After waking up to a slightly damp morning, everyone eagerly piled into the car for a trip to local San Antonio. As we traveled further south, we realized that the damp morning was due to a slow moving rainstorm headed south. By the time we got to the San Antonio Botanical Gardens there was a steady drizzle of rain. Not to ruin our day, a very nice lady in the botanical garden's gift shop gave us directions to local indoor attractions. Unfortunately most didn't open until 11am which gave us the opportunity to scour the ground for fallen epiphytes.

When I was growing up, my mom had a great collection of epiphytes, mainly bromeliads. One odd plant that we would always try to grow was Ball Moss (what we called baylee eye). They seem bland at first glance, but have beautiful little flowers and require little in the way of care or maintance - and since they have an affinity for oak trees, you can find them almost anywhere in central Texas.

While we were waiting for the Witte Museum to open, we saved several baylee eye from the inevitable fate of being mulched in the lawnmower. I highly recommend the Witte museum if you have childern- or just a facination with how the world works. There is a great treehouse sponsored by HEB which has daily experiments about science. My mom was excited to see an experiment about electricity which involved frying a pickle - I never knew that they would glow when electricuted from the inside.

As a break on the following day, we all geared up to watch the much anticipated Return of the King at our local big screen theatre - and we got a great seat right in the middle of the largest screen next to an Imax (earlier we had prepared my parents for the movie event of the year by renting the movie versions of the first two LOTR). Overall, it was everything we were expecting and so much more! The action sequences were phenominal, the story line was beautifully constructed, the scenery amazing, I could go on and on. I was very happy with the choices many of the characters made (can't tell more, can't spoil the ending, it is so hard not to)... and am looking forward to seeing the extended edition. Every time that we have watched the extended edition always outshines the onscreen version (expecially the second one if I may be so bold).

After the movie, I was in for a treat - not that I knew it. We headed into Austin to the famous Waterloo Ice House for my traditional Chicken Fried Steak and mashed potatoes with creamy gravy. Since I only get it twice a year, every time is a true treat, and especially in this case since it gave us all the opportunity to share our favorite moments from the epic LOTR (and ask Mark oodles of questions about what else happens, since he was the only one who had read the entire series). That had to be the best way to end a fabulous trip home.