My Epic Family Road Trip Vacation!

I'm back yall!  Did you miss me?  Well I hope so because I missed talking to you all!

The reason for me going MIA for a week was because I went on my annual family road trip.  This year, the family and I traveled to Memphis TN, San Antonio TX, Luling TX, and Houston TX, all in 8 days!

This trip was epic!  Although being on the road is tiring, I love the bonding my family and I has together while on the wide open road.

We rented our car through Avis using our Costco discount for our epic trip adventure and gotten a nice Kia Sportage to help us get to all of our destinations. 

Below is all the shenanigans we got into.

 

Memphis

Our first stop was in Memphis.  We go here every year because my dad's side of the family has their annual family reunion.  This year, the reunion was a bit low key than the previous years.  The years before my family rented out a spot at a local state park, but this year they had the reunion at Autozone Park where the Memphis's Redbirds (affiliate baseball team to the St. Louis Cardinals) plays.

We all were there for the 4th of July celebration to watch the fireworks.  My family reunion was 50 people deep and we were all scattered around the baseball park.  No one was really watching the baseball game, we took the time to greet family members and catch up on what we all been up to this past year.

The girls had a ball playing at the playground and playing the games that the park provided.  But their fun turned into a nightmare once the fireworks show started.  They are afraid of fireworks and they cried like babies!  Thanks for my grandfather who took them and several other kids away from the show so Mr. M and I could sit back and enjoy the show.  I must say, those fireworks were very powerful!  I felt like I was watching fireworks from Disneyworld!  Smoke and debris from the fireworks was everywhere!  So much that it was getting all over my clothes and getting into my eyes.  Thank goodness I didn't wear white that night!


After the fireworks show, some of my family members and my family and I headed to my cousin's house to have a kick back.  It was loud talks, drinks, and laughter.

The day after the 4th of July, my Aunt had a BBQ at her house.  This BBQ was pretty mellow too since there was no music playing or games.

My dad and I

My dad, grandfather, and the girls

Once it was night fall, the older kids started popping fireworks in my Aunt's field.  My girls wanted to pop fireworks too and for some reason they weren't afraid of fireworks anymore.  I didn't allow them because I feel playing with fireworks is dangerous.  And thank goodness I didn't allow them because one of the fireworks shot towards my Aunt's house and we all ran for cover!  That was extremely scary!  Thank goodness the fireworks didn't set anything on fire.

San Antonio

We spent two days in Memphis and traveled to San Antonio.  That drive took a full day.  We ran into some pretty bad traffic in Arkansas and lost two hours of our time.  During our drive to San Antonio, our air conditioner in our Kia started acting up and started to blow hot air.  Texas is too hot to not have air conditioning.  We almost had to return the car in Dallas but the cold air kicked back in during our drive.

We left Memphis at Noon and arrived to San Antonio about 2am in the morning.

San Antonio is scary at nights.  I don't recommend walking the streets at night alone.  A lot of homelessness and people tweaking out on drugs.  Plus a lot of gangbangers roaming the streets.

We did a Express Deal on Priceline and they placed us in the Sheraton Gunter hotel just one block from The Riverwalk.  The hotel is beautiful and luxurious!  I found out the hotel was built in 1909 and is the oldest hotel in San Antonio.

The lobby is breathtaking and reminds me of a ballroom that people dress up and start dancing the waltz.  The room that they placed us in was spacious and had a great view of the near by buildings and seeing San Antonio come to life during the day.

They had great amenities like, a barbershop, several conference rooms, wine bar restaurant, inexpensive restaurant cafe, rooftop pool, good size gym, and more!

We had a chance to tour the Riverwalk and it is absolutely beautiful there!  A lot of history is there.  All the buildings and landscape is beautifully done and I felt at peace while out there.  So much to do at the Riverwalk like, restaurants, shops, river tours, a mall, cathedrals, museums, and more.  Also near the Riverwalk is the Alamo and the Missions.

On the strip near the Alamo, there are several family attractions like Ripley's Haunted Adventure, The Buckhorn Saloon & Museum, The Texas Ranger Museum, Ripley's Believe It or Not!, The Amazing Mirror Maze a 4D Experience, Tomb Rider 3D, Louis Tussaud's Waxworks, Ripley's Moving Theater 4D, and Guinness World Records.

We only did the Louis Tussaud's Waxwork and that one was a bit of a disappointment because almost all the replicas did not look like the celebrities. 

The Alamo does not allow photography inside but I'll say there is not too much to see in there, but it is really about the history of it.

The family and I got on a double decker bus that is like the ones in London and the bus drivers sidekick narrated and told us the history of all locations and buildings we drove passed.

