The Ski family!

I set the stage for this long holiday weekend to be one of relaxation. After weapon turn-in and arriving back in my room on Thursday, I immediately got online and cashed in some Hilton Honors points and reserved a room here in San Antonio to get away for an evening. By 9:00 pm, I was relaxing in a whirlpool bath in my deluxe suite eating a slice of pecan pie and sipping a glass of Cabernet wine from room service! I know, I know, the field wasn't exactly arduous, but I felt like pampering myself! I enjoyed a late checkout Friday afternoon and lazed around in bed watching movies and then getting a message.

Yesterday afternoon, I hooked up with Pam & Ski and family. Although we've kept in touch with each other through annual Christmas letters, I hadn't actually seen them in 15 years! Through Facebook, we realized that we were only a few hours from each other, so Pam & Ski loaded up their two kids, Adam & Anna and headed towards San Antonio. After giving them horrible directions to the base (I guess land nav didn't really cure my terrible sense of direction after all!), they finally found me and we all headed to the Riverwalk for dinner.

Pam & Ski met in VP-17 back in Hawaii and got married after they got out of the Navy. They have two wonderful kids who have definitely inherited both of their playful personalities. After dinner at the Riverwalk, we hung out reminiscing about our old Navy days and even texted a few former shipmates that we keep in touch with who couldn't believe that we were all together again! We laughed and caught up on each other's lives until we finally got tired and called it an evening.

This morning, the Ski family picked me up for breakfast and a day of sightseeing. We started off at the Natural Bridge Caverns north of San Antonio. Although I had been through underground caverns before, I like this one because it wasn't cold! With 99% humidity, the dense air was actually much warmer below ground than the air above! We descended around 180 feet amongst huge stalagmites and stalactites. Because the caverns remain sealed by climate proof doors, the caverns remain "alive" and are still forming the grotesquely shaped rock formations. I'm always fascinated by unique construction methods of mother nature!

From the caverns, we headed back south towards downtown San Antonio and had lunch at the Buckhorn Museum & Saloon. This unique establishment has been in continuous operation since 1881. Apparently, the impressive collection of horned animal busts began back in the 1880s when a stuffed animal head could be traded for shots of whiskey or beer! As you can see in the pic of the saloon, there have been a lot of thirsty hunters over the years! Being the animal-rights activist of the family, Anna preferred a tour of the Texas Rangers Museum over that of the Museum of Horns, Fins & Feathers!

It's been a while since I've posted a food picture, so I thought a pic of my purely Texas lunch would be a fitting one for today's post! The BBQ brisket was super tender and went well with my Shiner Bock beer. Although the sausage & coleslaw left a bit to be desired, the chunky potato salad was pretty good. The Haagen Dazs Belgium chocolate milk shake obtained down the street from the Alamo that followed wasn't half bad either!

Tomorrow is another day off so I'll do some reading and catch up on paperwork before classes crank off again on Tuesday. Hope everyone had as a great a weekend as I did and that treasured friendships will pop up unexpectedly in your life too!