Another Strawberry Days parade. Jack was with the marching band again, but this year he is in the percussion section (tenor drums) rather than the trombone. He had such a blast with the drum line last winter, he decided to stay with it for marching band this year. The drums weigh about 45 pounds, so it was rougher than carrying his trombone.
Taylor was off work and was able to join us for the parade. We haven't seen too much of her this summer, and its hard to believe that in just a month she'll be going back to Logan. :(
Jack and his friend Derek won the FCCLA state competition in Entrepreneurship (Junior Division) and earned themselves a trip to the FCCLA National Leadership Conference in San Antonio. I went along for fun.
Here's everything I knew about San Antonio before this trip:
1) San Antonio is in Texas.
2) It's hot there.
3) The Alamo is there.
4) It's hot there.
It was VERY hot there. Although I really liked San Antonio, and I would totally go back, I wouldn't go again in July. It was sooooo hot and humid. Our last full day there wasn't so hot, and we did spend a lot of time inside the convention center, but still . . . . so hot.
Jack and Derek on the plane as we left from SLC. We flew on Southwest. I hate Southwest, only because they don't assign seats. Seriously, in this age of technology, how hard is it to assign seats? When I book my own flights, I rarely even bother to look at Southwest. I would rather pay for my luggage than not have an assigned seat.
Shortly after we arrived in San Antonio, we headed for dinner and the Alamo. I really liked the Alamo, but it's much smaller than I had imagined. It also looks really out of place just plopped down in the middle of a busy, modern city. The line to get in was very long, probably because all the other FCCLA people (there were 7500 FCCLA people) all had the same idea. Since we had to walk every where we went, we passed the Alamo many times, and I never again saw a line like there was when we went for the tour.
We arrived on a Saturday afternoon, but the Conference didn't actually begin until Monday. We spent part of Sunday at the Schlitterbahn just outside of San Antonio. I spent the day sitting in the shade while the boys had all the waterpark fun they could fit in. Somehow even with sitting in the shade, I managed to get sunburned. I haven't figured out how that happened.
We had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe one day as part of one of our tours. My opinion of theme restaurants remains unchanged: overpriced "meh" food, small portions, and mediocre service.
Jack and Derek presented their STAR event on Tuesday morning. This is right after they finished. I attended a lot of the meetings with our group from PGJHS. It made for very long days, but I'm glad I did. I learned a lot about the FCCLA organization that I didn't know. I even got to judge the Nutrition and Wellness event on Monday. That was a great experience!
We went to the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum and the Guiness Book of World Records Museum on Wednesday. Here is Jack as the Fattest Man Ever. (the lighting was terrible in both museums)
Thursday morning was the Recognition Ceremony. Jack and Derek were awarded a silver medal.
Dinner Thursday was at the Rainforest Cafe (sigh - theme restaurants). Jack got so full . . . "food coma" full.
The San Antonio Riverwalk
Thursday night we finally had time to take the boat ride on the river that goes through town. It was really fun and I was glad we were able to fit it in. After the boat ride, we went back to the hotel and went to bed early; everyone was exhausted from such a busy week.
One last selfie at the Alamo on our walk back to the hotel.
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