San Antonio

The first weekend in November we took a three night road trip to Texas. I had been looking forward to taking a road trip to San Antonio ever since we moved here. It's only about 5 and a half hours driving time away and has a Costco and Trader Joe's. I was so anticipating bringing allergy friendly food items in a cooler back here; I was also excited to just be in America for an easy weekend of English without paying for five airline tickets.

Well, as often things go, our San Antonio trip didn't look anything like we thought it would. We felt plenty safe driving through Mexico and everything went seamless...until exactly one mile from our airbnb rental house in San Antonio, when our car died. Thankfully Ben was able to get it to the shoulder on the freeway, cool down the engine with a bit of water, and limp it slowly to our rental house. Long story short, we ended up having to get the car towed to a random mechanic that had a couple reviews online, only to find out that the engine was finished. Unbeknownst to us, the car had a leak and apparently the warning light to indicate this was also broken. It had probably been dry of fluids for a while, and we didn't notice it because we only drive short distances here in Monterrey; however, the 300+ miles in the heat was too much for the engine without any coolant. Basically: worse case scenario for car trouble, we had to replace the engine. 

I can't begin to describe how frustrated, angry, and sad Ben and I were. Why didn't we just check the oil and water before going on our road trip? (We'll never make that mistake again!) Why didn't we take the car to a mechanic after purchasing it? (Language barrier!) The list goes on and on. 

However, through all the frustration, we were able to clearly see the Lord's protection and provision for our family. First of all, our car didn't break down in the middle of nowhere Northern Mexico. It also didn't break down on the freeways of Monterrey while I was driving with the kids. We were able to speak the same language as the tow truck driver and mechanic, which is a definite plus. Also, the Lord provided a ride home for us where we didn't have to buy 5 plane tickets: Dustin and Derrick Leonard just happened to be in Laredo for the weekend so Derrick could take the SAT. Mind you: not the whole family, but just the two of them, which meant our whole family could fit into their vehicle. So, we rented a car for our few days in San Antonio, drove it south to the border town of Laredo, turned it in, and hitched a ride home with friends. How amazing is that?

So, our quick trip to San Antonio for some Trader Joe's hashbrowns and peanut butter, turned into a bottomless hole of car problems and money. It was not the glorious American break I had pictured, but we still managed to have some fun. Here's some glimpses of what we did: 

The first evening, after sorting out car problems, we went to the downtown Riverwalk. 

We explored a bit, and then ate the most incredible ribs at a restaurant called The County Line. The boys liked them so much (especially Josh), that we had to order a second round. (Here we realized that being able to ask the hostess if they have a gluten free menu is such a treat...that would never happen in Mexico).

The second day we started with an amazing breakfast at another gluten friendly restaurant called The Magnolia Pancake Haus (which seriously gave us enough leftovers for two more meals afterwards). Then I took the rental car to run some errands: Trader Joe's and Whole Foods are such special places that I greatly miss! While we weren't able to bring back as much as we imagined (due to the car problems), we still did manage to get 8 packs of hashbrowns, 3 bags of honey crisp apples, and other various goods for a small cooler. Then, we realized that we could leave all our dry goods in our car while it was being fixed, which prompted a second trip to Trader Joe's for no less than 16 jars of our favorite peanut butter. Yes, we're crazy.

While I ran errands, Ben took the boys to the "Doseum," a hands-on children's museum. The kids loved it and said that it was their favorite thing in San Antonio. 

That afternoon, we headed to the Alamo.

It's really not that great of a historic monument, to be quite honest. Also, after living in Mexico and learning more of history another point of view besides just America, the Alamo a kind of sad story of conquered people. (I can give you a history lesson on that some day if you'd like, but I'd do a poor job of explaining myself here for sure!) The big boys and Ben spent some time reading history via these boards. I spent that 20 minutes trying to keep Josh from knocking those boards down or accidentally hitting other people with the sticks he discovered.

The boys and I in front of the Alamo.

We were all tired out that afternoon, so headed home to rest before driving back to the city for a cool lights presentation at a cathedral downtown.

We were initially blasted with speaker noise in our front row seats (oh, is that why no one else was sitting there?), and quickly moved back to watch from afar. 

There was music and lights which depicted a history of Texas. It was pretty neat, but we wished that there was a commentary because it was pretty hard to follow. 

Sometimes I forget that they are twins...then there are moments like this that they look so similar! 

Day 3 we visited a place called Morgan's Wonderland. It's a type of amusement park that is specially designed for children with handicaps. It was not only a cool place to visit, but also a neat thing to expose our children to. Everything at the park was handicap friendly and the overall atmosphere of the park was calm and peaceful, for children that may have sensory problems. 

Gathering stickers from the workers

Seth, Josh, Sam

There was a pretty awesome carousel with unique animals. The park wasn't busy so the kids rode several times without any wait time. Sam is on the eagle.

Josh on the giraffe and Seth a stallion

One section of the park was a really neat water play area

Ben was all about making a dam with the kids

Shooting balls on the stream of water

Somebody offered to take a family picture of us, which I'm always thankful for.

Train ride around the park

The boys went fishing for little minnows in the pond

The fish only nibble on the bait, but it was still pretty fun.

The sand pit was really cool and featured digging machines that someone could use even from a wheelchair. 

Joshy enjoyed driving his jeep.

Late lunch that day was much missed Thai food. Then that evening we went downtown again to a park called Hemisfair. It was my favorite place of the whole trip as it was beautifully landscaped, full of all different kinds of people (we don't see much diversity here!), and overall a really neat atmosphere. 

The boys used their souvenir money to purchase remote control vehicles. The park was a perfect place to drive them around.

Sammy in the front, Seth climbing towards the back right side.

(left) Joshy was testing his limits on the play structures, but did a great job. 

(right) Special swings for the boys

Best picture of the trip

San Antonio definitely was not my favorite city to visit. Maybe our perception was just tainted by the car problems, or maybe we're just spoiled by the beauty of our home city, Portland, but overall we weren't too impressed. It was nice to have a slice of home, especially in the food that we ate. It was also nice to shop in suburbs again, where we could find any store that we wanted within a five mile radius. Perhaps we'll find our way back up to Texas, but probably will drive the extra hour and forty-five minutes north to Austin as we have heard that it is a beautiful city. 

Here is the conclusion of our car trauma: our car was in San Antonio for a grand total of 18 days. Unfortunately, during those 18 days I also got into a fender bender accident with our one working car (the day after Seth got the stomach flu and threw up in said car, and while Ben and Josh were also home with the stomach flu...it's been a spell of rough luck for the Morris'). Thankfully no one was hurt and we can drive the car, but the combination of one car breaking down and having an accident with the other has me feeling pretty anxious on the roads these days. I'm looking forward to American driving full of cautious people and blinkers here in a week or so!