Four Great Boys: Road Trip 2011

The Summer of 2011 proved to be a Summer of new things!

I decided late into the summer to take the boys on a little road trip. So, we loaded up one day and headed south to San Marcos to do a little tubing on the San Marcos River. I work with a lady who has a home down in the area and she was invaluable to me as I planned an impromptu getaway for the boys and I.

The trip down was great until we got off to take a quick bathroom break on the side of the road and when we started back up again, the gps decided to take us on a little adventure. I wish I had taken a picture of the gps because the little purple line was just a huge zigzag . . . .the craziest thing I'd ever seen!! Alex took the gps in hand and began to call out directions and I was a little concerned!! At one point, I snapped this pic and hoped we would be able to find 35 again soon!! Thankfully, we did!!

So . . . we arrive at our hotel where we have reserved a suite . . . . 2 Queen beds with a couch/sleeper thingy. We are told that there are no more of those kinds of suites even though we have a reservation for such a suite as that. The manager is called out . . . softly mentions "Celebration Suite" to the lady helping us and the next thing you know, we are give the key to the biggest suite in the hotel!! It was basically 2 hotel rooms put together with a King bed/huge bathroom where 1 normal hotel room would be and a kitchen/table area/couch/TV area as big as another hotel room!! It was sooo awesome!!

The boys had already seen a Luby's on the way in and they were PUMPED to get to eat there!! So . . . who am I to say no to Luby's?? (Or Arby's, as Landry called it!) And the best part ??? The next night when suppertime came?? Guess where these little grandpa's wanted to go?? Luby's AGAIN!!! We had Luby's both nights we were there!!! :)

We went back and had a little fun in the pool . . .

And then headed to the river the next morning.

You really can't take your camera on the river if you want it to survive so there aren't many shots of us actually tubing down it. It was a nice, easy float . . . well, it could have been if the boys weren't boys!! We moved along nicely . . . and stopped to swing from some ropes!!

(that could have been Luke and Landry, except I didn't have my camera!!)

After about an hour of floating, you arrive at the "Dam," as the girl who gave us our floats so eloquently called it. It is a dam that has a small opening in the center that you can ride your float down. There are actually 3 little dam/waterfalls, each getting a little less "violent" (another word the girl used to describe it!!). With that kind of description, there were a couple of us who weren't completely looking forward to that part!!

Here are the boys the next morning standing right in front of the dam/waterfall.

The first waterfall . . . very fun!!

Looking down at it . . .

Looking down to the second and third waterfalls . . .

This part of the river was super fun!! Landry was the most hesitant, but after sitting up on the dam watching for a few minutes, he was good to go!! In fact, he wanted to stay longer when most everyone else was ready to go!!

The next morning, we stopped by Aquarena Springs and took a trip in the glass bottom boats. This was really interesting . . . I learned a LOT about the area, the springs, and the plant/animal life there. I know . . . sounds boring, but it was really cool! I think even the boys would agree!!

Landry hanging out the window . . .

They had a little boardwalk thing that went out over a wetlands area. The guide had told us to look for the tilapia who had laid their eggs in the shallow water. He explained that when the baby tilapias got frightened, they would immediately swim into their daddy's mouth!! So if we saw a big fish that looked like he was eating a lot of little fish, it was probably ok!! It didn't take long before we started seeing the little areas the tilapia had carved out for themselves . . . very cool!!