Focht Family Blog

Today we drove the RV into downtown San Antonio. We found a parking lot off of Bowie Street that was $20 a day for RVs and buses. It was only about a block from the Alamo so that was our first stop. Unfortunately they didn’t want photographs of the insides of the buildings so I have a picture of us in front of 4 of the 6 flags that have flown over Texas.

Next is a picture of an unusual tree that was in the middle of the courtyard that mom loved. Its branches grew towards the ground on all the sides.

After we walked around the Alamo and looked at all of the artifacts we took the kids to the Children’s Museum of San Antonio. This is the second time that I have been able to use my membership that I bought to Boonshoft Museum in Dayton, OH. They have a $100 family membership that gives you reciprocal benefits at zoos, aquariums, science museums and children’s museums that are part of national associations. The kids had a lot of fun. Here is a picture of Josh using one of the construction vehicles.

And of Samantha and Timmy playing checkers….

Because it was New Yea’s Eve they had special art projects, face painting and confetti and sparkling cider at the strike of noon. Here are pictures of the kid’s faces painted.

After we dropped off their art projects at the RV we walked to the River Center for lunch at the food court. This is a three story mall that is on the man made part of the river that goes through San Antonio. They have boat rides that you can take from the mall that goes through 2 1/2 miles through man made parts and natural parts of the river and follows the River Walk. We decided to end our day with the boat ride. I tried to take some pictures but ended up with Josh on my lap because he was getting tired. Here is a picture of five bells in La Villita that signify the five missions in San Antonio.

We are tired and are back at the park now. Although the office wasn’t that concerned with our missing hose when I asked this morning we found out when we got back today that our neighbor had taken it because they weren’t sure if we were coming back…. so we now have it back again. Tomorrow’s outing will be to Cascade Caverns.

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.

Thursday morning we woke up and walked to the Wild Animal Park. It is in the same park that the campground is in. They have quite a few animals for a small zoo. My favorite section was the lemurs that they have free-roaming together. Unfortunately my camera doesn’t zoom in enough for me to get a really good shot of them. The first few animals that I was able to get good shots of were the flamingos and the black rhino.

Next we found the zebras and Timmy wanted to have his picture taken standing on a turtle bench.

Next we found Bison or Buffalo, where we all reminisced about seeing two Buffalo heads in the back of a pickup while going out to dinner in Indiana….

The last animals we looked at were the cheetahs. They were so beautiful. There were 4 of them. I was able to get a picture of the two that were layng down next to each other.

After going through the park we went by the playground again for a few minutes and left a little before 12:00. We are now driving into Dothan, AL and are planning on being in LA by tonight. Stay tuned for more adventures…..

Our first stop was in Leesburg, GA to pick up a camera for the back of mom’s trailer that Nathan bought on Ebay. Then we headed to Albany, GA where we checked in at Chehaw Park. We were in Albany visiting one of Nathan’s customers, Harold and Leslie from Outdoor Headquarters. They are one of those couples that you feel like you have known forever. I have only had the pleasure of meeting them twice but I have thoroughly enjoyed both visits.

I took the kids over to the big playground for the afternoon. The first picture is of Joshua driving a train and Samantha is his passenger. The second is of Timmy sitting at the top of a slide. The last one is of grandma being silly with Samantha and Timmy. I was trying to get Josh to stand on one of the blocks but he was being temperamental yesterday.

After playing for awhile we went back to the RV to get ready for dinner. While we were getting ready Nathan installed the camera on the back of mom’s trailer where he had already run the wires last month. Then before dinner we went on a search for groceries since we were out of chocolate milk, which is a major issue in this household. We had passed a nice Winn-Dixie on our way in but Nathan said he found a Harvey’s that was closer. The Harvey’s he found was very small and had a very bad selection. I cleaned out all of their chocolate milk and got a few other things but I still need to find a better store. Maybe tonight we will boondock at a Walmart! :)

After groceries we drove to the country club and had a wonderful meal with Harold and Leslie. The owner of the club had two children ages 8 and 5 and they had their new Wii there. He said our kids could play with them after they had eaten. The kids had a lot of fun because they had never seen a Wii before. It is a new video game system where you actually have to move, like in tennis you swing your arm like you have a racquet. This kept the kids well entertained. Joshua and Timmy decided they wanted to go back to the RV so mom volunteered to take them. Samantha stayed with us and played some more. She got very good at the bowling. We got back at 9:58 and the gate was already closed to the park. Thankfully the lady I checked in with gave me a code but there was a sign saying that it wouldn’t work after 10:00 so we were extremely close. While we were driving in we had a deer run in front of us and then we noticed two more deer standing in the field watching us. We stopped and slowly opened the door and shone the flashlight on them so the kids could see them. They thought that was really cool.