Category: Texas

The Preserve – Fredericksburg, TX

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Do you love up close and personal animal encounters? Have you ever wanted to visit an elephant sanctuary? Then let me tell you about The Preserve in Fredericksburg, TX!

My family was fortunate enough to visit The Preserve on a warm winter day this past January. We actually had tickets for last spring, but due to Covid, our visit was canceled. I want to start by first pointing out that the communication and gift card process during the shut downs were excellently handled. Then, when we decided to visit and redeem our gift card, it was the smoothest and quickest rebooking I have ever experienced! Right off the bat I was impressed before ever visiting. Detailed instructions were emailed to us with our confirmation and directions to the location were on point. We had no trouble finding The Preserve, even though it is pretty far out in the country. And then there’s the facility and the grounds. Everything is gorgeous, well kept, clean, and expertly organized. I promise you, you will be impressed and so glad to visit!

I really don’t know how I found out about The Preserve, I think I may have seen a post about this place on Pinterest. I am an avid animal lover and dream of owning my own animal sanctuary one day. So, of course I had to add this place to our travel bucket list. We had planned to road trip down to Fredericksburg in the spring and spend a day or two in the area, visit The Preserve and then head home. Of course, Covid threw a kink in those plans and the trip was put on hold. We had an upcoming school holiday, so I checked the weather forecast about a week before our day off and to my surprise, the weather was supposed to be unseasonably warm. I emailed The Preserve, and within about 30 minutes, we had our new date set.

The Experience

Let me tell you a little about the experience. It was so amazing, I was literally brought to tears twice. So, to begin, groups were seated under a large tent (with several space heaters) around tables. We were all spread out at least 6 feet apart and masks were required. There are several employees that talk at different times throughout the 1.5 hour experience. We listened to some information about The Preserve, the back story and how the elephants came to be here. Then we all watched in complete awe as 4 Asian elephants began to head towards the tent, trunk to tail in a line. Cue the first set of tears I cried.

The elephants were introduced, all female, and they showed off a bit in their own unique way. After this, we all moved to a different nearby area to watch one of the elephants get a bath. The amazing part, we ALL got to help scrub her off with brushes and assist in her bath time. Besides the organization and how much we were learning about these magnificent animals, I really enjoyed the employee interactions with the guests. Each person offered to take photos of all the guests with the elephants and there was no limit to the amount of time we could spend with each one. After photos were taken, phones/cameras were placed at a sanitation station and we were able to sanitize our devices and hands throughout the entire experience. I want all of the family memories, so photographs are probably my most treasured material item, so this was a huge deal to me!

After bath time, we moved to another nearby area and learned about how the elephants are cared for. We specifically learned about their feet and how important this type of care is for elephants since they carry so much weight. We even got to touch the pads of one of their feet! From here, we moved back to the first larger tent to continue learning more about elephants. It was engaging and my boys never once said that they were bored or ready to go home. Finally, at the end we all got another turn to have employees take our pictures with all 4 of the elephants together.

Overall, without giving too much away in case you want to visit on your own, I will say that this has been one of my favorite family getaways of all time! I am a life-long learner, an animal lover, and adventure seeker. This hit all of those areas for me. But my favorite part about it was seeing the pure joy and excitement from my boys. They loved the experience and want to go back!

Our Weekend Itinerary

We live north of Dallas, so Fredericksburg is about 5 hours from us and we decided to just spend a short weekend away on this trip. We left early in the morning and headed straight to San Antonio. The weather was perfect! We arrived around lunch time and had some Mexican food on the River Walk and then went to The Alamo for a quick visit. From there, we drove about an hour to Fredericksburg and stayed at The Holiday Inn Express & Suites. It was immaculate and the kitchen staff made us omelets for breakfast. The pool area was the best and I hope to visit again in warmer weather since we were only able to enjoy the hot tub! While it was a quick trip, it was also unforgettable.

