A Tale of Two Honeymooners, Part Four-San Antonio River Walk, Sea World, and Free Stuff!

{Note: In case you were wondering when I'll stop writing posts about my honeymoon, wonder no more. This is the last honeymoon post.}

{Note #2: This one's long, but it's mostly pictures, so you shouldn't have to exert yourself too much. You're welcome.}

After Jordan and I finished getting sick on free samples, we left Fredericksburg and headed west to San Antonio, were we would stay at the Westin--a hotel that faced the famous river walk, where, I might add, we were on the top floor and had a balcony. (It appears I am not a cheap honeymoon date. Sorry, Jordan.)

I drove this time, because, well, I'm actually not sure why. I think because Jordan was tired of driving. In any case, I turned on our trusty GPS, and we headed into the big city. We arrived in San Antonio after an hour and half and began looking for a place to park.

It's important to note that we had made a few major adjustments based on the previous day of driving. 1) I was driving, which negated my being a backseat driver and annoying Jordan. 2) We were not hungry. 3) We were not worried about our GPS taking us to the middle of nowhere. 

Still, for some reason, we reached our low point. Wednesday, May 18, was the day we got into our first married fight. I'm not going to go into it; we survived and we still love each other, so the details aren't important. What is important is the fact that we made it to our hotel, saw the Alamo, said, "I love you," and decided we weren't going to fight ever again...

...until later, when we argued because I wanted to go exploring and Jordan wanted to lie in bed and watch more Man vs. Food on the travel channel. Like I said, low point. 

But our smiles are genuine. I promise. Even at our lowest point, we were still happy to be together on our honeymoon. And our view was pretty cool too, so that helped.

See? Jordan wanted to lounge about. 

But I made him walk to the Alamo with me.

When we got back to our room, we found chocolates! Actually, a guy came and dropped them off for us along with a note that thanked us for spending our honeymoon at the Westin. That's why you tell people it's your honeymoon...free stuff!

Then I told Jordan we were dressing up and going to dinner on the river walk. And we finally found someone to take a picture of us! That whole holding-out-your-arm-to-take-a-picture thing gets old. 

When we got back to our room, we found this:

It had come with a box of chocolates and a note thanking Mr. and Mrs. Hampton for spending their 20th wedding anniversary at the Westin. Since we didn't want to be charged for champagne we didn't order, we went down to the front desk to tell them about the switch. We were informed that the first box of chocolates (the ones that had been hand delivered) hadn't been for us. This, however, was ours. I thought that sort of thing only happened in movies. Not so, my friends, not so.

Again, that's why you tell people you're on your honeymoon.

You might get free champagne and more chocolate! 

The next day was Sea World day! We had talked about finding admission coupons, but it never happened, so we were resigned to paying the full $60 per ticket. But when we got up to the counter, I decided to try something I'd seen my parents do on occasion.

"Hello!" I said cheerfully.

A bored-looking girl stared at me, most likely confused by my cheerfulness. "Hey."

"How are you doing today?" I asked.

She smiled slightly, and I knew she was warming up to me. "Fine. How are you?"

"Great! You know, we're here on our honeymoon. You don't happen to have any coupons for honeymooners back there, do you?"

She shook her head.

"Nothing?" I asked again, looking sad. "You sure?"

She laughed. "No, ma'am. Sorry."

"That's okay! Just thought it wouldn't hurt to ask."

Then she said our total was $101 and some change. I looked at Jordan, and he shrugged his shoulders. We looked at our tickets later, and sure enough, she'd given us both the "child" price.

I couldn't believe it. "It worked! I saved us twenty bucks!"

So that's apparently how it's done, people.

We took a picture by the entrance and then headed in. We saw a couple of shows, some animals, ate lunch, and headed out six hours later. It was a good day.

As you can see, it was a bit cloudy, but it didn't rain on us, and I think it kept the people away, because it wasn't crowded at all.

 

We got back and went out to dinner at County Line. 

We sat outside on the river walk and ate a lot because it was delicious. 

Then we went back to the room and played Scrabble while watching the Thunder game, which they won. Wanna know who did not win? Me. Never mind the fact that I had four 30+ words; Jordan ended up winning by adding an s to some of my words and getting a bazillion points while I tried to come up with real words of my own. Don't worry, though, I'm not still mad about it. 

I tried to take an artsy picture of the board, but all I really got was a shot of the terrible, useless letters I had. Seriously. This is what I had to work with.

We left the next morning, and I didn't take any other pictures besides a few attempts to get a good one of the sunset as we drove home. All we got was a blurry picture of a truck, and I didn't think that would interest anyone. 

So there you have it--our honeymoon tales in four parts. If I learned anything from my week with Jordan, it's this:

--Eat often/bring snacks

--Announce your honeymoon status and get free/discounted stuff

--Take pictures and journal/take notes so you'll remember it all later and annoy your friends with lengthy blog posts (oh wait, maybe that's just me)

--When taking pictures, embrace feeling awkward and "touristy." You'll never see these people again.

And the important one...

--If your new husband groans about anything (exploring, taking unnecessary pictures, eating out, etc.), use this magic phrase: "When will you ever go on a honeymoon ever again?" He'll do what you want every time.

So basically I learned that manipulation is the key to a successful marriage.

The end.