Squidy and the Stadium Rumble
An Impromptu Father/Son Adventure to Texas
~Days 04 through Home~
After surviving the late night fireworks show that killed power during the night, we woke to clean air with the same degree of humidity. It was really nice. As before, down the elevator to the most excellent breakfast the hotel offered. I tried and somewhat succeeded in having Noah try something other than pancakes. It was a good and chill morning. Our itinerary was much slower today with only a few things on the docket after breakfast.
Today was first scheduled the Witte Museum near downtown San Antonio. My primary interest in going there was all of the dinosaur exhibits. My son, like almost every young boy I ever met, LOVES dinosaurs. They can commonly say the complex names of these gigantic beasts long before the ability to string a full sentence together. Names like, Gallimimus, Velociraptor, Pteranodon and many other. I loved dinos when I was a kid too, but nothing like my boys. I was really hoping this was send him over the top and I like to think I largely succeeded.
He had a blast. We also spent some time in the exhibits they had just opened that detailed the history and natural wildlife of Texas at large. He did get bored a little until we got to the snake section. Then he lit up again. We saw a lot of different bugs too. It was really cool. But what was his favorite thing? The squi…
The Kraken…
I usually make a point to pickup at least one minor souvenir from major places I go. In this case, I got myself my first amethyst geode. Not exactly a minor item, but I’d always wanted one since I was a kid. And Noah wanted oh so desperately to have this squid/kraken. The name changed intermittently depending on what it was attacking. Too funny this kid! Shortly after seeing it in the store he named it Squidy and to this day it is one of his favorite toys.
We got some quick lunch from WhataBurger, a unique Texas gem. Pretty tasty!
The remainder of the day was super relaxing. With the storms finally over for now, we got to make use of the hotel’s very nice pool area. Noah is pretty good swimmer, but I like to have his jacket on all the same. Too much can happen in the water. We had a good time. He made some quick friends with some of the other kids in the pool and we played for hours until another small thunderstorm was starting to get a little too close. From there we got back to the room, relaxed and watched a new show (to me anyway) called Wicked Tuna. He and I both got hooked pretty quick. No pun intended. I think we also caught part of a movie before the next big event and a first for both of us.
Our first LIVE professional soccer game…
The game wasn’t super full, but you’d never have known that to see the parking lot. We finally got in and then discovered they wanted us to wear these dumb masks…You know the ones. The ones that accomplish virtually nothing with regards to viruses that everyone uses. Yeah…Those. **Insert intense eye-roll here**
Beyond that, the game we actually pretty good! The amount of people and the noise were getting to Noah and, to be honest, me as well, but it was fun. He was getting into it until roughly half time. By this time, we were both pretty done. He struggles with loud environment and it wasn’t doing anything remotely beneficial to the anxiety I was still dealing with. We decided to leave at half time, but were in really high spirits and laughing.
We got back to the hotel after picking up a light dinner somewhere…I can’t remember where exactly. We watched some TV and then to bed.
Sunday was going to be pretty chill as it was our last day in Texas before the long drive back towards Arizona and ultimately California. We attended church at Cornerstone Church where Pastor Matthew Hagee was preaching. It was a really good message. I’ve included it below:
It was a really good service despite the fact that we got there late…Something I can’t stand doing, but I got the times confused. Oh well. The message really whacked me over the head. I walked away with this among other things:
It's not the circumstances that you go through that define you...It's how you respond to those circumstances that will always bring the real you to the surface.
We made some lunch back at the hotel and then went swimming again. Another chill afternoon. He loves to swim and he made a new set of friends and ran around a lot. We got done swimming and then I had to prepare all of our stuff for checking out the next morning. I found that doing laundry there made the tasks when getting home a lot easier. I’m doing that from now on should there be other trips in the future. A nice chill afternoon ended in a light meal and going to bed early.
We got out of the hotel fairly early the next morning, around 530am I think, but found the elevator was down again. Annoyed and kicking myself for not loading up the larger components the night before we schlepped down and finally got to driving in the car and off we went with our target at the end of the day was Phoenix, AZ.
There really wasn’t much to tell about the drive back to Phoenix. We did enjoy watching both Wreck-It-Ralph as well as Ralph Breaks the Internet. Neither of us had seen those movies. We talked, sang and certainly didn’t do any wrestling or poking.
The next day we were heading for home from Phoenix. Nothing much to say about that drive either except for one eerie thing…
We had to stop for gas just after crossing into California from Arizona. After staying in Texas and driving through the other states, I had forgotten what it was like back here. It was genuinely creepy at this gas station despite being in a nice neighborhood. EVERYONE had their masks on. Some double masking. Many of them had their heads ducked down and their shoulders up almost as if they were waiting for someone or something to attack them or drop something on them. The whole atmosphere was so tense! I had forgotten what it was like and I could really feel the grotesque difference between the two locations. One with a culture that embraces freedom and personal responsibility while another that will do just about anything, surrender just about anything to feel safe. I instantly had a much better appreciation why so many were leaving California after having experienced something so much different for less than a week. Eeeeee…
We finally got home and unloaded. I hugged my youngest as he ran out and started to reminisce over all the good times Noah and I had. Though I wasn’t thrilled about the Turd that began this little adventure, I was now almost thankful for it. It offered me an amazing experience with my son – rich, abundant, varied and prolonged indeed. For several weeks, he would randomly talk about the trip – the shows we watched, the games we played and the museum in particular. He mentioned a desire to go back several times even after a month had gone by. Perhaps one day boy…Perhaps one day. We have other adventures ahead and perhaps another path worthy of exploring.
References: Emby Media Server Holiday Inn Express - Selma Whataburger Witte Museum San Antonio FC (Soccer) Cornerstone Church - Pastor John Hagee Garrison Brothers Distillery Crowded Barrel Distillery Salt Lick BBQ - Driftwood Location HEB Grocery (he was super nice!) Meridian Hive Brewery/Meadery Pecos Hank - Storm Videographer Media: Long list...24 hours of driving...Don't judge us! DuckTales (Late 1980-1990s) Star Trek - The Next Generation - Seasons 3-4 Wicked Tuna - Season 9 Wreck-It Ralph Ralph Breaks the Internet Milo and Otis Lord of the Rings - Fellowship of the Ring (Audiobook) The Nanny (1990s) And probably others...