Once I reached Houston, it took us nearly an hour to reach G’s home. “Houston is big”, G always said and I had just got the glimpse. By the time we reached home had dinner and slept, it was 3.00 AM. Oh yes!!! Dinner was yummy rice and sambar which G had prepared. He is a pretty good cook, though he knows just 3-4 dishes but very good at these. The next day (Christmas Day) we got up pretty late. We dint have any plans to go out, since everything would be closed. G had got some dosa batter from the Indian store. We had some yummy dosas, lazed around, had lunch after some time and slept. This was an ideal lazy day and we were just happy that we both were together. In the evening we went around Houston, went to one of the Indian chat houses. We had yummy chat there. After this drove around and came back and watched some movie on the laptop.
The next day after lunch, we started for San Antonio. The plan was to go to Sea World the next day. That day we drove for 3 hrs reached the hotel (Omni – 4 Star Hotel). We were on the 11th floor and view was pretty good from there.
In the evening after some snack we went to the RiverWalk in San Antonio. After initial hiccup of getting lost, we reached the place. And what a place that was. The roads were full. They were beautifully lit up.
And once we parked and went down to the river, it was a beautiful sight. The River was nothing to speak about, it was more of a canal, but the walk was something we enjoyed the whole evening. There were so many restaurants on the walk.
There was also an amphitheatre, and as we kept on walking we came to a mall and they had some live music playing on the river side. They had a huge beautiful Christmas tree. This was called the River center.
The cool breeze and the river walk, made this walk so romantic. As usual G forgot where our car was parked and we had a discussion on which way to go, and as usual I won. If we were hungry we had the option of taking a boat ride along with dinner there. One Mexican restaurant had this dinner on the boat option. I would have loved that, but by then we too tired walking along the river. They had boat tours, with a guide, but the queue was so long that we dropped this idea, and decided we would come the next day for the same. After a very long walk and talk, we came back to the hotel tired, had some pizza and rested for day. It would be a long day next.
Saturday : We were near Sea World by 10.30 AM. This is the third time I was visiting Sea World and I still find it so amazing. Ofcourse it was a different one this time, last 2 times it was the Orlando Sea World. It was a bright sunny day perfect for a outing like this. As soon as we entered I gave the camera to G so that he could start taking pics. There was this beautifully decorated Christmas tree as soon as we entered. Then we scanned through the map and decided which shows to attend.
The first one was Sealion and Walrus show. This was about the Christmas spirit. How the sealions responded to the humans was just amazing. They were so cute too. And all of sudden comes out a huge Walrus. It was fun to watch these wonderful creatures.
After this we rushed to the most famous show in Sea World. The Shamu Adventures. Shamu is the Killer Whale. It’s very huge, and they had number of Shamus with them all of them equally adorable.
We were awestruck by the acrobatics performed by all the Shamus and their instructors. They seemed one with each other. It seemed like they were inseperables. The funniest moment is when these whales wave at u with their tail. The best is when from underwater, they just rise high with the instructor on their top.
I could go on and on, on this 20 min show, but the experience of watching it can never be justified. Out of all three times this was when I enjoyed.
First time we went, Shamu had given birth to junior Shamu just the previous day, hence show was cancelled and we could just watch the bonding where junior and senior swam together. Second time, we went to the last show, and probably the whales were tired too, so not too impressive. But this time they bowled me over.
Once this got over, our stomach started grumbling and we rushed to eat something.
After this we went to ride, which was called steel eel. This was a long roller coaster ride which would go up an down. We first thought its not good to go right after food, but still went ahead looking at the long queue. So we knew we would have enough time. And it was a great ride, not too scary but quite thrilling and too much fun.
Our next destination was another show, Viva as it was called. This involved dolphins and humans and belogua whales (white cute ones). This show was spectacular too.
We enjoyed this as good as we enjoyed Shamu. Once this was done, we wanted to go a ride Atlantis and then we wanted to just roam around and look at the dolphin feeding area and sharks and corals.
Off we went to Atlantis, This is a water ride, but the trick is to sit in the right place so that you don’t get wet. I dint want to spoil my pretty dress so sat right in the middle. The ship in which we sat went up, we could see the whole of sea world, then gave us a 360 degree horizontal view, then we zooped backwards to the next point. Again we turned around, so that we could have a fall a few foot from the ground. It was amazing. I wanted to do this again, but then me and G were just talking and dint realize when we came out.
We went towards the next thing in our agenda, but came across few huge horses. I don’t really remember their names, but when you look at that and talk about horse power, I sure can imagine how damaging it could be. Awesome horses, I must say.
Once we crossed these, there were dolphins in this area, and we could buy fish and feed them too.
I was too excited and bought it so that when they come near to eat we could touch them. But due to some problems, I could touch nor feed them… G could do both and I was really angry coz of this.
Anyway a small tiff is always a sign of a good trip. Then off to the shark viewing and other types of fish in the large aquarium.
Somehow this dint interest me, possibly coz I dint have the mood, since I couldn’t touch the dolphins. But they are so adorable. By now the day was coming to an end. And so we ended this splendid day by going out to an Indian restaurant. We had some nice food. We were too exhausted and dint have the energy to go back to the river walk so ditched that idea, just went to the hotel and saw TV. It was fun. It was really long time when we both saw TV together.
Then came the last day of the trip and we had to go back to Houston. We decided on visiting Natural Bridge Caverns and Safari nearby. These were on the way to Houston. Within an hour we reached the Caverns. It was a cold day, and we rushed in to get the tickets. As our trip started, we were briefed on why it was called the Natural Bridge Caverns.
This is the natural bridge which broke down due to some natural calamity
We then got to hear stories of several Stalactites (ones hanging on the ceiling), Stalagmites (growing up from the ground) and Columns (are those where stalactites and stalagmites meet). I am very much fascinated by caverns.
They grow for hundreds of years and growing only probably just a cubic cm per year. We had big halls filled with these, along with the tallest of 50ft.
There were ones shaped like a jelly fish, and a hall filled with these as if there was a gathering about some discussion.
Our imaginations could run wild and far. Once we were done with this, we came out to bright sunlight. It was fun.
We then headed towards the Safari. At the entrance, we were given the feeding food for animals. We could take our cars and go into this safari.
There were no carnivores animals. As we went on, there were so many deer, antelopes, bisons, zebra. All of these running free in the wild. Ok… ok they all were not running, but they were surely engrossed in their own worlds.
As soon as they saw some one from the car with food, they would come near, gobble up the food which was provided.
That's my hair... we were this close
There were even a ostrich, and it was fun when it came running towards our car and started pecking on G’s window. The speed at which he rolled up the windows was awesome.
If we dint have power windows, I am sure G would have holes on his face.
Well it was fun to be with these animals. As it neared the end of the day, we left to Houston.
We reached home by 8. I cooked after a while. And we called it a day hoping for a beautiful week ahead.
I wasn’t sad that the weekend was over. I still got to be with G for the whole week.
