the two hungry boys in tow. With our bellies full, we returned to the hotel to bathe and turn in for the evening. After the little episode earlier, we didn't attempt this riverwalk again after dinner. Since the boys didn't have a decent nap that day, we went to bed at 7:30! Of course, Matthew and I weren't tired, so we enjoyed our books. Luke fell asleep immediately when his head hit the pillow, and Hudson played quietly on the bed while Mommy and Daddy read. Hudson's voice would tend to get loud every once in a while from the whisper he was instructed to do. I explained to him that there were people in the next room who were trying to sleep (although I doubt that at 8:00), so he needed to whisper. This was cute because if his voice began to get too loud all I would do was ask "Hudson, where are the people?", and he'd reply "The people are in the wall, Mommy" as he pointed to the wall behind our bed. Then he'd quiet down, so "the people" could sleep. We eventually turned the lights out around 9:30 for a much needed long night rest.
Strolling down the Riverwalk
On Monday morning, we woke up and got ready for Sea World. We checked out of the hotel around 8:30, and headed down the road to find breakfast. We settled on a quick bite at Taco Cabana since we wanted to get to the park when it opened at 10:00. This worked out perfect because we arrived at Sea World at 9:50. The weather on Monday was perfect! It wasn't too hot but just warm enough that when we got wet we weren't freezing.
Goofing around at breakfast
At the entrance before it opened
Shamu!
Expecting that it would get more crowded during the day, our first stop was the Sesame Street Bay of Play. This is a new area of the park that opened this year, and I have to say that it was really neat! They had little rides for the toddlers as well as a water park and dry playground area for them to play. They also had a Sesame Street stage where we enjoyed watching the characters sing and dance. As we walked around, we took pictures with each of the characters. Luke was intimidated by the characters and didn't want to meet them. Hudson, on the other hand, had a great time visiting all of his favorite Sesame Street pals. Hudson was only afraid of Cookie Monster. I kind of expected this because we had watched Cookie Monster's Best Bites in the car the day before, and Cookie Monster's voice and actions can be kinda frightening. Hudson kept saying "I'm afraid of Cookie Monster because he eats his cookies really fast and crazy!". Of course, Hudson's favorite characters were Elmo and Big Bird. To see Elmo and Big Bird up close you had to wait in line and no outside cameras were allowed. It was quite exclusive in there! Hudson walked up and gave Elmo a big hug before shaking his and Big Bird's hands. Of course, we had to purchase both pictures - one of Hudson and one family.
Visiting Elmo and Big Bird
Super Grover!
Check our Hudson's hand gripping my shirt!
Hi Bert
Hi Ernie
Waiting for the show to begin
Cookie Monster recognized Hudson and came to shake his hand proving he is a nice monster!
Luke, who was afraid of the characters previously, tried to stand up and dance with them during the show!
Where shall we go next?
Our next stop, after grabbing lunch, was the Shamu Show. We wanted to definitely make this one, so made sure to catch the first show. Matthew wanted to sit in the splash zone, so this is what we did. I didn't get any pictures because we were advised to keep our camera put away so they didn't get wet, and boy am I glad I did!! It's been several years since I've been to Sea World, and I had completely forgotten how powerful those whales are! We watch most of the show in awe of the large gentle whales. It was fun to watch them and the trainers work together. Then towards the end the whales began to go to each section and splash with their tails. We watched as the section next to us was splashed by the larger of the two whales before it was out turn... Splash! Splash! Splash! That whale drenched us for what seemed like an eternity but was only three splashes. Each time the powerful water hit us we'd catch our breath and it would come at us again. It was quite overwhelming. Luke was crying and Hudson was crying and laughing at the same time, if that's possible. Hudson started crying and looked over at me and Matthew and saw us laughing, so then he thought it was funny! We stayed for a little while longer until the whale came back over for a second round, which is when we (along with the famliy in front of us with their 10 month old) got up and walked up to the top to watch the rest of the show. As we were leaving we were dripping wet. Let's just say we enjoyed ourselves but made sure to sit out of the splash zone for the next show!
We then walked over to feed the dolphins, which was my favorite part of the day. This was too cool! Those dolphins are so gentle and cute! Hudson fed them but he didn't want to pet them. He watched Daddy and I pet then a couple times though.
Just before Hudson fed the dolphin
Just after I took this picture the dolphin leaned up and almost kissed my nose!
After feeding the dolphins, we went to the Azul Show, which was our last event for the day. This was Matthew's favorite show. We watched dolphins, whales and birds dance and perform tricks. I didn't take any pictures during the show because the whole area was "splash zone", but we didn't get wet at all.
We left at 3:15 and were were exhausted for our drive home that evening. The boys slept and watched DVDs in the car. We stopped at Chilis for dinner and arrived home around 9:15. On our drive home, I asked Hudson what his favorite part of Sea World was, and he confidently exclaimed "Getting splashed by Shamu! My clothes got all wet, and it was funny!!" He was talking about that all week, including the next morning when he told his preschool teacher of his previous day experiences! He also mentioned that he enjoyed meeting his friends, Elmo and Big Bird, but Shamu's splashing seemed to top it all!
I was very impressed with Sea World. It's one of my favorite things we've done with the boys. They had so many fun things to do, it was clean and not too overly crowded. When I purchased the tickets online, I had the option to buy an annual pass with unlimited admission through 2012 for the same price as a single ticket. Well, that was a no-brainer! We had such a great time, that we plan to go back next year and possibly again this fall!
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