San Antonio - Day 2

This was our first whole day in San Antonio, and I have to say that it was pretty good! The night we got in we sat in the hotel and kind of talked about what we wanted to do for the rest of the week, though our plans did end up changing some. We decided that we would go to the zoo the next morning though, and then we went to bed. As you all know, we sprung forward on Sunday, but we didn't worry about setting an alarm. It was a vacation after all! So, thanks to the time change, we ended up finally waking up and getting out of bed at NOON. It was wonderful! Then we got up and headed out to the zoo. While my mom was texting me about how bad the weather was back home, this is what we got outside to...

It was wonderful! Especially after driving through the rain all day the day before. It was still a little cool when we got to the zoo, but we still enjoyed it a lot. (You see, I'm secretly still a child inside, and I LOVE zoos. In face, I went with Michael's family to our zoo today. That will be a whole other post!) Anyway, I got some pretty nice pictures there, too!

 1. The elephant was SO cute, it was swinging it's trunk back and forth like it was dancing. I took a video of it as well :]
2. Look at that hippo! I could not believe how big it was!
3. I loved this bear because we're always telling my dog he looks like a black bear (and obviously he understands this), so I just had to take a picture!
4. Zebras are cute, enough said.
5. I just like the picture, rhinos are huge, too!
6. Isn't the cheetah pretty just laying there?

The only thing that really upset me about this zoo was that they did NOT have giraffes! (what kind of zoo is that, anyway?). They had them on the directories around, but not on the recent maps. So they don't have them anymore :/

We thought the zoo would take us a lot longer, but it only took us a couple of hours, and that was even with having lunch there. Gotta love hot dogs and chips! So then we had to sit in the car and decide what we wanted to do the rest of the day so we did not waste gas going to the hotel and out again. Like I ended with yesterday, sure enough we ended up back at that mall. We ended up having to use the parking garage again since everywhere else was full. We decided to check out Ripley's Believe it or Not, since we had never been before.

I have to tell you, it was pretty cool! There were a lot of unique things to see. One of the many things I love about Michael is how much he loves learning as well. It took us a lot longer than most people because we always have to stop and read everything. I'm glad we did, because they had a lot of interesting things! Like this giraffe skeleton (had to have giraffes somewhere since the zoo certainly didn't!)

 Or this Eiffel Tower made completely out of toothpicks!

It was pretty neat, and it took up some time as well, which was really nice. After that, since we were already paying for parking and we were right there, we headed down to the riverwalk to walk around for awhile. We had already decided we would eat there tonight, too. We found a place called Ritas, and it was amazing. (It also helps me towards completing a number on my 101/1001 list. Eating at new restaurants). They had great margaritas, too! After dinner we headed back to the hotel where we watched some Big Bang Theory and went to be early! Come back tomorrow to read about day three: Sea World!

-Tiffany

Spring Break

It's finally spring break time! While I have been enjoying student teaching and really care about my sixth graders, I definitely need a break right about now! I can't believe in about eight weeks I'll be graduating from college (one week is spring break, and then I have a week off between my last day of student teaching and graduation). Anyway, back to the point of this post...

If you have read through my 101/1001 list (it's on it's own page and can be found up on the page tab ^^^), then you know one of my things is to go on a spontaneous road trip. Well, Michael and I really wanted to go somewhere this spring break. We haven't gotten to spend much time together this semester, and we've never gone on a trip just the two of us for more than a weekend. Our intent was to go to Disney World since we can fly for free on standby, but then all of the flights filled up. (Boo!). After that, we decided we just wouldn't go anywhere.

Then, about a week ago, I sent him a text asking how he felt about going to San Antonio. We had both been there before, but it was when we were young with our families, so I knew we would appreciate it in a whole new way. So, while it might not be completely "spontaneous," it is for us. We like to make sure we have a place to stay when we go somewhere, so we did book a hotel.

So as of tomorrow morning we are off to spend some time together. Seeing Shamu and some great museums, I'm really looking forward to it. I will be gone tomorrow until sometime on Wednesday, so I will talk to you all again, then!

Have a great weekend/week!
-Tiffany

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

So, I made my 101/1001 list, and one of the items on the list is to see at least three movies a year with my parents. I have always been close to my parents, and going to the movies is one of our favorite things to do together. Of course, this is much easier to do right now since I'm currently living with them and can't spend my weekends with Michael since he's away at school.

This past weekend we went to see Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. We had been wanting to see it since the previews first came out, and it felt like it took forever for it finally to open, and then we waited another weekend. (We never go to a moving on hoping weekend since it's usually crazy, aside from Harry Potter and Twilight).

We knew from the previews that it was probably going to be incredibly sad. Everyone remembers where they were on September 11th, at least from a certain age on, so it is always tough to see movies about it. However, we still couldn't wait to see the movie. I am a huge fan of Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks, and the little boy seemed amazing from the previews.

I ended up really enjoying the movie, despite crying a bit. It was very tough to take at some parts, and completely incredible at others. It still blows my mind sometimes that authors are able to come up with amazing stories like this. Now that I've seen the movie and am intrigued by the main character, I really look forward to reading the book. 

Has anyone else seen the movie or read the book? What did you think?