Day Eight: New Braunfels to Houston, Texas

Back on the Texas highway this morning.  We left New Braunfels at 9:45am and headed south to San Antonio.  What a great town!  Our first stop was the Alamo.  The Alamo is located right in downtown San Antonio amongst the skyscrapers.  You'd never know it was there if you weren't looking for it.  We spent an hour or so checking out the grounds.  Fortunately, the Alamo is now air conditioned, because it was HOT outside.  We also spent some time walking the amazing Riverwalk.  The river is basically a series of canals that run around the downtown area.  Both sides of the river are lined with restaurants and shops.  The whole Riverwalk is lined with trees, so it was a perfect way to beat the heat of the day.  It's exactly what I imagine Venice to be like.  Unfortunately, we didn't stay long enough to grab a canal boat ride.  Maybe next time.  On our way out of town I stopped at a cool little record store called Hogwild Records & Tapes.  I bought a couple LP's and a nice t-shirt and we were on our way to Houston.  For lunch, we stopped at an amazing truck/travel stop called Buc-ee's.  This was the largest truck stop we'd ever seen.  They had everything you could want when on the road.  The food was great.  Justin and I got a deli sandwich, Jennifer got a burrito and Josh got chicken and fries.  The place was PACKED.  There must have been 500 people in the store while we were there.  I hope we stop at another while we're in Texas.  I'll shoot some photos.  Our first stop in Houston was Minute Maid Park, home of the Houston Astros.  Josh got a hat and t-shirt for his collection, and we shot a bunch of pictures.  The stadium was built onto an old Union Pacific train station, which was kind of cool, but overall it didn't look as nice as the Rangers stadium in Arlington.  From there we drove to our hotel near the airport in Houston.  The outdoor pool is small but warm.  The boys spent an hour splashing around before we headed off to Outback Steakhouse for dinner.  We're headed to bed now, since we have a LONG drive to Louisiana tomorrow...

License Plates spotted: Maryland, Kansas, Tamaulipas, Mexico