Stay in a Train Caboose

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Three train caboose options to choose from

Did you know that you can sleep in a real train caboose in Kingsland, Texas? This experience was so memorable for my boys, who were both train enthusiasts when they were little.

My boys at the green caboose!

I happened to see this “Train Caboose Hotel” on an add on Facebook many years ago. I knew right away that we had to visit, but I had no idea what this part of Texas was like. I did not do very much research beforehand, but lucky for us there were plenty of things to keep us entertained!

The Antlers Inn in Kingsland, Texas

The Antlers Inn is where the train caboose hotel is located. There are three different cabooses to choose from. We stayed in the green caboose on our visit. The Antlers Inn is located in Kingsland, TX which is about 45 minutes from Austin. Kingsland sits along the Colorado River and Lake LBJ. The area is gorgeous, with lake views and the hill country in all directions! There are several different lodging accommodations on this property besides just the train cabooses.

View looking into the caboose from the front door, couch and tv to the left, bunk beds on the right.
Master Bedroom
Bathroom, there was also a shower!
The small kitchen was perfect for the boys!
View from the bedroom
Jett’s favorite spot in the caboose!

We were also pleasantly surprised with the property grounds. Everything was beautiful and quiet. We saw deer every day and night and we even had a cute fox visit us daily! There are gardens and hiking trails and even a little dock by the lake to hang out at. There was a paddle boat and canoe for guests to use on site! We had an amazing time on our little getaway!

Lots of shade trees all around!
Each of the caboose’s had a picnic table outside.
The lake area is short walk from the train caboose and inn area.
This paddle boat was on site for guests to use.
The boys had such a great time at the lake!

Longhorn Cavern State Park

We also took advantage of visiting the Longhorn Cavern State Park during our visit. Like I mentioned, we did not really know what was in the area, but there were different road signs and we got information from the front desk when we checked in. My family loves caving, so we knew we had to check this one out and it did not disappoint.

Beautiful stone work at the caverns
Entrance to the caverns

If you are looking for a unique experience, be sure to check out the Train Caboose Hotel! Stay safe and healthy out there!

Glen Rose, TX – Fun For All Ages

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Today I want to tell you all about Glen Rose, Texas! This place has been a favorite of ours for years. The first time I went to Glen Rose, I was a little kid on an adventure with our church. However, the memories lasted forever and Jereme and I visited this area several times before we even had kids. What can I say, I am a huge nerd and love all things DINOSAURS! I know that we haven’t done it all, but we have camped here, tubed the river, saw real dinosaur tracks, experienced Dinosaur World, fed animals at Fossil Rim, and more!

I have combined years worth of fun in this blog post to show you what an amazing destination Glen Rose is!

Dinosaur Valley State Park

This park is one of my all time favorites because you can actually see real dinosaur tracks from millions of years ago! Throw on your swimsuit and rain boots and head to the river to explore, swim, fish, and picnic! The rocks are slippery, so be sure to leave your phone behind or put it in a waterproof case. And don’t forget to check out the preserved dinosaur footprints! At this time, you need reservations to enter the park. You can find more information by clicking here!

Fossil Rim

Your family will love this drive through animal adventure! There are so many animals freely roaming in the park, many of them endangered. Roll down your windows, unbuckle those seat belts, and enjoying feeding animals right from your hand! You can find out more information by clicking here!

Dinosaur World

If you love dinosaurs, this is the place to be! There are hundreds of life-size dinosaurs located around this outdoor park. The trails are fun to explore and there are many opportunities to learn about the different types of dinosaurs and several hands-on experiences. There’s also a museum, gift shop, and playground on site. To learn more, click here!

Big Rocks Park

This is such a neat area, right in the middle of Glen Rose, and it’s FREE to enter. There are a lot of “big rocks” to explore and the Paluxy River runs right through this park. It’s not very deep and it is very slippery, but we really enjoyed the day here. Parking is tricky, there are not a lot of spots, so I would suggest getting here early. There’s also a campground across the street that we have camped at before that is really nice! Pack a picnic lunch and bring a swimsuit and good shoes to explore this area. For more information, click here!

