Family Fun Matters

By Nichole Giles

In case you’re wondering why I haven’t posted in over a week, I’ll put your worries to rest. (Yeah, I said worries. I just know you’ve been biting your nails about what terrible fate has befallen me—your most beloved author—and can I just say, eeew. Nail biting is a disgusting habit; you really ought to quit doing it.) I’ve been out of town visiting some family in Texas.

If you’ve never been to Texas, you might be wondering what there could possibly be to do there besides sing country music and say ya’ll a bunch of times. In fact, my neighbor asked me that very question (well, okay, minus the reference to music and language) when she heard we’d gone there. My first answer was, “My sister, brother-in-law, nephew, and new niece are there.” But my second answer was, “Oh my gosh, there’s so much to do we couldn’t possibly fit it all into one trip.”

This time, we chose to fly into San Antonio, where we stayed for a few days. First off, we met my sister and the kids and went straight to the Riverwalk—which is ripe with culture and ambiance and is just a downright cool place. We walked from one end to the other—detouring for a little while to visit the Alamo.

Also in the area, is Sea World—which as I discovered, is quite different from the California version, but equally as fun—and the world famous water park, Schliterbahn. My kids thought it was extremely cool that there are three separate sections to this park, which are each so large you have to get there by car or shuttle. And the slides and things are, in my daughter’s words, “coolio!” Just don’t lose someone in between like we did or you’ll end up searching fruitlessly for hours to find them.

There’s also a Six Flags in S.A., but we opted out of that one this time, and took a drive to Corpus Christi for a day and night at the beach. Granted, Gulf beaches aren’t the most gorgeous beaches, and the water is pretty murky, but it was the ocean, and to us, absolutely breathtaking. The sand was rough, and there were jellyfish everywhere, (perfect for “jellyfishing” as my nephew was apt to do) but the water was really warm, and the sight of the full moon over the sea that night was enough to steal a person’s focus for hours. Also in the area was a museum of a WWII battleship, the USS Lexington, complete with rows of real aircraft that was launched off the ship’s deck during the war. Very cool stuff.

Then it was another drive—this one a bit longer—through Austin into Temple, TX, to see my sister’s cute house, and her husband who wasn’t able to join us in our sightseeing earlier. It was so nice to spend some time there, and actually eat some home-cooked meals. We had an awesome time, and were so excited to be with family we don’t see nearly as often as we’d like.

The killer is, there is so much more we want to do and see while Jodi’s living in the Lone Star State. Six Flags in Fort Worth, the NASA museum near Houston, Galveston (which is crammed with beautiful architecture, nice beaches, and a cruise port) and bunches of other places we haven’t discovered yet.

So, in case you’re wondering, I was skipping out on work, blogs, writing, laundry, and everything else I could have been doing, in order to party with my family. It was a much needed, and yet exhausting, summer trip. And now I’m back. All is well, and I didn’t fall off the face of the earth, although thunderstorms and severe winds did their best to make our planes (four total) fall out of the sky. But we prevailed. Apparently, the powers that be upstairs have bigger things in mind for me.

Hi ho. Hi ho. It’s back to writing I go…