Traveling with a Toddler: Galveston to Houston.

Thursday was our big water day. We thought we were going to hit Schlitterbahn Waterpark just as soon as it opened at 10 a.m. Well, that didn’t happen. And it wasn’t because we slept all that late, either.

I was working on my regular writing when Hunter got up around 9:30. We got through our morning routine, got the hubster up and started the packing job.

I have to tell you… I have become a master of the quick pack. When I go from city to city working this job, I know exactly what I’m carrying with me. I can pack down the computer, get everything into my small rolling back and be out of a room in five minutes flat. I’ve always added another 10 minutes to get Paul up and out. For a toddler, though -- let’s try an additional hour. If not two!

Part of that is my need to be organized. That means separating out all the clothes -- the clean ones, the dirty ones and the ones worn once that aren’t so dirty. The really dirty ones are easiest to figure out -- those go in the laundry bag, and they’ll stay in the car when we go to the next hotel. The clean ones are carefully repacked, the others on top. There’s a sock check, to make sure every sock is retrieved, even if it’s wrapped in a sheet or duvet. There’s a swimsuit check, too -- I’ve left far too many swimsuits over the years on the back of hotel bathroom doors.

There was getting all the materials together for my research. There were all of Hunter’s toys to scoop up. There was getting the ice chest packed with ice and the contents of the refrigerator, packing the dry stuff, putting up the computer and packing up Hunter’s potty. There was making sure our stuff for Schlitterbahn was packed separately -- towels, clothes to change in afterwards (we all wore our suits over there), camera, sunscreen, snacks and pool shoes.

And then there was getting a cart, packing it and taking it downstairs. I estimate it took us just over an hour to complete all of that. That number startled me. It took us about 30 minutes to pack up after our one night at the Livingston, TX Holiday Inn Express (a very nice property with nice people, btw) so I hadn’t expected the delay.

And then there was the small matter of acquiring a snack that wouldn’t fill us up too much but would satisfy our hunger. After all, I’d had my breakfast of fresh fruit and cheese at 6 a.m.; Hunter had her yogurt and banana at 9:45 and Paul hadn’t eaten at all. In the end, with the car already packed, we drove into town and hit the drive-thru at Whataburger (not to be confused with Feltner’s Whatta-Burger) and then drove back.

Technically, we didn’t need to repark at all -- Schlitterbahn Waterpark is right next door to the Moody Gardens Hotel. But I am glad we did. We found a family just leaving and pulled into their spot, which was about a half block from the entrance. It didn’t matter much going in but it sure mattered a lot coming out.

Now, while I’m at it, I need to mention something to you. We had our deal in hand when we went up to the Guest Office and got our wristbands. But I did see the rates on a day at the waterpark. It’s about $45 if you just walk up and pay and go in -- $63ish if you go online and get admission and a souvenir cup and towel.

Let me say this: If that’s what you pay, you’re not paying attention. There are deals everywhere. You can get a package deal if you’re staying at the Moody Gardens Hotel. I bet you can get deals at other area hotels too. Online it’s $2 less for admisssion. If you decide to go later in the day, you can get in a lot cheaper -- for about $34. Just do an online search for “Schlitterbahn Galveston Deals” and you’ll have all sorts of possibilities. There you go.

So we get over there and through the gates (funny, on one side it says “No alcohol allowed inside the park” and on the other it says “No alcohol allowed beyond this point.”) and the first thing we really notice is the big tiki style pavilion in front of a wave pool with a big overhead sign announcing the park. And it’s all that Swiss-German sort of design. Crazy.

We rented a locker, found it and deposited all of our belongings, including overwear worn into the park. It was just enough room, if I smushed it a lot.

Now, there aren’t a lot of photos from here on, since I didn’t have a waterproof case for my camera and frankly, who carries a camera in a waterpark, anyway?


We found the kids area first, and got Hunter accustomed to the idea of being in the water. Paul and I were both nervous Hunter would balk at the water, after her experience at the beach a few days ago. Not to fear -- she saw all those kids roaming everywhere and jumped right in, running up to the top of the pirate ship and staying there… not sliding down, not climbing down but just playing on the top of the amusement, just out of reach.

