Our short trip to San Antonio was awesome. We left early on a Monday morning and got back home around midnight Wednesday night. This was an introductory trip, so we could see if it’s somewhere we’d like to visit again. It definitely is.

The touristy parts of San Antonio are amazingly clean and well-kept. The Riverwalk was much nicer than I had pictured. I thought it would be much larger and out in the sun. Instead, it’s a very shady and peaceful walk, even when it’s busy. Very charming and impeccably designed.

We got lost a couple of times (unfortunately the girls are old enough now to notice… and heckle me about it), and we saw some of the decidedly non-touristy parts of San Antonio. More typical of what you’d expect for a city of its size.

The girls and I won’t be returning to the Schlitterbahn. We only saw the older part (I think it was “Schlitterbahn East”), but a half day in the absolute chaos there convinced me that I’d rather spend my money at a water park that has better rides, is more organized, and whose workers have a better attitude and training. I won’t tell the whole story here of getting separated from the girls, and then being on my own in finding them. It took about 2 hours in the heat because the park is so poorly laid out.

SeaWorld, on the other hand, was one of the nicest parks I’ve ever taken the girls to. It reminded me very much of the Disney World properties.

It’s very easy to spend an entire day there- two, if you want to catch every show. The rides are kept in excellent condition and are much smoother and more fun than similar, and in some cases identical, rides at Six Flags. Plus the shows are all entertaining and best of all, everything about this park is family-friendly.