Cross Country Road Trip Pt. 2

For the third part of our road trip, we stayed a night in San Antonio! We stayed in the El Tropicano hotel on the Riverwalk. We arrived really late at night so we weren't able to see anything in the evening, but we enjoyed the next morning! First, we went to see the Alamo. I was really surprised that it is in downtown San Antonio surrounded by buildings! For some reason I thought it was in the middle of the desert . . . hmm.

After seeing the Alamo, we went to see the Ripley's Believe It, or Not museum across the street. We spent hours in there! There were so many fun things!

 Tallest man in the world!

We ended our stay by eating lunch on the Riverwalk. It was incredible! We ate at the best Mexican food I have had in my life. Holy cow, Texas is the land of Mexican food! And the Riverwalk was stunning. I would love to be able to walk there every day.

Before arriving in Houston, we stopped at Buc-ees gas station. I don't understand it, but in Texas these gas stations are legendary. Jeff said that in his high school, they had a "wear a Buc-ee the Beaver t-shirt day". Anyway, all the Texans at school talked about it, and before we left we were instructed by multiple people to stop at the gas station. So we did! And I will give it credit, I have never seen public bathrooms like that before. ;)

Our Cross Country Road Trip

Well, it was kind of a cross country road trip (more like a half cross country road trip), because Jeff and I moved to Houston, Texas for the summer! Jeff started his internship with Pariveda Solutions yesterday, and we have loved the adventure so far!

We decided to take three days to make the trip and visit a few fun places along the way. The first day we drove from Mesquite, Nevada, where some of Jeff's family is currently living, and drove 14 hours to Roswell, New Mexico. I have always wanted to go to Roswell after watching the TV series "Roswell" in the 6th grade. It is basically known for the alien encounters 50 years ago and it is sometimes associated with Area 51.

The town was really cute! It is actually pretty large, like 68,000 people, but the main street has a really small town feel. I loved it! But the best part was the main street completely embraced the whole alien thing.

There were alien statues in front of entrances to buildings, gas stations, and motels. Many buildings painted aliens on the outside of the buildings with features associated with the business. So the bakery had aliens painted like bakers, and a Mexican restaurant had an alien with a sombrero. So fun!

My favorite things, though, were the street lamps. Every lamp had alien eyes!

We decided to visit the UFO museum before leaving. It was kind of quirky and odd, but there is some interesting evidence in support of the alien encounter . . . maybe they are out there somewhere! ;)

After leaving Roswell, we stopped at the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. Let me tell you . . . this place was AMAZING. It is one of my own, personal "Seven Wonders of the World" locations. It is kind of in the middle of no where, with nothing big in the near vicinity, but if you can make it there someday, you definitely should. There is even an elevator into the cave for those with less time or who don't want to hike down. That is my kind of hike! Also, the main cave and attaching rooms are the size of 14 football fields. Yeah, 14! The place was huge.

Don't mind that I am the only one in these pictures . . . Jeff was tired of photos.

 The stalagmites looked just like stone coral in the ocean. I wish you could see the detail better in this photo!

 The ceilings were around 100 feet tall. This particular room was called the "Hall of Giants" because those three towers were HUGE. Almost to the ceiling.

 The stalactites at the top of the ceiling looked like a chandelier. Once again, this was probably 80-100 feet tall with those really tall stalagmites coming from the floor.

 This pinecone looking thing is one of the most famous parts of the cave, apparently. It is really spectacular up close.

 Just a view of one of the big rooms! I wish you could sense the grandeur of the place from these photos. Stay tuned for another post about our stay in San Antonio!