We did talk her into going with us to the lazy river, and I’m glad we did -- because I think that’s what we liked the most. We started off by boarding tubes at the Torrent River beach. Schlitterbahn offers these two-seater tubes along with the one-seaters, and we found one that was marked “Child Safety Seat.” This one had been adapted with the addition of a plastic bit across the second hole -- a great place for a child to sit. Paul helped me get Hunter into it, then he boarded a single tube and we all set off down the stream.

The Torrent River is connected to the other two lazy rivers on site to make up one big circuit. We went around the Torrent River once with Hunter, just to make sure she was okay with the whole setup. The Torrent River has waves and can be swift in a few places, but is for the most part a typical lazy river style attraction. Our next trip around we took the option of heading out on the Krystal River, which goes around a good section of the park and which is slower. We got around to the Whitewater River and took a neat flat designed escalator for tubes, which took us up in elevation and dropped us off at the top of a set of rapids.

I was apprehensive about taking Hunter on the rapids, but she’d been hollering “faster!” for some time, so I wrapped my feet around her and instructed her to hold onto the handles. And she did. And she loved it -- so much we went around the whole Whitewater River course twice in a row. We would have gone a third time but I was concerned about Hunter and I getting sunburned. We’re both very fair, so it’s a concern.

We wound back around the Torrent River to the beach where we had originally boarded and then walked back over to the Wasserfest Kids Area, where we had started. Hunter was so enamored with playing with the other kids that we decided to stay there. Paul was going to originally take on some of the many slides around site, but we were both already starting to wear out. I retrieved the sunscreen and beverages and got us cooled down and sunscreened up.

The Wasserfest area of the park, as it turns out, becomes the winter version of the park. During the colder months, a selection of screens and windows and plastic windows are put in place to hold in heating. It’s a neat and novel concept. Rates are lower in the winter, since you don’t get as many attractions, but it’s still pretty awesome.


Paul and I wore down quick. After four hours at the park we were both toast, but Hunter was still going. It took a lot of talking and a promise to let her take a dip in the next hotel pool to get her to come out of the water and get changed.

The only complaint I had about the Schlitterbahn Waterpark were the changing area/bathrooms. They were hot. So hot, in fact, that I had to change me and Hunter in stages. I know, it’s hot outside and maybe the idea was to keep people comfortable, but boy wouldn’t a fan or two have made things better!

By the time we got Hunter in her sundress and out of her swimsuit she was starting to show a little drain, too. We slowly made our way back to the van, where I pulled cold beverages out of the cooler and passed them around. Hunter was asleep before we got on I-45 -- I suspect she was asleep before we left the whole Moody Gardens compound.

That was a long trip - the one from the waterpark into Houston to where we were staying. Those 48 miles felt like six marathons. We were all beat!

That being said, when we got to the Embassy Suites in downtown Houston, we were received cordially. The parking option is valet, just so you know. I went in and checked in, hair all stringy from the park, t-shirt and shorts… but they still treated me as if I was their special guest.

And our room. Wow. Another neat room. The Embassy Suites Downtown Houston is a new property, LEED certified and just nifty as all heck. Our room consisted of a living area with a desk and an L-shaped couch, flat screen TV and a couple of very strange tables. There was a little kitchen area with a half-sized refrigerator, microwave and coffeemaker, a huge bathroom with vanity and walk-in shower and a bedroom with a huge king-sized bed.

That description really doesn’t cover it, though.. It’s just neat. Neat neat neat. The doors are painted with that hard shellac sort of yellow paint that will never need to be touched up. There are great design elements everywhere -- beautiful Millenium Eco designs featuring reflections of plant life. There was this fabulous mirror with a modern Celtic knot design over it.

And then there was “Punchy.” Hunter walked through the room with me when I was taking my photographs. She thought the couch was neat and the sink in the kitchenette was cool, but what she most took a shine to was a little decorative plant. She named it Punchy and started carrying it with her everywhere around the suite. I was concerned there would be an issue with parting with the plant when it came time to leave.