As you can see, Glen Rose is a fun destination for adults and kids of all ages! Be sure to add this to your travel list. We’ve visited Glen Rose for the day, we’ve camped and stayed at a hotel in town! Below is a list of hotels and campgrounds in the area.

Hotel List for Glen Rose

Campgrounds in Glen Rose

As always, be safe and kind out there!

How to do San Antonio in 24 Hours!

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Hey y’all! Jasha here again! I wanted to share our first trip of 2019, without kids in tow, with you all. This was another last minute trip that Carrie and I took the weekend after Galveston. We love our kids, but they sure can drive us crazy sometimes ha! So, we decided to hit the road for a quick trip down to San Antonio, TX!

In front of The Alamo at night!

We found a nice hotel (again last minute) and decided to book it right away. We stayed at Hotel Indigo San Antonio-Riverwalk I love booking through Expedia.com and choosing the book now/pay later option. I love the “pay later” option especially since you’re usually able to cancel the day before check in. Being a busy mom, you never know what might come up! We almost canceled because the weather was not looking great for the weekend down there, but since we REALLY wanted a break from the kiddos, we decided to go ahead and go. And man, I’m so glad we did!

The drive down went fairly smooth. Luckily we had just missed an ice storm a few days before, so by the time we left all the roads were clear. Check out this sign though!

Needless to say, it was pretty chilly. We arrived to the hotel and check in was great! The hotel was so nice. We laughed as soon as we entered our room because it was huge and of course it was just the two of this time. The hotel was located right on the Riverwalk. The only downside was that even though it was on the water, it was a really, really long walk to the restaurants and more popular/touristy parts of the Riverwalk. I’ll touch on that more later…

Hotel Indigo San Antonio-Riverwalk (image from Expedia.com)

After check in we decided to go exploring! Our destination was of course the Riverwalk. We left our hotel and walked right down to the river from easily accessible doors through the back of the lobby/dining area.

This selfie was right outside of our hotel on the Riverwalk

We were also starving at this point! So, we began walking and walking and walking. Neither of us minded but we were both glad the kids weren’t with us because it would’ve been too far for them. We ended up eating at Johnny Rockets. We had some fantastic greasy burgers that hit the spot! From lunch we headed over to The Alamo. There wasn’t a long line to get in and we were able to take a quick self-guided tour inside. Unfortunately, photography is not allowed inside of The Alamo. But we got a couple of great shots outside both during the day and at night!

After visiting The Alamo we decided to be crazy tourists and we hit up the Ripley’s Believe It or Not exhibit! It is directly across the street from The Alamo. We had a blast! We laughed and were silly and it was just what we needed! We got the pass to go into all of the Ripley’s exhibits, which included the haunted house and Louis Tussaud’s Wax Museum. I believe there were three or four total attractions. It was misting rain outside at this time so it was the perfect place to be indoors and dry! And yes, I screamed several times in the haunted house! Ha! Here a few shots of the things we did:

Twilight!! Yassss!

After we finished with Ripley’s, we needed dinner! We really just wanted to sit out on the Riverwalk and have Mexican food and margaritas, so that’s what we did! It just so happened to be The Chinese New Year weekend river parade so we enjoyed decorated boats and music and floating lanterns on the Riverwalk while we had dinner! I was too busy eating to get any pics, but Carrie got a few!

One of the floats for the Chinese New Year!

After dinner we headed to get souvenirs for the kids and took a few more pics along the River Walk and then we were ready to call it night.

This picture was before dinner – we ate where the umbrellas are to the right!

I could not leave San Antonio without scorpion suckers (which my two boys did eat) and Mexican jumping beams!

It was misting again at this point and our hotel was so.far.away! It was so nice, but if you stay at Hotel Indigo you probably need to taxi or Uber closer to the main attractions. I love walking along the Riverwalk, but at night and in the rain was not fun at all. Especially without our husbands with us, the crazies come out at night! Obviously we made it back just fine and had a chance to chat on the phone with our kiddos and hubbies before putting on our pj’s and just relaxing in bed. It was nice watching The Office reruns without any interruptions!!

