Mini Trip to San Antonio

My friend Emily and I decided an overnight trip to San Antonio would be really fun.  We left on a tuesday morning and made the 1.5 hour drive down to San Antonio.  We stopped at her husband's restaurant and let the kids see the cool kitchen.  Her husband made the kids some sugar cookies, which I did try 1/2 of, despite their flour and sugar content lol. THEY WERE AMAZING.  It was like vanilla and sugar in perfect concert.

We walked around the riverwalk area, and then checked into the Emily Morgan Hotel.  The kids enjoyed the hotel experience.  We enjoyed the pool, and the kids got a pretty big kick out of riding the elevator. We had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, which is notorious for their fun atmosphere and horrible food, lol. No joke.  Mimi really enjoyed dining in the jungle with all the animatronic animals and fake rainstorms, my friends kid was terrified of the animatronic gorillas and hit under the table the entire time. The kids crashed when we got home from dinner and we all slept really well cozied up in down pillows.

Wednesday morning we successfully checked out of the hotel without wreckin' the place, and headed towards the zoo.  We stopped at Joseph's Bakery and Restaurant, voted #1 bakery in San Antonio. We found the place by accident on the way to the zoo and figured it was worth a try.  IT WAS AMAZING. The guy, Joe, who was behind the counter taking orders, is the baker, the waiter, the pastor of the church next door and an amazingly friendly guy.  We had an amazing (and affordable) breakfast, including some of the best frenchtoast I've ever tasted in my life.

We finally made it to the Zoo which, sadly was really crowded due to several school buses full of rowdy elementary school kids.  It's sad how much school bused full of kids really turn me off from being at a place, because I like kids. I just don't like kids that are poorly supervised and really unruly, destructive, and loud.  I digress...

We did enjoy the San Antonio Zoo, however I was really saddened by the state of some of the exhibits. The exhibits lacked shade, water, and vegetation.  Think giant concrete enclosures.  The Zoo was full of snack shops, gift shops, and restaurants instead of interactive signage and giant lush exhibits. I think I'm spoiled by the Jacksonville Zoo in FL (photos in this old post), which is large and lush.  The kids had fun exploring in the gorgeous weather.  We managed to see some pretty cool animals, and hit the road by 3pm to beat rush hour traffic in Austin.  All in all, a very fun and successful trip, just what we needed to break up the week.