This past week we took our family vacation to San Antonio. We had planned for this just to be a fun, relaxed vacation; unfortunately, it turned out to be anything but relaxing. We left on Wednesday morning with plans to stop at the Alamo before checking into our resort. This was Emily's one request this year on our vacation. She loves anything having to do with history. While eating lunch, we decided to see a documentary on the Alamo at the IMAX theaters. This was a change of plans, but we thought it might help Emily and Luke understand some of the history behind the Alamo. While Jeff and I enjoyed the movie, Luke wanted to know why were those men were being so mean to each other and Emily wanted to know if those were the real people that fought at the Alamo. I do not think that they got it! After the movie, we walked to the Alamo. It was a mere 102 outside, so we did not stay long admiring the Alamo.
Then we drove to our resort, La Cantera. We had stayed there two years ago and enjoyed it. It is one of the nicest places we have ever stayed.
However, this time it seemed that the air condtioning was not working in our room. We just thought that it was because it was so hot outside and the air had not really been turned on before we came in the room. So, we decided to change into our swimming suits and hit the amazingly, pretty pools.
There is a small slide the kids really enjoy. While we were swimming, the hotel staff was making S'mores at the firepit for the kids to enjoy. It was getting late so we decieded to go back to the room, change clothes and get something to eat for supper. Unfortunately, when we went back to our room, it was still pretty hot. So, we decided to call the front desk and let them know that there must be something wrong with the room's air conditioning. So, we were moved to another room. As a side note, our first room was on the top floor . A few days before leaving, we received an email asking if we wanted to upgrade our room for a short fee. We decided to take advantage of the offer because it allowed us to recieve free breakfasts, drinks, and snacks while we were staying there. The hotel did not have any other rooms on the top floor , so they moved us to another floor, but still allowed us to take advantage of the upgrades that came with the room on the top floor. Needless to say, the second room was not as nice as the first and the kids were a little disappointed because it did not have a walk out balacony. I am not sure why they liked the balcony so much, but for them it was just so much fun to go out there. You can tell my kids are not use to staying at hotels because they were so impressed with the phone in the bathroom and that there were two sinks in the bathroom. I just love that! However, the room was not as nice as what we were paying for, so we talked to the front desk once again. We were so over joyed with their kindness. They told us they would move us to the Casitas. They are these EXTREMELY nice rooms a little bit away from the main hotel area. It was definitely the nicest place we had ever stayed. The kids loved it because we had our own swimming pool and hot tub right outside our back porch. These little houses are not near the hotel, so they give you your own personal golf cart to use to get around the resort while you are staying there. That was a lot of fun, especially for Jeff. I think that was his favorite part of the vacation!
Here is a picture of the swimming pool and hot tub at our casita!
Finally, we were ready to go eat. As we were leaving, I noticed I had two missed calls on my phone. One from my mother and then one from my sister. At first, I did not think much about it. I thought that maybe they were just calling to check to see if we had gotten there safely. I called my mother back and from the minute she answered the phone, I could tell by her voice something was wrong. She immediatley said she needed to call me back. She quickly called me back and said that my grandmother was in the hospital and just had had a stroke. She started filling me in on the details. Needless to say, I was beyond sad and worried about her. She was not doing well. At this point, she was not able to walk, talk clearly or remember anything. Ofcourse, I no longer wanted to be in San Antonio. Jeff said we could get our things and go home, but my mother was against us leaving and said we should stay and she would call me if anything changed. For the next 6-7 hours I stayed in contact with my family via texting and calling. Throughout this time, they had decided to fly my grandmother by helicopter to Temple to see a specialist that was going to attempt a procedure to stop the stroke. It was a risky procedure because of her age , which by the way is 89. They were going to make the final decision once the specialist saw her in Temple. My parents, along with my aunts and uncles all drove to Temple while my grandmother was being flown to Temple. My dad called me at 2:00 in the morning and told me that after the new dr's evaluation they decided to not do the procedure. It was just too risky and she was not bad enough to take that risk. I tried to get some sleep that night, but it was really hard to relax.
After talking to my mother on Thursday morning, we decided to stay unless things got worse with my grandmother. So, we got ready and went to Fiesta Texas. This was our second time to go with the kids. Not much has changed since the last time we were there. It was beyond hot and nothing too special. I think the kids enjoyed the rides, but by 2:00 we had seen and done all that Fiesta Texas has to offer.
So, we went back to the resort to cool off in the pools. This was one of my favorite moments of our vacation. The water was so refreshing and the staff was there around the pool to wait on your every need. I loved the Strawberry Smoothie they brought to me!
After swimming, we got dressed and did a little shopping at this little place near the resort. It has all of my favorite shops. However, we did not get to stay long because we had told the kids we would take them to play Putt- Putt. We were going to go to this little place not too far from the resort that we had played at before the last time we were there on vacation. We were not inside the establishment more than 5 minutes, when we heard over the loud speaker, " Would the owners of a Black Chevy Tahoe please come to the front desk". It did not sound good and indeed it was not. Upon seeing the manger of the place, he informed us that our car had just been broken into. We immediately went outside and looked to see how bad it was. They had used a screw driver to break the lock in order to get in. Needless to say, they destroyed the lock and driver side door handle to get in. They destroyed the inside of the car by opening up the center console and glove compartment looking for stuff. They did not take much other than some of the accessories that go with my iphone. The bad part was just the thought of someone violating our personal space and going through all of our stuff. The manager said that they had them on the security tapes. It appeared that there were two guys and then one girl that waited in the car. All of this happenend within about 20 seconds and it continued the whole time the car alarm was going off. How good are the car alarms???? Fortunately, it seemed that they stopped not because of the alarm going off, but because another employee that worked at the Putt- Putt place was taking out the trash and noticed the alarm and saw the guys at my car. Once they made eye contact, they jumped in their car and sped away. I guess we were lucky because they really did not take much especially since Jeff's set of golf clubs were in the back of the car. I guess they got scared off before they were able to take them. After filing a police report with the SAPD, we were assured that we would probabaly not hear anything else. It appears that car burglaries are not high on their priority list in San Antonio. Obviously, we did not feel like playing much putt - putt at this point. So, we went to Target to buy some stuff to clean up our car. Not a fun evening and nothing I really wished our kids had to be a part of.
Of course, this post would not be complete without a picture of my car! :(
Finally, on Friday things started to seem to get better. Jeff was able to play golf at one of the Resort Golf courses that is super nice. Then after some more swimming, I was able to have a massage and a pedicure. I really enjoyed it considering all that had recently taken place. We had a semi nice evening eating supper at Papasitos. The food is always good, but the service was not great and the manager noticed it and gave us a $25 gift card for our next visit to their restarurant. At this point, we did not even really care that the service was not good. We were just glad to be eating a good meal and appreciate that nothing bad had happenend that day.
On Saturday, we checked out and started back home. Jeff and the kids were kind enough to let me do a little shopping at the outlet mall in San Marcos.
All in all, was it all that bad? I guess that is up to you and how much one can tolerate. Thankfully, we are back at home. My grandmother has been released to a rehab facility back in town. Her stroke was on the left side of her brain which controls her memory. She is doing ok physically, but struggles with remembering. Please keep her in your prayers.
