We headed over to the parking garage and grabbed the car. We programmed the neverlost to take us to the Natural Bridge Caverns. We got there in about 30 minutes. For the most part the GPS unit did its job. Tickets cost $12.00 but we had an Internet coupon for $2.00 off. You can find the coupon on their web site. The tour took us into the first 1\4 mile of the 2.5-mile cave. This is the first cave we have been in that used to be a bat cave. You could tell that they had been there because of the black marks on the ceiling where they used to hang from.
The trek took us 180' underground. There was a marker to tell us what the depth was there. The tour was really cool but the tour guide (Jennifer) was not very good. I think she was new to caving. There were some basic questions she didn't know the answers to. All and all, I highly recommend this tour. After about 75 minutes we reemerged and ended our cave trek. Side note: Why do parent bring children that are under two years old into a cave like this?
They also have a wild animal park that you drive through. We didn't have time so we did not go. Instead we decided to head back to San Antonio. Time to plug in the Botanical Gardens into neverlost and head back.
After about 20 minutes, we arrived at the Botanical Gardens. They have a very nice lake with a lot of ducks and birds. There was a cool Japanese garden with lots of lily pads. Most of the lilies were in bloom. The pond gave me some ideas of how I will do my own water garden when we have a back yard. We might be thinking of moving, but more on that in a later story. It was pretty hot out so we only lasted an hour. We were thirsty, hot and hungry. Time for a late lunch!
We had no clue were anything is here so we searched neverlost and found an Applebee's. This GPS is a really cool device. I had a burger and fries and Angie had mozzarella sticks. I must have drunk about 10 glasses of Ice Tea. Boy! Was I thirsty!
After lunch we went back to the San Antonio Missions. With the aide of the neverlost system, we are on our way. The National Park Service runs the missions. We then headed for the San Antonio Mission visitor center. We obtained a park map and the National Park Stamp and stamped our Passport book. We toured the Mission San Jose.
After the missions, we drove back to our hotel. When we got back, we walked to the Rivercenter mall. It was time to check out the mall and see what they had. We missed the last Imax showing there. They only had the 8pm showing left and we did not want to way 2 hours for the next one.
We walked through the mall and found a cat store and a wine store that sells Texas wines. The owner claims Texas was the 4th biggest state in wine production. Have to check that one out. We bought a dessert (a Late Harvest Riesling) wine. We took the wine back to the hotel. Apparently in San Antonio you are not allowed to bring alcohol into the hotel. They claim it is a city law, oh well I guess we are criminals now? I won't tell if you won't.
We went down to the pub in the hotel. They had $2.00 margaritas and boy did they taste like them. I think it was a little bit of tequila and a lot of minute maid. Yeach!! We walked up and down the Riverwalk for a place to eat and ended up at Casa Rio. We waited about 20 minutes for a table inside where it was cooler. The Riverwalk was very crowded. I wonder how many people fall in the river because of the crowded walkways?