Family In Town

We're so far away from everybody in the family, so we don't get very many visitors out here. But two of my sisters have purchased motorhomes in the last few years, and they had decided to make a big trip southeast...not to the southeast, just southeast of where they are. Turns out that's a direction that includes Houston, so on their trek east, they decided to drop in and hang out with us for a while.

It was a bit of a challenge getting each and every one of them a place to sleep at night. One sister has two kids and the other one has five. Adding eleven people to your sleeping arrangement takes some doing, but we eventually got it all worked out.

The next morning, we headed off to San Antonio, because they wanted to see the Alamo. 

It was nice as usual. At this point, I have been to the Alamo four different times, so it's become old hat for me, but I did my best to impart any knowledge or interest that I had to the rest of the family that was there. There were plenty of tour guides willing to answer our questions as well, and that was nice.

The day was hot as could be, so we were happy to be inside whenever we could be. The church itself is air-conditioned, as is the gift shop, so we spent our share of time in there. We watched the movie that they show on the patio, and I pulled them over to the live oak so that they could marvel and gasp at its beauty and size.

After everybody was ready...and sweaty, we went back out of the Alamo complex and onto the streets of San Antonio.

It was time to head down the stairs to the River Walk, probably my favorite place in San Antonio.

We didn't get far, though. As soon as we made it down all the stairs to the river, the first request for a bathroom came. 

There are no public bathrooms on the River Walk. It's like the Hollywood Walk of Fame. If you want to pee, you must pay. Not sure why that would be. In Hollywood, it's because there's literally hundreds of stoned homeless people who will make your bathroom their new home if you allow them inside, but there's no homeless people on the River Walk. I guess it's mostly just poor planning. Nobody ever thought to save space for a public restroom.

The second, third, and fourth request for a bathroom came hot on the heels of the first request. We'd only been on the River Walk for about a minute. Funny thing is that every time I've come to the River Walk, the whole time has been spent in search of a bathroom.

We found a map of the area with a bathroom marked on it that wasn't too far from where we were. We just needed to go up a staircase, across the street, around the block, and take a left. We did, and found that we were right back where we began in front of the Alamo.

We went into the San Antonio Visitor Information Center which both had a bathroom and air conditioning. This turned into a major pit stop. Everybody went to the bathroom. Everybody bought cold bottles of water. The toddler got a diaper change. More souvenirs were bought. When we finally all came out the of the building, nobody wanted to go back down to the River Walk any longer. One minute was enough to have satisfied them.

Some folks wanted to go to the San Jose Mission because it was a national park and they wanted to stamp their passports, but when we looked it up on our phones we found that it closed in ten minutes and took fifteen minutes to get there. We threw up our hands and decided to go for dinner and then head home.

My wife had found a good barbecue joint online, and that was one of the things everybody wanted to try was some Texas barbecue. Our group was so big they wanted to make us sit out on the porch, but we were not having that. It was way too hot to sit on the porch and eat. We offered to be broken into three separate parties and sit at different tables, but they changed their minds and pushed tables together for us. We were quite the group.

It's been a while since I've been in such a big family group that we could overtake a whole restaurant with just our party. That has been such a constant for all of my life. I miss that.

Anyway, the barbecue was great, and we all ate our fill, then got back in the car and made the long trip home.

The next day, which was our last full day together, we had planned to go to the Johnson Space Center and then, once we were done with that, continue on down the freeway to Galveston for some beach fun.

The space center was fun.

There is a tram out to a place called Rocket Park, where they have a few smaller rockets from the early days of the space program set up outside.

 And inside a big building next to those rockets is an entire, unused Saturn V rocket.

The Saturn V is the vehicle that took astronauts to the moon and back in the Apollo program.

It is massive, taller than the Statue of Liberty. They have all three stages, as well as the top part that went to the moon. 

Except this one didn't go to the moon. This one was for a future mission that was canceled, so it's in perfect, pristine condition for us to look at.

The tram dropped us back off at the Space Shuttle replica, and we walked through that tour.

Then we all piddled around for a while, looking at exhibits, getting drinks at the food court (it was under construction, so there wasn't much beyond vending machines to buy from), and going to the gift shop.

After everybody drained their wallets as much as they could, we decided we needed to go out to my sister's motorhome and make us some lunch. The younger kids were starting to get cantankerous. Some of the older folks as well...

We made lunch, and ate it together, and after we'd been out in the parking lot for about an hour, we realized that we weren't interested in going back in and doing any of the other stuff available. Instead, we decided to head to the beach, and get on with that.

Truthfully, we should have done that from the very beginning. I think everyone would have been happier if we'd just gone to Galveston first thing in the morning and stayed all day. I've never seen anybody so happy and content to play in the waves and stay in the waves.

They all went out into the water and never came back in. Even my own kids did that, and most times we come to the beach they're lucky if they even get in the water at all. I guess it makes a difference if you have someone to play with.

The whole time, I was really nervous. There were red flags at every lifeguard station warning us of possible rip currents that could suck even the best swimmer out to sea if he wasn't careful. They advised us not to go in too deep, and to keep our feet planted underneath us as much as possible. With that in mind, I never sat down in my beach chair for more than a couple of minutes. I spent the whole time out in the waves keeping an eye on any kid that might have slipped behind the back of their parents.

I don't even go to the beach very often, but I think I've become a little jaded by its proximity. After an hour or two, I was ready to go. But I think I was the only one. No one else wanted to leave. They stayed far longer than I thought anyone's stamina could last, and when we finally did decide to leave, we had to chase after each and every kid twice as they ran back out into the waves again.

That was our last hurrah. The next morning, we ate breakfast together, and then they got in their RVs and drove off to Louisiana. They were done with Houston and ready to see New Orleans.

We did tell them all the fun stuff to do, just like we'd done when we'd gone before. The visit from family was over, and it was time to get back to our regular lives, but I have to say that it was really nice while it lasted. We just don't get to see our loved ones much any more now that we moved away. It makes us feel comfort when we get to have them around, even if it's only for a day or two.