During my time in San Antonio, I ate so much Tex Mex that I felt like I was going to exploded!  The best food I had out there was at Mi Terra.  That restaurant stays packed with people and stays open for 24 hrs a day.  It is a bit on the expensive side but well worth it!  A lot of locals kept recommending us to try Mi Terra's and I'm glad we did! 

Luling

During our San Antonio stay, we met up with some of my San Antonio family and my dad and grandfather rode down from Memphis too to spend several days in San Antonio as well.

We all rode together to take an hour drive to Luling to have some Texas BBQ at the City Market.  This is actually my second time eating there and the food is great!  The place look like a little hole in the wall but the food will have you requesting for more!  I love stepping into the dark smoke room and seeing how the people prepare the meats with huge bbq pits and black wood.  The aroma itself will get you instantly hungry!

The girls and I with our older cousin

Houston

Our time at San Antonio was coming to an end and we decided to make one pit stop in Houston since Mr. M had a business appointment to attend to there.

I hopped on Priceline and did another Express Deal and we were placed in the Westin at the Galleria.

The drive from San Antonio to Houston was about 3 hours.  Once we got there, Mr. M went to his business meeting while the girls and I waited on him.  Once his meeting wrapped up, we headed to our hotel.  The Westin was another beautiful hotel we had a pleasure staying in.  We didn't get a chance to check out all the amenities the hotel had to offer but the girls enjoyed taking a dip in their rooftop swimming pool.

Our room was also very spacious, even more spacious than the Sheraton.  I loved the rainfall shower in the bathroom!

Also, this hotel is attached to the Galleria Mall.  This mall is huge!  It has so many different stores to shop, including luxury stores.  I couldn't believe there was even a ice skating rink inside.

Near the ice skating rink, we ate at the Rainforest Cafe.  That restaurant was a huge disappointment!  We were going to go to the one at the Riverwalk but it had terrible reviews online.  The reviews for the one in the Galleria Mall wasn't that bad and I took the chance to judge for myself.  Our food took over an hour to arrive at our table and the food was cold and tasteless.  Also it tasted like it was sitting all day.  Only thing going good for this restaurant is the decor.  It keeps the kids entertained with the moving animals in the forest and the rain storm.

Our epic road trip has come to an end and we headed home!


I calculated our driving miles we done through the whole trip, and we drove about a total of 2,244.88 highway miles.  That is almost driving cross country!  During our trip, we drove through 6 states that includes, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana.    

Highlights of Our Trip

• Being pulled over by a cop in Alabama on our way to Memphis.  Mr. M was doing 75 in a 45 zone.  Now going that fast could've landed him in jail!  The cop let us go without a ticket and told us to slow down.

• I didn't get bit that much by bugs during the whole trip.  Almost every year the bugs enjoys feasting on me in Memphis.  I'm happy that I walked away on this trip with 4 to 5 bites on my feet only.

• Seeing Hispanic Elvis at Mi Terra in San Antonio.  That guy scared the crap outta the girls and I because we thought he was a statue.  After we took a picture of him, he moved and smiled at us.  Pretty creepy!
  

• Going to Johnny Dang's Jewelry store in Houston.  If you're into hip hop music then you'll know who Johnny Dang is.  He is a famous guy that makes gold grills, chains, and more for hip hop artist and celebrities.  He became famous after being in hip hop artist's music videos along with Paul Wall.  Unfortunately, he wasn't at the store for us to meet him.
  

• There is an In-N-Out Burger in Texas!  A lot of you may know that I was born and raised in California.  In-N-Out Burger is one of my favorite burger joints back home and being able to eat In-N-Out Burger again gave me a piece of home I've been missing.
  
   

• BUC-EE'S is the best gas station ever!  This gas station is huge!  So much stuff you can get in there like food to order, clothes, bakery, toys, supplies, gosh I bet you can get just about anything in there!  Also, they have gas pumps for miles!  You'll never have to wait for a gas pump!  This gas station is only in Texas.
  
  

• Texas is a beautiful state!  Although I've been to Texas once before, I didn't realize how beautiful the state is.  The skies are blue, grass is green, and everything is bigger and better.  It reminds me so much like California that Mr. M and I has been in the talks of moving there.  I'm very serious!  Don't be surprise if you see a post about me moving to Texas in a few years.

• The food in Texas is delicious!  I can tell the quality of the food is much more better in Texas too.  I can just see myself eating myself sick being there.  I pretty much was doing that when I was there anyway.  I ate so much Tex Mex that I burnt myself out on Mexican food.

I can't wait for our next adventure next year!



For more pictures from our trip, check out my Instagram.

Have you gone on long distance road trips before?