We went down for the Manager’s Reception, where free snacks and beverages were being served. This was actually quite nice, since we were rather road weary and a snack was well in order. Hunter perked up a bit with some hummus and chips.

Still, we were exhausted, so exhausted that when I went through the options for dinner and mentioned delivery, Paul and Hunter BOTH breathed a sigh of relief. We found a Thai place that delivered to the hotel called Padthai Thai (I kid you not) and ordered some Pineapple Rice and Beef Pad Thai and Spring Rolls. The $30 for food and tip was a little over our budget, but since we hadn’t had a full meal anywhere else throughout the day it still kept us under the $50 a day food allowance I had hoped to stick with (and which we’d busted the night before with that $87 spent at Landry’s).

Afterwards we went to the pool, but were surprised at how cool it had become. Officially it was 80 degrees, but the wind whipping across the pool on the 3rd floor made it seem much colder. Paul and Hunter took to the pool, a neat long pool that goes from three to four feet deep, changes colors with special lights and which has heated jets of water arching into it. Hunter also loved the little fountains at the end of the pool. I had a nice soak in the hot tub before coming back upstairs. I think I started to fall asleep before they returned a short time later.

And all would have been perfect -- except for the oddity of all three of us sharing a bed. I had thought it would be fine, since Hunter regularly crawls into bed with us each morning. However, I didn’t take into account her fingernails and toenails, which were due for a clipping. Egads.

Still, I had to suck it up and get some coffee the next morning for the trip to the Space Center.

Traveling with a Toddler: Galveston, Day 2.

One bit of advice when you’re traveling with a toddler: they set the schedule. Sure, that’s within reason. Obviously you’re not going to let your toddler hold you up on checking out of the hotel on time or determine certain mealtimes. But there are battles you have to pick.

The battle I don’t pick is on wake-up times. If I wake Hunter too early I know I’m going to have a cranky kid on my hands -- exactly what I don’t need when I go on vacation. There is the fear, of course, that we’ll miss things we want to do. The lesson I learned myself on this particular day was this: this vacation and its story aren’t about all the things we could have done. It’s about what’s reasonable and possible to do with a young child.

So instead of starting our day at 7 a.m. and heading to Moody Gardens at 9 a.m., Hunter didn’t rise until the bright shining hour of 10:30 a.m. Yes, this did cause a little consternation for me, but it also allowed me to get my work done (as a writer, I write every day, even during vacation… so you can read stuff like this!). On the other hand, when she woke she was happy, dry and raring to go.

We decided to catch an early lunch instead of heading straight over to the attractions. We had a recommendation to check out a little joint on 61st Street called Cajun Greek. I’d seen it when we came in and had wondered if it was a fish market -- indeed, the sign actually says “Cajun Greek Fresh Gulf Seafood.” Without the recommendation, I wouldn’t have gone.

And that would have been a shame. You’ve heard the phrase “do one thing, do it well” at some point in your life, haven’t you? The folks at Cajun Greek don’t get that at all. They do everything well, as far as I could tell. The place packed out while we were there. We had a seat at a window table and placed our orders with a waitress. The menu actually says “We are not a fast food restaurant. If we are busy, the wait may be up to 45 minutes.” I was utterly copasetic with that. The hubster got antsy after a few minutes, but I pulled up the menu image on my camera and reminded him of what it said. That cooled his heels.

Hunter was very observant, looking out the window and inspecting what was inside, too. She was extraordinarily impressed by an inflatable crawfish holding a bottle of beer and a package of crab boil hanging from the ceiling. I was marveling at the really cool bar in the shape of a ship’s hull. There’s not a lot of décor in Cajun Greek but what’s there is amusing.







We split everything. The House Salad came out first, a side for my entrée topped with some of the house Greek dressing. It was very tart and tangy, a blend of a traditional olive oil vinaigrette and tapenade. Hunter immediately claimed the tomato wedges out of the salad, stuffing her mouth full. We should just start ordering her tomatoes on their own in restaurants; she adores them.

