Natural Bridge Caverns and Wildlife Animal Park

Ellie's last gymnastic meet was in San Antonio.  We wanted to make it fun for the whole family since we were all going to be going.  To that end, I bought season tickets for the family to Sea World on Black Friday.  Unfortunately, Sea World was closed this weekend (only one of 3 weekends in the year they are closed).  We did some research and found that just outside of San Antonio is this cool place where they have a drive through wild animal park.

 In some places, the animals were so close to the car, in fact, we worried a little bit about the paint job with those horns.

 Some of the animals even came up and ate out of our hands.  This is Nate:

 And Michael:

 The bathroom was even themed for the park- not everyday someone gets away with calling me a cow.

 When this animal turned to the side, it looked like a unicorn.

 Near the end of the loop, I saw this weird animal in the trees with what looked like a bag of blood hanging off its bum.  I looked closer, and as I looked a baby was born!  We stopped and watched for a minute as the baby stood up for the first time....it was AMAZING.

 Right next to the wild animal park is a natural cavern.  We went inside and climbed down and looked at all the amazing cave formations.

It wasn't nearly as big as Carlsbad, but people have only been allowed into the cave when they were accompanied by a guide, so it is pristine and unspoiled.  The soda straw formations were especially fascinating to see.

The next day was Ellie's competition, which was right next to the Alamo.  None of us had ever been to the Alamo, so we went and looked at it.  I didn't know that Davy Crockett died at the Alamo (as well as everyone else that was defending it).  In fact, we lost the battle at the Alamo, but it was used later as a war cry "remember the Alamo" by Sam Houston's forces. 

 We also went on a riverboat ride.  That area of San Antonio is just gorgeous.