Published
Travel Log 9: A Frozen Texas Winter
70 to 30 degrees makes for a wild winter in Texas!

We just wrapped up our stay in Texas. We’ve spent most of the month of January in Canyon Lake, Texas. Canyon Lake is situated between Austin and San Antonio.
For being used to cold Pennsylvania winters, the winter in Texas was colder than we expected. But there were also several nice days while PA was blanketed in snow!
Table of contents
- Leaving Fort Worth
- The Lake at Canyon Lake
- Ice Skating
- Snake Farm Zoo
- San Antonio Botanical Gardens
- A Day in New Braunfels
- Drive-In Theater
- San Antonio Zoo
- Buckhorn Museum
- Hot Tub
- An Escape Room & A Magic Time Machine
- Canyon Lake Gorge
- The Alamo
- San Antonio River Walk
- Texas Hill Country Heritage Museum
- Having a Campfire
- Seaworld San Antonio
- Snow in Texas???
- Movie Nights
- San Antonio Aquarium
- The Sherlock Home
Leaving Fort Worth
We left Fort Worth on a Sunday to head to our next Airbnb. We stopped in Austin along the way to break up the trip. We wanted to go to the Children’s Alliance Playground, but the parking situation there was crazy (our mistake for going on a Sunday!).
So we decided to go down the road to the Peter Pan Mini Golf. It is a quaint mini golf in downtown Austin.

After mini golf, we decided to head back to the playground to try our luck at parking for the playground again. And, thank the Lord, a parking space opened up for us! (parking with our giant van is always a challenge). The park and playground were nice and the kids had a great time climbing and traversing their tunnel system.

The Lake at Canyon Lake
The day after we arrived was gorgeous. So we wanted to go down to the lake and check it out. Big mistake, apparently they close everything in the winter: boat ramps, beaches, parks, etc. The one place that our Airbnb host suggested might be open was closed for maintenance, until March. 😅
That being said, we were able to enjoy the nice day from the spacious backyard at the house.

That night we went to the Lone Star Light Show which is the closest we’ve been to the lake all month. The show was small but really nice. The kids insisted on getting hot chocolate, in 60+ degree weather, lol.
Ice Skating
We drove into San Antonio to visit one of their ice skating rinks. The day we went was warm so it was a stark contrast, ice skating in the sun! That might have been why the ice wasn’t very smooth, but we still had a good time. Adeline, our youngest, was able to enjoy it too. Her older brother pushed her around the rink while she rode on a plastic dolphin.

Snake Farm Zoo

Nearby Canyon Lake is the Snake Farm Zoo, which as the name might suggest has lots of snakes and reptiles. In addition to that, we were able to feed the animals in their petting zoo. Several of the goats were quite rowdy and we got headbutted a few times. They were also doing a lion feeding during the time that we visited. However, the lions seemed more interested in each other than in being fed. So the zookeeper fed a hungry mountain lion instead.

San Antonio Botanical Gardens

The San Antonio Botanical Gardens puts on a really cool light show around Christmas Time. The whole garden is filled with large lit-up lanterns shaped like animals, insects, and, of course, plants. It was a really nice walk through the gardens and lanterns at twilight.

The kids were complaining that we were going to “another light thing”, but changed their tune after walking around a bit. They had several interactive things as well, like a light-up playground and microphones that you could speak into and they would repeat you with a funny voice.

A Day in New Braunfels
A short drive away from Canyon Lake is the nice little town of New Braunfels. We spent a day there. They have a tiny railroad museum that we visited. It is free to visit, the just ask for a donation. The kids got to “drive” one of the model train sets there. It was very small but the kids enjoyed it.

After the railroad museum, we stopped by their local park to play. It was a weekend so it was fairly busy. But the park has multiple playgrounds all near each other so it wasn’t overcrowded.
Once the kids were done playing we took a mini-train ride around the park and nearby pond. We would have loved to take some paddle boats out on the pond, but the water level was much too low for the boats to be in operation.
Drive-In Theater
One night we went to the Stars and Stripes Drive-In Theater to watch the Mufasa movie. The drive-in was much nicer than the one back in our hometown. They even have a playground for the kids to enjoy before the movie.

For the movie, we all snuggled into the back of the van with pillows and blankets. It wasn’t the most comfortable to shove all 7 of us together. But we still had a good time.
San Antonio Zoo

We visited the local San Antonio Zoo or as the kids were calling it, the San Antonio Aviary. They seemed to have more birds than other kinds of animals.
Between the small size, the construction everywhere, and the lack of good food options we left underwhelmed. It might be better after they finish several planned extensions. But compared to other zoos (like St. Louis’) it wasn’t very good.
Buckhorn Museum
In downtown San Antonio, just a block away from the river walk is the Buckhorn Museum and Texas Ranger Hall of Fame. It has a lot of taxidermy animals in the Buckhorn section and tons of Texas Ranger memorabilia in the hall of fame. It’s a nifty little place to visit if you are already exploring the river walk.