The hotel had a nice breakfast the next morning and then we journeyed home! It was a fast and FUN 24 hours in San Antonio and just what these tired mamas needed!

Galveston Island, TX

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Hey y’all! This is Jasha here, trying to get caught up on the travel blog. This Road Trip Queen has been busy with at least one trip a month since January. Needless to say, I’m falling behind with travel updates due to ALL the travel, life, kids, hubby, work, school events, etc.

Jasha and Carrie in Galveston
February 2019

I have been wanting to blog about Galveston for awhile now, even before I started a blog. I always hear so many negative things about this place and it really saddens my heart because I LOVE it SOOOOO much! Everyone has their own opinion, I just hope my views may encourage more people to give this amazing place a chance! You just have to keep in mind that no, the water is not clear/blue and the sand is not soft and white. But overall, a beach is a beach and if you want a quick, fun getaway packed full of memories, this is the place to go! My kids have been to beaches in TX, California, Florida, Alabama, South Carolina, Cabo San Lucas, Playa del Carmen, Cozumel and will tell anyone that asks that Galveston is their favorite! I think that part of it is because they are so familiar with the area and feel so comfortable when we’re here. We also go so often that we don’t really make plans. It’s usually pretty chill and we sleep in and sometimes just hang out in the condo. It’s more relaxing because we’ve done most of the touristy things already and we just rest and relax and reconnect as a family when we’re there instead of being on the go constantly. I hope you enjoy reading about our first ever winter visit to Galveston with our favorite travel buddies!

Our second trip of the year was to Galveston, TX in February 2019. I grew up going here and my family goes a couple of times a year, but this was Carrie and her kids first trip to the island! We were so, so, so excited to take them to our favorite places! My family has actually never gone in February, so it was kind of a first for us, too. And as always, we really had a great time!

This trip was a quick one and was literally planned on our way home from a birthday party. My oldest son Jett LOVES Galveston! Right now he even wants to go to the college down here when he graduates HS! He’s grown up traveling and has visited several different beaches (in the US and Caribbean) since he’s been born. Hands down, Galveston has always been his favorite! It also holds a very special place in my heart, too! My parents do not fly anywhere, so I grew up traveling to Galveston every year. I continued the tradition with my husband and later our boys. Jett also loves eating crab legs and we always make sure to eat fresh seafood when we’re in Galveston. So, on our way home from a friend’s birthday party we noticed that Joe’s Crab Shack in Plano had closed down. So of course we joked about needing to go down to Galveston for crab legs. This was on a Sunday, I asked Carrie if they could go on a quick getaway on Tuesday, and by Friday we were heading down south to the coast!

We have stayed in the same place every trip for the past 8 years and love it! We rent a condo (unit 2301) at Seascape Condominiums which just so happens to be owned by my Dad’s buddy! This place is on the beach side of the Sea Wall and has it’s own beach area. If you’ve ever been to Galveston you know that most hotels are across the Sea Wall and you have to cross a busy 4-lane road to get to the beach. My family did it for years, but this place is the best because you don’t have to cross the street and lug your beach stuff around! It has 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 balconies, a kitchen, living room, washer/dryer, and bunk beds built in the hallway. Overall, it can sleep 8 people comfortably. (I will find more pictures of the condo and post later).

View from the balcony of the condo at Seascape Condos
Levi, Jake, Sadie, and Jett being silly on the bunk beds!

