tour of texas

 Most every Whitlock vacation centers around major league baseball stadiums and this summer's trip was no different!  This year we headed to Texan to mark off two parks and do some other fun things along the way.  Unfortunately, we had air travel trouble and were a day late getting into to town, but the people of Texas are very kind and they helped us reschedule some things and we were right back on track by the end of our first day there.

We're not Dallas Cowboy fans, but we thought it would be fun to tour their amazing stadium none the less.

The place was incredible.

We got to go in the team locker room as well as the cheerleaders' dressing room.

This is where the team runs onto the field.

Bryce's favorite part was playing on the field.  He loved it!  Emmy did a little gymnastics out there too.

We had a little time to kill with our new plans so we rode up to the Dude Perfect Headquarters.  Emmy watches this show on repeat.  They weren't filming anything in the parking lot or roof so no celebrity sightings, but it was still cool.

Our first park of the trip was to see the Texas Rangers.

Both kids got a ball (or more) during batting practice/warm ups.

We squeezed a lot in during our make-up day in Dallas before we burned the midnight oil to Waco to catch back up on our itinerary.

I was most excited about going to Waco for all things Magnolia.  We went to Magnolia Table for breakfast and were pleasantly surprised with the 3 minute wait after being told it may take 30.  

I could have taken pictures of the decor all day.  The food was delicious.  My favorite was the zucchini bread.

After breakfast we headed over to the Silos to look around and shop.

The kids were excited to find a baseball field.  It was special because Babe Ruth had played there.

It was not crowded and toursity while we were there!  Everything was so cute.  I loved the style/design of the buildings and could have stayed all day.

We always try to plan some fun things for Emmy since she's not excited about the baseball games like Bryce.  She loves Dr. Pepper so the museum and Dr. Pepper floats were right up her alley.  

After spending the morning in Waco we hit the road to San Antonio.  I had seen lots of people posting about Buc-ee's on social media this summer so when I saw a sign for one, I told Jason we had to stop.  We were all blown away by the enormity of this place.  But as they say, everything is bigger in Texas.  It was quite the gas station stop!  

I was super excited to see the San Antonio Riverwalk.

We had dinner along the water and went on a boat tour down the river.

A scene from Miss Congeniality was filmed from this spot on the riverwalk. 

We found the Alamo after dinner but unfortunately got there after they closed, but Jason was satisfied with what he saw!

Texas is BIG and cities are far apart so we scheduled an extra day in San Antonio before driving across the state again.  

We always have to find the "local" donuts.  These happen to have the last name of Bryce's good friend Thomas.  After breakfast we headed to Sea World. 

We went to all of the animal shows, sea lions, dolphin and whales.  

It's so cool to see the things they can teach the animals to do.

We managed to stay dry during all of the shows even though we somehow made it into the splash zone during the orca show.

We enjoyed riding the roller coasters the park had to offer too.

After Sea World the kids relaxed in the hotel pool before finding a Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives (Emmy's other favorite show) restaurant. 

It was a fun little spot with lots of outdoor seating, live music, and a playground.  We wrapped up our day back at the Riverwalk to admire it at night.

After another long drive (with a lunch stop at Whataburger), our next stop was Galveston for a day at the beach.

The gulf water was nice and warm but not as calm as we're used to on the gulf.  It could have had a little to do with the hurricane further south or just the part of the gulf we were on.

We took a trip to the pier right down from where we rented chairs for the afternoon.

The kids spotted Rita's, their favorite, so we went over for a snack.

The surf was rough and the kids couldn't go very deep, but they played for a long time before visiting the hotel pool.  We cleaned up and had dinner away from the commotion of the beach road back on the other side of the barrier island. 

Our final stop was Houston for an Astros game.  This makes MLB park number 13 for Bryce!

We got there early for batting practice which they didn't end up having, but we sat right above the Astros bullpen and when the starting pitcher, Framber Valdez finished warming up he threw Bryce a ball so that was exciting!

They were giving away Alex Bregman jerseys for fan appreciation day.

This one loves chocolate ice cream!

After the game we made the long drive back to Dallas.  Jason was a good sport driving us almost 1,100 miles around the state up Texas and we so appreciated it.  The kids played in the hotel pool and then we all went to bed early to get ready for the trip home!