Sea World (San Antonio, TX)

This past weekend we took a trip to San Antonio to take the kids to Sea World. The kids are at an age where out-of-town trips are worthwhile now, i.e. they will remember it, but who knows for how long. Surprisingly they still talk about the trip to Dallas, when we took them to the State Fair back in October. They both really like all types of animals (cheetahs, tigers, fish, sharks, frogs, snakes). They really enjoyed The Aquarium and the Houston Zoo so we figured it would be a good time to take them to Sea World, before it gets unbearably hot.

Friday afternoon we headed out for San Antonio. The kids were well behaved in the car, no need of any portable DVD/movie entertainment. All they needed were their two cars, two books, and plenty of snacks. When we got there, poor Andrew did not want to go to the hotel and constantly demanded, "I don't want to go to hotel. I want to go home." It was quite sad. So the only way to calm him down was to bribe him by going to his favorite store, Target.

Saturday we went to Sea World as soon as it opened. For young kids, Sea World doesn’t offer much but the things that they have were definitely unique. The main attraction of course was Shamu, a show of killer whales (or as Jacob likes to correct me, orca whales) jumping out of the water doing tricks. We also saw an artsy show that had synchronized swimming, Cirque du Soleil stuff, Olympic diving all mixed in with jumping dolphins and a beluga whale. We didn't care for the human element of the show, we came to see big sea animals. We saw penguins (which the kids haven't seen before), tropical fish, and sharks (which we went to see twice). Granted, they really liked it and this trip was for them but if you really wanted to get the most out of the price of admission, you have to ride the roller coasters and explore the water park (which we did not/could not do).

My parents and brother had joined us for this trip so on Sunday we made the obligatory trip to the Riverwalk. The weather was really nice, borderline cold for some. We walked nearly the entire thing since I found some free street parking in downtown and refused to pay another $15 for parking (damn you Sea World). I wanted to eat outside at those restaurants along the Riverwalk but the kids got really hungry and it's hard to appease everyone, especially my parents who don't eat anything that's not Vietnamese food. We settled for mall food. My dad is so Asian that he got won ton soup. My mom said packaged ramen was better than that crap he ate. Lynn got the orange chicken from one of the three Chinese places there but unfortunately chose the wrong one. Rarely do I say anything is disgusting, as most things will fall under mediocre or just okay, but that orange chicken sauce was just gross.

Watching my mom grimace as she chomps down on an avocado filled taco makes me feel guilty with each bite...

Food wise, this trip was a disappointment. I wanted to try the big ass cinnamon roll at Lulu's and the food trucks on Bulverde but didn't want to subject my parents to anything non-Vietnamese. Watching my mom grimace as she chomps down on an avocado filled taco makes me feel guilty with each bite as witnessed on Saturday night at El Papalote.

On a random note, if you ever go to San Antonio or beyond, you must stop at the Buc-ee's in Luling, TX. It was the best store ever, well in terms of stopping during a road trip. The restroom was huge, there had to be about forty toilets and urinals. They had every type of candy, drink, snack and even had a bakery and hot food served there. A must see.