Our plane lands in Texas, and the humidity greets my naturally curly hair with frizz. We collect our luggage and head to pick up a rental car. Little did we know they didn't have a big enough vehicle for us. So we sat and waited forever for them to find us one that would fit us all and our luggage. Finally they found us a Suburban to accommodate our family. We headed for the hotel to clean up and go for a quick bite to eat.
The hotel was nice enough to make us a huge yummy breakfast complete with Texas shaped waffles! Then we headed out to Gator country. We like to watch Gator 911 on CMT so we decided to visit their park in Beaumont, Texas. We arrive and the first sign we see is "Welcome to Gator Country watch your step or you may be lunch". That added even more excitement to the adventure. We saw gators right off the bat and they were huge! We walked around a little more and the girl from the television show came up to us holding a baby gator with tape around its mouth and let us hold it. It wasn't really slimy to touch. Their skin was smooth. I wanted to bring one home! We bought hot dogs that you tie with string to the end of a stick and dangle it in the water to feed the gators. It was really fun to tease them, I got a good giggle. We all jumped in the truck that they use to go save gators in! Next, we went to a show that was put on by Gary the owner and main character of the show. We held huge pythons around our necks. Then held a another baby gator named Chubbs. Chubbs' mom had stepped on him when he was a baby so he had an injured jaw and was not able to bite. Due to his injured jaw it made him look like he was always smiling.
Next on our trip we stop for history lessons at the Alamo, the Battleship Texas, and the USS Lexington. We tour the ships and learn a great deal about them and the men that served on them. I am truly glad I didn't go through what they did, or have to live in such a small space. The Alamo was really neat, it was really amazing what they went through and had to do.
The Sea World creatures greeted us with a splash. We visited Shamu and the other killer whales. We attended all the shows and watched the sea creatures. We were able to see otters, seals, and sea lions, killers whales, and a beluga whale. We fed the dolphins fish and petted them until they were sick of us. We tried hard all day to get soaked in the splash zones. We then ran to ride the roller coasters. The crabs and sting rays tolerated us playing and petting them at the Texas State Aquarium. We stopped at the Sam Houston race track to watch the horses wiz around the track!. We learned all about space and rockets at the NASA space center.
We had an interesting experience that is not often experienced in Utah. We had played at the beach all day and it was a little stormy and windy and the waves were pretty strong and quick. Little did we know there was going to be a tornado in the middle of the night. It started pouring rain big time, and the trees were swaying as fast as they could in the wind. My mom woke us all up to watch. She went out and recorded it all. It made the power go out, and water come inside the hotel. There wasn't a whole lot of damage . It even made the news!
We visited the Botanical Gardens in San Antonio. We viewed all the pretty flowers and butterflies! We went shopping at Market Square. It is a Mexican market with jewelry, pottery, food, and millions of other things from Mexico. We got to shop around there and bought some pretty neat things. We visited a car show they were having there. I found a lime green older truck that was pretty cool looking.
We had a really great time in Texas. My parents, two brothers, sister, and grandparents all went. We enjoyed the warm weather, the beach, the sites and the great food. We had a little Mexican food, Texas Smoked meat, and barbecue. The poor Calamari ended up in our tummies. We could have stayed there all summer. It was sad to leave. We were in paradise! The hot sandy beach exfoliated my skin as it squished between my toes. The shining bright sun glowed down on my freckled nose. The palm trees swayed in the light wind. The water was just right, the waves were the perfect height. I looked back one last time, and picked up a shiny shell. We hugged Texas goodbye before it was time to go back home.