Then came the shrimp po’boy with French fries. We’d ordered it with the tartar sauce on the side -- Paul can’t stand any mayonnaise based condiment -- and got it with both the tartar and a cocktail sauce on the side. I mention this because I’ve never tasted such a cocktail sauce -- tangy with an underlying flavor to it that ranged somewhere between a hoisin sauce and duck sauce in sweetness, very fresh and very tasty. We both ended up putting it on our po’boys.

The shrimp was marvelously fresh, nicely battered and decently drained out of the fryer. The French bread was a little softer than crusty but was buttery and pliant too. Very nice.

Hunter, of course, absconded with about half the fries. These were battered fries and they were just salty enough for comfort. She dipped them over and over again in ketchup and decided that was about all she wanted.

Too bad for her -- because the gyro showed up. And it was fat. The pita had been packed with chunks -- not shavings, not strips, chunks -- of gyro meat heavy on sage. It came doused in just enough tzatziki sauce, tomatoes, lettuce and white onion ringlets. We divided it and ate it with forks -- there was no use attempting to pick it up by hand. Hunter was offered some but declined, and since she’d already feasted on tomatoes I wasn’t so worried about that.

Hunter has apparently become camera-shy.

Our lunch with beverages was $19.86 -- not bad and well within our budget.

We made a quick trip back to our room to pick up a fresh shirt for Hunter and to give her a chance at bathroom time. Then it was off to Moody Gardens -- a nice little jaunt right across the parking lot.

We started off with the Rainforest Pyramid. I understand it was damaged not by Hurricane Ike but by the storm surge that followed. The surge loosened up the sand between pavers, allowing water to get into the basement and form sinkholes. I can appreciate the efforts Moody Gardens took to shore things up -- not only fixing what needed to be repaired but adding in a skywalk that includes a section of sky-high butterfly garden.








The Rainforest exhibit started with a series of stations where you could hear the different animals found in the forest. Hunter laughed at a display of Pygmy Slow Loris before we moved to the next station -- her favorite, the river otters.

We must have spent 15 minutes there. She was just so thrilled with the long skinny creatures and watched them with interspersed laughter. After a short while they started noticing her, and one of them kept playing right by her at the window.

We went on up to the skywalk, which takes you high above the “floor” of the rainforest section. Here there are plastic vents that bring a little cool air to the otherwise extraordinarily moist, hot air. Hunter and Paul enjoyed spotting birds and other creatures high amongst the treetops.

We kept going and entered the butterfly section. Here screens keep most of the butterflies in a protected environment, though we did notice several who had made their way out of the enclosure. Children flocked here, seeing if they could get the butterflies to land on them. There are several plants about to attract the flutterbys… one of which Hunter squatted down to watch for a while as it collected more and more of the big winged creatures.

We passed by a module that showed how hot it was -- an astounding 107 degrees with 100 percent humidity! That’s even hotter than outside! But it’s necessary to keep all those rainforest creatures and plants surviving just like they would in the while.

We passed through an indoor section where spiders, snakes, frogs and other reptiles, amphibians and insects were shown off. At the end of this section there were nocturnal animals such as a civet cat and this beautiful prickly porcupine nursing its young. There’s something about the look on that creature’s face.





We exited to an area that showed off Asian creatures, followed a bird we couldn’t identify for a while, gawked at a monitor lizard and a gecko sunning itself on a rock.


We briefly stopped at a station that offered scents of the rain forest. Hunter apparently liked what she smelled... she had to smell each and every one.

We saw more parrots and macaws and other birds than we knew names for, stopped to watch a monkey and then skedaddled over to the MG3D theater for a showing of “Wild Ocean” -- Hunter’s very first ever movie to be seen in a theater. We realized that after the fact. She did ask questions a lot at the beginning, but once the movie got underway and she got down the fact she needed to wear the glasses provided she really got into the whole production!

We took a break for a beverage and then headed over to the aquarium -- where we ended up spending an hour and a half. The Aquarium Pyramid appears to be the largest of the three, and it’s packed with all sorts of sea life. It’s organized along several divided levels with ramps to get you from one place to the other. There is a suggested route involving following the schools of fish on the wall, but we were on Hunter’s terms, and she guided us through all the way down to the exit before we came back up to see everything.

