25 Hours in San Antonio!!

Our first stop! The Mission in San Antonio. It was such an amazing place. It reminded me of Jerusalem so much! These ruins served as homes, among other things, for monks during the 17th century.

A lot of brides come here to take their bridals. Every area was so picturesque! If only us girls had our wedding dresses out here with us!

Isn't this just so pretty? I just love the architecture!

These are the engravings that you see right as you head into the church (below).

This is an old church building which still holds three services every Sunday. This is the view of the Mission right as we were leaving. The sun was setting and I thought the scenery was just beautiful! Matt and I are definitely coming back here together! I couldn't get enough of it! Because we arrived so late, we only had a half an hour to run around and explore all that we could in such a short period of time. Perhaps thats part of the reason I found this place so captivating!

Next stop.. The Alamo! I have to say that my perception of the Alamo changed significantly after my visit here. It's enormous! The Alamo stretches over a couple of acres and consists of a museum, a church, a hospital, old ruins, etc! It was amazing!

The Alamo. This picture is quite deceiving because this is all that you are typically shown when the Alamo is spoken of. Yet, there is so much more to it!

Third stop - the Riverwalk! We took a boat ride that allowed us to tour the entire Riverwalk that is lined with shops and restaurants! We ate at the oldest restaurant on the Riverwalk, Casa Rio, and then called it a day as we headed to our hotel. We stayed at the Marriott right on the Riverwalk and the view was amazing!

We woke up early Saturday morning and got ready for the temple. We were all planning on doing initiatories, which I have never done before, and we were looking very much forward to it. I have never seen a temple more beautiful than the San Antonio Temple! It stood on the tallest hill in San Anotio and as we were driving up to it, the sun was just rising in the sky and as it radiated off of Angel Moroni and the brilliant, white stone, it made the temple appear as though it was glowing. Every window of this temple is made of stained glass. The exterior trim of the area surrounding the temple is in granite and marble. One word : Breathtaking!!

I could have stayed at this temple all day long! I was quite sad to leave. Matt and I are coming back here for sure before we head back to Las Vegas. I know that he will fall in love with this temple as well!

Sea World! After 20 mins of planning our every show, ride, and stop, we were off to the aquarium!

Shamu! This was the first show we went to and it was just a great introduction to Sea World! We all managed to squeeze ourselves onto the front three rows directly in the center. I sat next to a lady that was holding a large towl and everytime Shamu swam by, she would cover herself up. However, I soon discovered she was very smart because Shamu was trained to flip his tail against the water on an angle so that the surrounding crown would get soaked. Needless to say, I found myself underneath her towl! The other girls...not so fortunate!

The big fella striking a pose for the ladies!

Shamu-mu-mu! I am now a Shamu lover.

This is the Clyde something show and I thought it was the funniest thing ever! The two main sea lions were halarious and so smart! Some of the tricks they performed were astounding! I never knew that you could teach them such things! Puts my dogs to shame! The walrus in the above picture was part of the big finale. All I have to say is this is what happens to walruses when they are fed sea lions!

This walrus was literally doing crunches!! He rolled on his back and proceeded to do THREE crunches!! It was the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life!

After an hour wait in line, one song of "If You're Happy and You Know It" - sung by the workers during technical difficulties- and a 45 second experience of the water ride Atlantis, this is what you look like! Soaked to the bone baby and lovin every minute of it. Who wouldn't want to spend 25 hours in San Antonio?!!