Seven Quick Takes- The Tightwads Go On Vacation

Goodness, posting late two weeks in a row. Really hoping this doesn't keep happening.


This week, we headed two hours north to San Antonio so that my husband could attend some job training.

1.) Free Vacation! Sort of...

My husband was asked at the beginning of this month to take on another AP (Advanced Placement) class at the high school where he works.

Unfortunately, this meant that he had to go up to San Antonio and spend a week training in order to teach that class (which is supposed to be college equivalent).

Fortunately, the school district payed for a hotel room, offered a gas and meal stipend for the days he would be training, and his breakfast and lunch would be provided by the school hosting the training sessions. We decided to go along with him, packing sandwich stuff and breakfast food from home in a cooler and using the stipend to have a couple nice meals together as a family and for me to take the kids to the museum.

Thus it began...

2.) Chillin' in The Park 

We had enough money from the stipend to do one, maybe two, nice "touristy" things in San Antonio. The training lasted for four days, so that meant I had to come up with super cheap things to do or languish in a hotel room with two restless toddlers all day.

The first thing we did was visit the Japanese Tea Garden.

Amazingly beautiful, and apparently built in the 19-teens and twenties in what used to be a limestone quarry. The city hired a Japanese artist to design it, and he lived there with his family operating a tea house for several years, until his death in the late 1930s. (Unfortunately his family was later forced into one of the internment camps in California during WWII and lost their place as caretakers of the garden, but the city has been taking steps to make amends to the family's descendants).

Just a really neat, cool place to explore, though NOT a good place to bring a stroller. At all. (Found that out the hard way).

After that, we spent $8 of the trip stipend to ride on a miniature train that tours Brackenridge park (the huge park in the middle of San Antonio where the Japanese Tea Garden and zoo are located). My little boy LOVES trains, so he was beside himself with excitement.

3.) Mall Rats 

Another day this week, we decided to go explore North Star Mall, which is HUGE and decorated mainly with white tile inside for some reason. We got there early enough that most of the shops hadn't opened when we got there.

Malls are interesting places in the morning-- they seem to be a sort of indoor walking track for serious faced middle aged and elderly ladies wearing headphones and workout gear. We also saw a mommy and me yoga class meeting in front of the still shuttered Dillard's.

Once the stores opened up, we went into the LEGO store ((!!!) I was so excited, our city doesn't have one) and made the discovery that they had building tables where kids could take a few moments and build stuff. Both kiddos enjoyed themselves immensely, and I really enjoyed looking at the display models (I am a geek, and I'm ok with that).

4.) The Museum

We finally made it to the Witte Museum on Thursday, the last day we were there.

There was lots of cool stuff to see, including really cool exhibits on hieroglyphs in West Texas, life in South Texas in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (we got to see Davy Crockett's Fiddle!), and a couple huge dinosaur skeletons. 

There was also an interactive exhibit about the human body, and how to eat healthy and keep fit.

This was a cool exhibit, but I thought extending it into the bathroom was perhaps a bit much.

This sign was posted above the toilets. Because, dang it, even peeing can be educational if you try hard enough.

5.) You Didn't Go See the Alamo?!

Nope.

We've seen it before, and there isn't much there for little kids to look at and enjoy. It can also get a little crowded, because, c'mon, it's the Alamo.

If you haven't seen it before, it is worth the trip though. And it's free admission.

(I also really recommend going to see the old mission churches. They were founded in the eighteenth century by Franciscan missionaries trying to minister and "settle" the Native American communities in the area. Some are still active parishes).

6.) Chicken and Dumplings Turn to Baby-Food-Like Mush when Frozen and Reheated.

Now you know.

7.) I...I got Nothin.' 

My muse hath left me, and I am stranded in the lurch.

Really, I can't think of another one.


The rest of this week's Quick Takes.