San Antonio- Day 2

We had a nice breakfast at the hotel the next morning and then went to the Natural Bridge Wildlife Safari just north of San Antonio. It looked like we might get rained on, but the rain held off. It was overcast all morning, which was very nice since we were in our car with the windows rolled down for an hour or so.

After looking through all of our photos we took at the safari, I've decided it needs a post of it's own. We got so many great shots of the animals; it's going to be photo overload.

It started sprinkling just as we were finishing our lunch at the safari, so it was the perfect time to head next door to the caverns. I asked which of the two tours would suit us best since we have a four year old and a 6 month old in a sling. They told us which one. I asked if it was too much for a four year old and they said she should be fine as long as she had good non-slip shoes. So we bought our tickets and waited for the next tour.

Wouldn't you know it, as we were minutes from starting the tour, a certain someone decided to get fussy and not want to hang out in the sling. The guy is always up for chilling in his sling. His timing is impeccable sometimes. I started sweating it a little and wondered if we should attempt it but decided it would be fine.

This formation is 50 feet tall to give you some idea of how large this room was. It was beautiful down there. I would've enjoyed it so much more had the rugrats not been with us.

We survived. It was a bit strenuous at times and he never did let me put him in the sling. I tried unsuccessfully several times but he just wasn't having it. The tour lasted about an hour and I actually nursed him a couple of times. It was 70 degrees with 99% humidity, so I didn't bother with a blanket. Plus, it was pretty dark and everyone was preoccupied looking at cool rocks, so I didn't worry too much about offending.

I know Clara looks horrible in this picture, but it's the only one that I took with Chris in it.

Clara was thoroughly unimpressed with the caverns. I really thought she'd think it was cool that that was underneath us and all, but nah. She complained most of the time and said she wanted out. She actually did very well for not enjoying herself. At least she didn't decide to throw a fit or want to be carried or something equally dreadful when you're trapped with a group of strangers a hundred feet below the surface.

This was at the end of the caverns and right before we went back up the hallway to exit. Chris insisted we pose for a picture with the bat guano. It's from hundreds of years ago (if I remember correctly; I was a little distracted) and it turned the rocks black. There's even a sign to the left to denote the fact that we're standing next to centuries old bat dung.

I did fine and took it very slowly, holding on to the handrails when available. Man, it would've been a piece of cake had he just cooperated and stayed in the sling! He eventually fell asleep close to the time we started to ascend the 150 feet back to the surface. I was huffing it and was as glad as Clara when I saw the sunlight pouring in.


We went back up to the visitors center to cool off and have some ice cream. I nursed Robert in the car while Chris went and bought Clara some dirt that she could "mine" for jewels. She loved that part and came away with a small baggie of precious gems.

We went back to the hotel and rested (well all except for Clara). Where does she get all this energy? Then we headed back to the Riverwalk for some dinner. But first we stopped off in front of the Alamo so us native Texans could take a picture. (The sign just above and to the right of the Alamo is our hotel.) (Is Alamo supposed to be capitalized? 'Cause I keep capitalizing it.)

We decided to go to Hard Rock and I thought I knew the way. After I led us on a long, ahem, scenic route, we finally sat down to a nice dinner on the patio. Clara started to get tired and whiney on the walk back, but once we mentioned a quick stop at the ice cream shop, she was right as rain.