So, we left right after school on Friday, February 1st. It only took us 4.5 hours to get from McKinney to Galveston! We packed in a lot of fun in the 2 full days we had there. We packed most of our food and took it with us so we didn’t have to stop when we got there. But there is a Walmart nearby and we usually get groceries there when we visit in the summer and stay longer. We arrived at the condo by 8:30 and went to the pool for a night swim. Luckily the pool is heated in the winter! Like I mentioned earlier, we have never visited Galveston in the winter and didn’t really know what to expect. The temperatures were in the 60’s the whole time and it was really cloudy/overcast. My kids loved it because I didn’t have to coat them in sunscreen this trip! One of my favorite things about the condo is that there’s a washer/dryer in the master closet. It’s really nice to be able to throw our towels and swimsuits in the dryer after each swim!

The next morning we woke up early and I made us bacon and eggs before heading down to the beach/pool for the day. It was chilly, but the kids played for hours, both in the sand and out in the ocean! It was way too cold for me to get in the water, but the kids had no trouble at all swimming and splashing. We warmed up in the heated pool to finish our day at the beach.

Sadie, Levi, Jake, and Jett at the beach on a cloudy winter day in Galveston
Levi, Sadie, Jett, & Jake playing in the ocean

After spending the day at the beach/pool, we decided to to take our friends to our favorite souvenir shop in the ENTIRE WORLD! Murdoch’s has always been and will always be my happy place! Being a teacher and loving all things science, it seriously wasn’t uncommon for me to plan a quick trip with Jereme (before we had kids) to Galveston just to hit up the souvenir shop for seashells and other beach themed items before teaching an ocean unit in my classroom. I loved this shop when I was a kid and my little sister and I have a series of pictures sitting out on the front steps each summer we were there. I was a sobbing mess when I watched live footage of Hurricane Ike destroy Murdoch’s in May 2008. Luckily for all of us, Murdoch’s was rebuilt even bigger and better than before! They have an excellent selection of items from beach toys to snacks/drinks, picture frames, home decor, t-shirts, hats, shoes, Christmas ornaments, and hermit crabs (and yes, we’ve left there a time or two with new pets in tow hahaha).

Just a small shot of the amazing items at Murdoch’s!
It’s a tradition to take a photo somewhere on the steps outside of Murdoch’s!

Then we finished the night with dinner at the the Rainforest Cafe. We had a great seat, the kids got balloon animals and were entertained by a magician before the food arrived. Overall it was a fantastic dining experience!

Me and the boys at dinner at the Rainforest Cafe

Saturday was so fun because we got to have one of our girls nights and do girly stuff while the boys played video games! This is one of my favorite memories with the Morgan girls!

Girls night!

Sunday morning we had to get up and check out of the condo, ugh vacations are never long enough! But we’re lucky that we don’t live too far away! We still spent the whole day showing the Morgans some of our other favorite places! We started with lunch at a new favorite of ours, Fisherman’s Wharf. This restaurant is near The Strand and the cruise terminals. It sits right on the water and we were able to see a huge Carnival cruise ship loading up passengers before setting sail. We have really enjoyed the food here and sometimes eat there multiple times during our summer vacations in Galveston! If you take your parking ticket inside, they will validate it and then parking is free. After eating, we usually spend the day or night walking around The Strand. There’s shopping, places to eat and drink, and photographic opportunities (like the Greetings From Galveston postcard pictured above). My kiddos love going to La Kings Confectionery and watching saltwater taffy being made, eating ice cream, and buying candy there! The Strand reminds me of New Orleans, just a little tamer!

Jett and Jake out front of Fisherman’s Wharf in Galveston
View from inside the restaurant!
We toured that boat after lunch, too!
Example of the “photographic opportunities” around The Strand!

After spending some time at The Strand, we headed to Moody Gardens to explore the aquarium! We didn’t have time for all of the activities there, but were able to squeeze in a fun visit for a few short hours before the drive home. We especially love the stingray & jellyfish encounters because you get to touch real stingrays and jellyfish in their tanks!

Sadie and a Stingray!
This little guy loved us!

After spending some time at the aquarium, we had no choice but to head home. I think we left Galveston around 4:00 pm and made it home around bedtime. It was a nice, quick getaway. Vitamin Sea is always good for the soul!

Stay tuned for more Galveston posts!