Ichetucknee

In early July we made a trip to Ichetucknee Springs State Park.  We enjoyed a relaxing float from the midpoint launch to the last take out.  We also visited the head spring and blue hole spring for a cool dip.  The Ichetucknee is always a fun trip, and this was no different.

Hiking in Hill Country

On our last day of vacation, we made a day trip to check out the lovely Texas hill country.  It did not disappoint.  For this excursion, we drove an hour and a half to Garner State Park.  This park had it all- hiking, swimming, camping, and we heard that there was even a dance in the evening.  We began by hiking to the top of Old Baldy.  The trail up was steep, but we made it and were rewarded with a fantastic view of the river below.

 We were hot and sweaty after our hike, so we grabbed a quick bite at the onsite concessionaire and then took a dip in the Frio River.  The water was cool and clear.  It felt so good.  Many other people were also out enjoying a day at the river.  There were several rope swings hanging from the branches of trees along the river.  We all had a go on the swings.  This was a great way to wrap up our time in Texas.

Schlitterbaun

On our fourth day in Texas, we made the short drive to New Braunfels to visit Schlitterbaun, the best waterpark in the world. I'm not just saying it's the best because I like it, I'm saying it because it is.  Schlitterbaun has won the Golden Ticket Award (the Oscars of amusement parks) for best waterpark every year since 1998.  It is such a fun and amazing place.  It was made even more amazing by the fact that the Qs met us there.  The kids haven't seen their cousins in two years, but they didn't miss a beat.  We arrived at the park a little before the Qs, so we waited on them at the front entrance.  I loved how Olivia and Owen were standing outside waiting excitedly for their cousins to arrive.  As they were walking up Olivia said "I see Rachel, and there's Andy".  Owen was like, "I see them, I see them all". This just made my heart so happy because even though we don't see them often, they are still so glad to be together.





Let me just say, the Qs are experts when it comes to navigating Schlitterbaun. The park is huge.  I mean, you have to take a bus to get from one side of it to the other.  But, they had a plan.  Leslie had packed a picnic lunch for us all, so our first stop was to claim our picnic spot and "base" for the day.  They led us to their usual spot- a nice shaded area in the older part of the park.  Once we had put everything in our spot, we caught the bus to the newer part of the park and went to ride the Master Blaster watercoaster- the most popular ride in the park. We then did a few laps in the not-so-lazy river and rode another slide or two.  We then returned to the older side of the park where we spent the remainder of our day.

 

The older side of the park is my favorite.  On this side, there are chutes which I think are just so much fun.  I'd much rather be on a chute than on a traditional water slide.  Also, a lot of the water attractions in the older area use water from the adjacent Comal River.  One of the chutes even ends in the river and you have to float down a ways to get back into the park.  We had an absolute blast at Schlitterbaun.  I think it was worth the drive to Texas just to be here with the Qs.

Six Flags Fiesta Texas

Our third day in San Antonio was spent at Six Flags Fiesta Texas.  I think the thing that impressed me the most about this park was that it was really pretty for a Six Flags Park.  The park was built by an old quarry, and the quarry wall provides a backdrop for many of the rides.  Some of them are even built using the terrain of the quarry wall itself. We arrived at the park early, stayed until the afternoon, left in the hottest part of the day, then returned in the evening for the fireworks.  Our favorite coaster was Iron Rattler.  We got several rides on it.  We were also able to ride Wonder Woman Golden Lasso coaster.  This just opened and is the first of its kind (a single rail coaster) in the world.  We knew the line for Golden Lasso would be long, so we went there first and were on the first train of the day.  The other notable coaster that we rode was Superman: Krypton Coaster which is the best floorless coaster that we've ridden.

We all agree that Six Flags Fiesta Texas is a keeper.  The rides were really good, the crowds weren't bad, and the park was clean.  The fireworks show was also a nice surprise.  We thought that we would just be getting some low-level fireworks, but that's not what happened.  The show not only had fireworks but also used the quarry wall to project images on.  There was also a fountain incorporated and at one point the water turned to flames and it was like a fountain of fire.  We left the fireworks show like, "Whoa- that was really good".  I love it when things exceed my expectations, and Fiesta Texas did in every way.



Six Flags season pass count-
Number of visits:  3
Number of parks visited:  3

Sea World San Antonio

 After completing our beluga whale encounter we spent the rest of the day inside of the actual Sea World park.  We rode the rides and saw some of the animal exhibits.  We didn't get to go to a lot of the shows because we had spent a large portion of the day at Discovery Point and only had a limited amount of time to see the rest of the park.  Since many of the shows are similar to the ones in Orlando, they got skipped.  The one show that we did attend was the the beluga/dolphin show.  I thought it was neat that the dolphins in the show were Pacific white-sided dolphins.  Sea World Orlando only has bottlenose dolphins, so it was cool to learn about a different type. 

Beluga Whale Encounter

We spent our second day in San Antonio at Sea World.  Before entering that park, though, we had reservations to do the beluga whale swim at Discovery Point which is the animal interaction branch of Sea World San Antonio.  Swimming with beluga whales was a really big deal for Olivia.  The beluga is her favorite animal in the world.  I cannot tell you how excited she was when she found out that she was going to get to meet one.

 We checked in to Discovery Point and were fitted with long sleeve wet suites.  The beluga lives in the Arctic, and so the water in their tank is cold- we're talking 50 degrees.  After changing, we boarded a bus and were driven to beluga stadium.  Sea World San Antonio has 10 beluga whales- including two under a year old.  One of these young males is Tyonek- the whale who was famously rescued in Alaska last year.  The young belugas do not participate in any of the shows at Sea World and are not located in a viewing area where the public can see them.  But guess who did get to see Tyonek.  We did!  They were feeding him when we arrived so we got a glimpse of him- no pictures though because we were not allowed to bring our cameras (we purchased the ones that you see).  Fun fact:  baby belugas are gray so that they blend in with their mother's shadow when they swim.

 We got to interact with two belugas- Natasha and Imaq.  Natasha was first, and she was a sweet old girl.  We got to rub her belly, touch her melon, and feed her fish.  We also learned some commands and interacted with her that way.  While we were doing this, the trainer was giving us all kinds of interesting information about belugas.  We were the only ones with her, so we had plenty of opportunities to have our questions answered.

After Natasha left, we got to meet Imaq.  He has a big ol' boy, but was very loving.  We each had the chance to love on Imaq.  We couldn't really "swim" with the belugas like we did with the dolphins because they do not have a dorsal fin, so there is not much to grab on to.  Instead, we did a back float with the beluga. 

We had such a good interaction with the belugas and hated to say good-bye.  This was definitely a magical experience.