Hunter had a lot of favorites there. She started out by petting a live starfish, then moved on to the seal enclosure, where she laughed at the seals playing for a long time. It took some convincing to persuade her to move on.

We headed down a ramp and found a big aquarium with a lot of different fish. There were also all sorts of different this and that sort of creatures here and there. For instance, we spent a good deal of time looking at baby seahorses of different colors and shapes. When we gazed into the big tank of exotic fish that extends a couple of stories up and down, she asked about the big silver and yellow fish. We told her they were yellowfin tuna and she started calling “here, sushi!” Where does she get this?

She was also mesmerized by the penguins. She loves penguins, and the variety of penguins on view ensure lots of things to see. When they would pop to the surface and suddenly be slowly waddling around she’d point and holler. A few found her interesting too, and they bobbed on the surface in front of her at the viewing theater.

She also had the chance to reach into a tank and touch different items, such as a spiny lobster and coral. She was told she could touch anything in there but only with one finger. She must have spent 10 minutes trying to touch one of the darting fish.


I have to say, I've been to a lot of great aquariums around these parts -- the Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans had been my favorite, and I liked the big aquarium at Atlantis in Nassau, Bahamas (though I didn't care for the "added history" section of that attraction).
The Aquarium Pyramid at Moody Gardens is right up there. It's very comprehensive and I like the fact that you don't have to worry about following some straight line to see what you want to see.

By this point we’d been at Moody Gardens for nearly four hours. And still Hunter was not done. We went over to the Discover Pyramid and were a little discouraged that the Happy Feet Ridefilm wasn’t a possibility for Hunter -- the minimum ride height is 42 inches and Hunter is just 38 inches tall, tall for a toddler but not tall enough. So instead we went upstairs and played around in the Bones exhibit. We watched old Schoolhouse Rock bone songs, viewed the human skeleton encased in clear plastic in different poses, looked at some bug exoskeletons and did a little exercise in front of a mirror.

Paul was thrilled to find a lifesize Operation game… something Hunter’s not yet familiar with. She thought it was a little weird to be pulling parts out of a body. Well, if you think about it, it kinda is.

And then she decided she was hungry, and it was time to go. We walked back over to the Visitors Center, expecting to purchase a stuffed otter or something of the like for her as a special souvenir -- it’s what we had budgeted for. Strange thing is, she wasn’t interested. My daughter is a cheap date. She eschewed the t-shirts and the plush toys and chose a little plastic triceratops as her souvenir instead. My daughter.

We went back to our room to freshen up then headed out to dinner at Landry’s over on the Seawall. I was glad we’d made reservations -- there was a 45 minute wait for tables! We took advantage of the online special we’d found, the Distinctive Dining Menu, where you get a three course meal for $19.99. Paul chose the Redfish Verona as his entrée, while I had the 15 Shrimp Three Ways.


His fish, by the way, a parmesan encrusted redfish fillet topped with artichokes, seafood and a lemon butter sauce? Awesome.

Not that I minded my three types of shrimp meal. Hunter even liked it -- since I passed along fried shrimp and fried onions to her to go with her macaroni and cheese.
At $4.50 it was a singular substantial mass of very cheesy macaroni. She got through about half of it, but that was fine. She was full and happy.

While we were waiting for our meal, Hunter got to playing with her new toy and somehow managed to get it tangled in Paul’s hair. I have to say, it was amusing to watch. I’m terrible, I know.

But he still let her play with his hat afterward. I have to admit, she’s a cute kid.

It was 9:30 by the time we got out of there. We went back to our room, changed and went down to the pool, where Hunter floated and practiced her swimming with Paul while I soaked in the hot tub. The pool at the Moody Gardens Hotel, by the way? Mondo cool. It only gets to five feet under the bridge, but as far as floating and playing goes it’s great. I also love the swim-up drink bar.

We had a late night of it, not getting to bed until about midnight. But what a time to be had. I kinda wished we had time to check out Palm Beach at Moody Gardens, but it just wasn’t in the cards. Besides, Schlitterbahn Waterpark was on the agenda for the next day. That was bound to be a blast.