What Luke Did...

Well, it hardly seems fair for the girls to get to go to American Girl camp and for Luke to do nothing...so he and I spent a few of the mornings of last week out and about and on the go! I was fortunate enough to have a friend from church whose children were attending classes at the Academy too, so we carpooled. That saved us both some time and very precious gas money, however, on those days that I did drive, Luke and I went 'exploring.'

It is hard to believe how little I know about downtown San Antonio after living here a year already, but anytime I have gone downtown I either rode in a car with someone or followed someone - hardly the way for me to learn how to get somewhere! Last week I began to get my bearings and really had fun finding some of San Antonio's landmarks on my own.

The 'big' kids classes started at 9 a.m. at the Academy and so on Tuesday I dropped them off and headed over to the San Antonio zoo (which opens at 9 a.m.). It is only about 5 mintues away from the Academy, so we got there just as they were opening for the day. It was already getting hot, but it wasn't very crowded...so I pushed the umbrella stroller while Luke walked/ran from one exhibit to the next. It was early enough that alot of the animals were up and around...several even eating their 'breakfast.'

One of the new exhibits at the museum is Africa Live - I think that they have been working on it every time we have gone for the past couple of years. Well, it was worth the wait! The building you are in looks like a cave...and all of the exhibits - several fish, snakes, frogs, alligators/crocodiles... look like they are built into the walls of the cave. They have an AMAZING hippo exhibit now. It is like they are in an aquarium-like tank and you can actually watch them swim. In the past, you always looked at the hippos from above...and truthfully, it wasn't very much to see...they spend most of their time under water...but now you can really enjoy them! Although Luke believes they are elephants...and doesn't really accept anything to the contrary! ha! A couple of hours was really all we could take...by 11 a.m. we were sweating...and fortunately for us it was time to pick everyone up again.

On Thursday I drove again, and Luke and I went to the Children's Museum. I didn't even know San Antonio had a Children's Museum until my friend Lisa and I drove by it on Monday and she began telling me about it. Turns out...it is right across Houston Street from the Texas Ranger Museum...which if I am recalling correctly has the largest collection of antlers in the world?? All I know is that they have antlers hanging from the awning outside and it looks like wall to wall antlers on the ceiling when peeking in from the windows outside. Now who wouldn't want to pay money to see that!?! Forgive the sarcasm...I am sure that there is great Texas Ranger memorabelia as well.

ANYWAYS - the Children's Museum was fabulous. There were a lot of hands-on exhibits that I think the girls would enjoy as well. Some of Luke's favorites included the large Brio train cars, the front end loader that you could 'drive,' the cow that you could pretend to milk, the fish aquarium, the trolley car, and the bubble room.

I was surprised that Luke didn't want to get on the airplane...they have a HUGE airplane on the second floor. You can pretend to be the pilot or you can be a pretend air traffic controller in their control tower. Luke didn't want to have ANYTHING to do with it. He didn't want to get in their little boat either...but he did get in the trolley car and drive...several times! ha!

O.K. - so now that I am finding out more and more about the sites of San Antonio...we need some visitors that I can try out my new locations and sense of direction on. I think I could even get us all down to the riverwalk in one piece! (but I'm not making any promises...ha!)