The Riverwalk and Haunted Hotels.

"Remember the Alamo!" I won't even pretend that I'm a history buff (or that museums and National Monuments are the first on my vacation "to-do" list) but when it comes down to it, it's pretty cool to be present in the actual spot where an extremely monumental battle occurred.

Since living near Austin we've been to San Antonio many times and also to the Alamo and Riverwalk many times but this was the first time I actually brought my camera to take some pictures. Our hotel was super close to the Alamo too so all the stars aligned to be able to take pictures on this trip. (Which was probably our last trip to San Antonio before we move!)

Just steps from the Alamo is the famous Riverwalk. If you've never been here it is something that I would recommend seeing. The San Antonio River runs right through the center of the city and along the many veins of the river the city has built shops and restaurants. There are even tour boats that travel right through the middle of everything.

When we go to the Riverwalk the kids always get to eat at "The Rainforest Cafe". They love it!

As I was walking back to our hotel I decided to take a couple more pictures of the Alamo (I was without Jon and the kids). When I was taking the pictures someone asked if I wanted a picture in front of the Alamo. I'm hardly ever in a picture so I thought, sure...So here I am in front of the camera. (I'm realizing that I'm way to critical of myself in pictures. I just need to suck it up and get more pictures of me WITH my family instead of just taking pictures OF them. ...but that's another post...)

Along with the fun "jumping on the bed" pictures from the hotel we also decided to play around with the shutter speed on my camera in the hotel. It was nighttime and the room was dark except for the moonlight coming in from the widows. I put my camera on a table and set the shutter speed to about 20 seconds long! Meaning when I clicked the shutter release button the camera would then take a picture for 20 seconds. With Jon coaching the kids we took some fun pictures of them. He would have them hold one position for about 10 seconds and then quickly move to the next position and hold it until the shutter released. This is what we got...

(ISO 400, 30mm, f/2.2, 20 seconds)

There were rumors that the hotel we were staying in was haunted...so of course Jon couldn't resist taking this picture:

I handheld the camera pointing it at the windows. The shutter speed was 8 seconds. Jon stood in front of the window for about 3 seconds and then quickly ducked down making a creepy ghost-like figure appear in the window. (We didn't show the kids this picture, btw. We didn't want to be up all night with them. :) )

...are we the only crazy family that does weird stuff to entertain ourselves in a hotel?


The next day we took the kids iceskating! I actually took figure skating lessons for 4 years when I was growing up so I knew a thing or two about it. I was excited to get back on the ice after 22ish years. But my expectations were shattered when I learned they only rented out hockey skates for adults and they were SOOOOO uncomfortable. Oh well, the kids had fun. And Jon was able to finally use his hockey skates after almost 10 years of moving them around, state to state. I found out that he is quite the skater. There's not much that this guy can't do well.

And there it is...our San Antonio trip.

Where are you planning on traveling to this summer?