Sunday, July 16, 2006

Everett went to Wal-mart to get his oil changed first thing in the morning, so I took the kids to the pool to swim for a while.  After lunch, we drove out to Carlsbad Caverns. It was just a awesome as I remembered. The kids really were fascinated by the size and all of the formations. The only thing different was that they had added handrails all the way along the trail.  The visitor center was still the same, but they are fixing to tear it all down and rebuild it this fall.  At 6:45, we made our way down to the Bat Amphitheater to wait for the bats to fly.  The last time we were here it was winter so it was the first time Everett and I had seen the bats too.  That was truly a sight to see.  They do not allow any pictures or video to be taken of the bats. Actually, they do not allow any electronic devices to be turned on at all.  They say it bothers the bats.  They can hear all kinds of sounds that we can't hear and it bothers them.  It will even make them not come out of the cave at all.

Monday, July 17, 2006

We wanted to try to take on of the caverns special guided tours but you have to make reservations well in advance.  They ranger that does the tour, told us that someone usually does not show up, so if we wanted to try to get a last minute chance to go on the tour, we could be there at 9:00.  We were up bright and early and made our way up to the canyon, hung around to find out if there were going to be any openings.  Sure enough there were, but only three.  There are four of us, so we could not go.  We hung around  up there for a while and then drove back down to the campground and went to the pool.  The kids swam for a couple of hours before checkout time.

We drove down to I-10 and then made our way east.  We stopped for the night in a campground in Ozona Texas. 

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Drove to San Antonio.  We planned to stop at the Alamo, but there was no where to park the trailer, so we just got back on I-10.  We debated on weather of not to drive straight through and get home tonight or to find some other places to visit in Texas.  No one really seemed in a big hurry for this trip to be over, so we finally agreed to make a detour from I-10 in Houston and make our way down to Galveston Island.  We made it to the Galveston Island State Park around 8:00 pm.  Everett built a campfire and we say out side for a while before getting ready for bed.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

When we first got moving this morning, we took a drive around the island just to see what is here.  Then we came back to the campground.  It really is a nice campground, right on the beach. The kids and myself put on our bathing suits and went out to the beach to play.  It seems like a typical Gulf Of Mexico beach.  The water is not very  deep at the shore, the kids can safely play in the water.  I only let them play for a couple of hours then we went back to the camper for a little while.  I did not want them to get sunburned and not be able to enjoy the rest of out stay on the beach.  In the late afternoon, when it cooled off a little we went back out to the beach to play some more.

The beach is pretty neat.  There are so many fish in the water.  You can stand out in the surf and watch them riding on the waves.  Then there are Brown Pelicans everywhere.  They swim out over the water all day.  Sometimes they are looking for a meal.  Then they fly around watching the water for a fish, when they have one picked out, they dive down into the water to catch it.   When we went back out in the evening, there were stingrays in the surf.  You could see them swimming along right past you.  That was not something I had ever seen in the surf before.

Kaleb spent most of his time on the beach digging holes and playing with the hermit crabs.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Spent the day at Schlitterbaun Water park.  This Schlitterbaun is new and still under construction so it is not all finished yet.  Personally,  Blue Bayou  has bigger water slides, but Schlitterbaun is a nicer park.  Most of the difference is in the attitude of the park ownership and personnel. 
Everyone here is much nicer.  You park for free, you can bring in your own food, you can even call out to have food delivered if you want.  It dose not seem to be because of lack of food venders, because they have plenty of those too.  They have a tubing river that goes all the way around and through the park.  It moves really fast, and has huge waves in some areas.  You can ride the river all day.  All of the slides are tube slides except one small body slide, this is where Blue Bayou has them beat with all there really big body slides.  The tubes are provided free and there are more than enough to go around, no waiting in line to get a tube.  You can use a tube in the river, or you can just swim it.  We spent a good deal of of time at the Boogie Baun.  It is a boogie board ride.  Pretty cool.  Everett and the kids tried it several times, but it really takes a lot of practice to be able to stay in it.  We stayed at the park till it closed.

Friday, July 21, 2006

We are out of time.  Today is the day we have to go home.  We drove out to the east side of the island and took the ferry out to Port Bolivar.  On the ferry ride out we got on last hurrah when several dolphins were seen swimming along side of the boat.  Drove straight through to get home.  We were home by 7:00 pm.  Now comes the big job of getting everything unpacked.