Focht Family Blog

This morning we woke up and drove the RV to Sea World. It was a fun but tiring day. As soon as we got into the park we went to see the Budweiser Clydesdale horses. Nathan had looked before on their sites to see where you could go to see the horses and couldn’t find information listed. Seems like they would tell you they were at Sea World. Here is a picture of Diamond, one of the horses.

Theses horses were easily the biggest horses I have ever seen. Next up were the dolphins. I mentioned that I like wolves. I love dolphins even more. They are so beautiful and graceful. I told Samantha that once Joshua is old enough I am taking all of us to swim with the dolphins. This part of the park allows you to buy fish to feed to the dolphins. When they are close to you to get the fish you can pet them. Their skin is like smooth, slippery leather. I will not ever forget being able to feed and pet a dolphin. We bought 4 fish so Nathan helped Joshua with his fish and Samantha, Timmy and I all got a fish. The lady said not to let the dolphins see the tray because they know that there are 4 fish in them and they will wait until you give them all 4 before moving on. They are very smart creatures. Here is a close up of one of the dolphins and of Nathan petting one.

After petting and feeding the dolphins we went to the shows. The first show I forgot to get pictures at. It was acrobatics with people, dolphins, and beluga whales. The second show was the Shamu show. I took a few pictures but had to put my camera away because the only seats that were open were in the soak zone and I didn’t want my camera to be ruined. Poor Joshua had fallen asleep on my lap and was rudely awoken by a drenching of cold saltwater.

After lunch we went on ONE ride with Samantha and Joshua. Mom wasn’t feeling well and Timmy was afraid. It was a flume ride that we got a little wet on. Then we went to the sea lions where we bought more fish to feed. Unfortunately you cannot touch the sea lions so you just have to toss the fish to them. Samantha was thrilled that she tossed hers and it landed right in one of their mouths. Here is a picture of one of the sea lions begging.

Right after this we went to the sea lion show. It was a cute little mystery where the sea lions are looking for Uncle Max, who has disappeared. The show had 4 sea lions, an otter and a walrus in it. In the end they find out that Max isn’t missing and he shows up. Max is the walrus. Here is a picture of two of the sea lions and the walrus.

One of the funniest parts of this show was that we were once again in the splash zone. We were in the last row so we didn’t get that wet but when the water came our way it was a huge wave with a lot of wind throwing it. Here is a picture of what it did to Josh’s hair. :)

After the show we went to look at the sharks and then said goodbye to the dolphins. Unfortunately they wouldn’t come up to us because it was pass feeding time and none of us had fish to feed to them. :) I will forever remember those dolphins.

The only bad part of the day was when we came back our hose was missing. This park is very nice but they were recently bought by a corporation and they have a few things on their website that are no longer here. They advertise a hot tub, which they got rid of. They advertise that they sell discount tickets to the area attractions, they don’t. So far when we have left just for the day at any of the parks we have gone to, I just disconnect our hose from our RV and leave it hooked to the faucet so it is easier for hooking up when we get back instead of having to roll up the hose everyday if we will be at the same place for more than one day. The office was already closed so I am hoping that I find out in the morning that they picked it up not knowing we were coming back, although they should have known. So, right now all we have is our little hose for water. I am glad I didn’t leave anything else out.

We spent the night at Camping World and we were at the Forbidden Gardens when they opened so that we could go on their first tour. While waiting for the tour they have areas with displays of different items that were part of the history of China. The Forbidden Gardens were created by a man who decided his children were not learning enough about the history of China in school.

Here is a picture of Nathan and the kids by a terra cotta horse that was at the entrance.

One of the displays we looked at had examples of the types of architecture used. Here is Samantha in front of one of the examples.

While waiting outside for the tour to start Timmy decided he wanted a picture by one of the miniatures in the gardens.

Once on the tour the first thing they show you is the models of the terra cotta soldiers. Here are some of the full-size models they have.

Here is as big of a picture as I could take of the largest pit they have that is modeled after Emperor Qin’s gravesite. He wanted to have his army with him in the afterlife so they buried him with terra cotta soldiers. Each soldier was unique because each represented a unique soldier.

Here is a close up of one small section of soldiers with horses.

They even had a pit where all of the soldiers and horses were gray. They said when the original site was being excavated they found a section where all of the terra cotta soldiers had been burned. They think that Emperor Qin’s enemies found the burial site, took the weapons and burned the soldiers.

After we went through the area with the pits we went into another area that was a miniature version of the Forbidden City in China. Here are two of my favorite pictures of this area.

After the Forbidden Gardens we drove to San Antonio and checked into the Blazing Star RV Resort. It is a really nice park with paved sites and a heated pool. However, someone forgot to tell God that Texas is supposed to be hot because right now it is a bit chilly. We took a walk with Misty and took the kids to the playground to get rid of some energy. Tomorrow we are going to go to Sea World because Samantha has been wanting to go to one. The RV park has a shuttle that goes to Sea World but I think we will just take the RV. Monday will be spent downtown going to the Alamo, the River Walk and maybe the Children’s Museum. Tuesday and Wednesday will be at Caverns. We check out of San Antonio on Wednesday and will start heading towards San Diego.

We finally made it to Louisiana! Timmy has been very upset that we had a missing state on our map in the middle of all of the other states. We came into Louisiana last night and had dinner with one of my “Garnet sisters”. When I was pregnant with Josh, I started posting on Babycenter with a group of girls that were all due within the same week. Eventually we split off and formed a group on yahoo and we have been typing to each other for 3 1/2 years. I am going to try to meet them if I am near any of them. My first picture is of Lanette with her two children, Caroline and Carson with me and our three.

After we had dinner we drove for about an hour to a Cabela’s because they have RV parking and we were curious about them and wanted to walk around the store. They opened at 8:00 and we went in with the kids and walked all around. The animals displayed were nothing short of artistry on the taxidermist part. They had a section that was just African animals and had it set up so they looked like they were doing things that were natural for them. There was even an elephant and a white rhino. Here is a picture of a lioness attacking her prey.

There was another area that had bears and mountain type animals. One of my favorites was the timber wolf. I have always loved wolves.

Here are two pictures I took that I just can’t believe they were able to do. The goat is not touching anything but the bear’s mouth. The mountain lion is not touching anything but the deer’s back (with one paw).

And finally… before leaving the parking lot we had to put our new sticker on….

We drove through Houston today. We were trying to get to the Forbidden Gardens in time for the last tour but we were a little late. We decided to park for the night at Camping World and we will go on the first tour in the morning before heading to San Antonio. While here, Nathan had my mom buy her tube that she wanted so that she could have a septic hose of her own again. So here is Nathan installing it in the parking lot with his little helper.