Hot Tub
The Airbnb we stayed at included a hot tub. So on some of the cooler days, we spent some time in the hot tub. One night we even saw a gray fox sniffing around the backyard, unfazed by our nearby presence.
An Escape Room & A Magic Time Machine
We went to an escape room by Get Out of My Escape Room. The room we escaped from was a moderately difficult, cat-themed room. Other than missing some obvious stuff (like the puzzle piece attached to the underside of the piano 🤦♂️) we were able to escape in ample time.
After our daring escape, we had dinner at the Magic Time Machine. The food was nothing to write about, but you don’t go for the food. You go for the experience.

The Magic Time Machine can be described only as wacky. Each booth has its own theme like Sponge Bob or aliens. And each of the wait staff has their own character they dress up as and play the entire time. Our server was, like, totally Barbie and the kids were able to get signatures from other characters like Anna, Batman, and Indiana Jones (they only got him because he was in a group of other characters 😂).

The Loki waiter even called out our eldest over the intercom because he was “too cool” to get signatures. Eli didn’t appreciate it, but we got a laugh out of it!
They usually have face painting and balloon animals for the kids, but just be aware that it will be an extra cost.

Canyon Lake Gorge

Right next to Canyon Lake, there is the Canyon Lake Gorge. We took some time to get some fresh air and hiked the mile-long trail to see the full length of the gorge. It is kind of amazing because it was basically formed overnight in a flood about 20 years ago.

The Alamo
Midway through our Canyon Lake stay we were able to visit the Alamo. Not understanding how their ticketing works we ended up paying for an audio tour. We came to realize we could have just done a free ticket to get into the Alamo church if we didn’t want to go into the museum part. But the kids ended up actually listening to the audio devices (and hopefully learned something!).

When we were there we also got to see a live musket demonstration. Our two-year-old cried, but it was pretty cool to see.
San Antonio River Walk
After visiting the Alamo we took a guided boat tour of the San Antonio River Walk. We got to see the whole river walk area and learned a lot about the history of the area. Thankfully we went when we did because later that night they drained the whole river area to clean it out!

Texas Hill Country Heritage Museum
Right down the road from our Airbnb is the Texas Hill Country Heritage Museum. Honestly, from the road it doesn’t look like much and we considered skipping it altogether. But we ended up going and were pleasantly surprised. They had a large set of dinosaur tracks that you could view from up close. It was better than our visit to Dinosaur Valley State Park.

They also have some exhibits with old farm equipment and various other artifacts. The kids were able to do a “fossil dig” in the sand. Once you get past the gate, it is a very nice visit.
Having a Campfire
On one of the nice days we were able to have a campfire in the backyard. The Airbnb host ordered a new fire pit and the county had just lifted its burn ban (which afterward it was later reinstated, so good timing!). We had a nice time making s’mores and mountain pies.

Seaworld San Antonio

We got the opportunity to visit Seaworld in San Antonio. It was partially under construction and for some reason, they seemed to be out of everything we tried to eat or snack on. The pizza place didn’t have the brisket pizza they were advertising, they didn’t have any icing to dip the pretzels in, they didn’t have cookies for their ice cream cookie sandwiches, and the cool-looking fry place was closed. 😬

Food aside we had a good time at all their shows. Thanks to Katie’s parents purchasing an add-on, we got to take a behind-the-scenes dolphin tour. We got to get really close to one of their resident dolphins, got it to do some tricks, and even got to pet it! If you’re in any of the Seaworld locations, check out doing one of their behind-the-scene tours!

Snow in Texas???
Do you want to build a snowman? Well, we did. In Texas. Weird right? We weren’t expecting to see much snow this year, but there was a small amount that fell in central Texas. The kids and I went out to play in the snow a bit and built a really tiny snowman.

Movie Nights
Throughout the month we’ve watched several recently released movies. We watched the “Wild Robot” which was funny and heartwarming. Our eldest has been reading the book, so it was perfect timing. Now our second oldest is reading it.
We also watched “Harold and the Purple Crayon”. It was another nice family movie that we all enjoyed together.
And we did a themed movie night for “Wicked”. We made a themed dinner and cookies as well. The little kids got bored part way through (it is a 2-and-a-half-hour long movie!).

San Antonio Aquarium

Calling the San Antonio Aquarium an aquarium is a huge misnomer. Only a portion of the “aquarium” is actually filled with water. They have plenty of land animals. Including lemurs, kangaroos, penguins, and other birds.
Many of the animals come with extra experiences where you can feed or pet the animals. However, each experience costs tokens, each of which costs around $3. So with the 7 of us and the experiences costing more than one token per person, it could have gotten expensive fast.

The Sherlock Home
After we left Canyon Lake we spent a night in an awesome Sherlock Holmes-themed escape room Airbnb. It is a really cool concept, you book the house like any Airbnb, but once you step inside you start playing the escape room!
It had all sorts of awesome decor really cementing the old England setting. There were a mixture of puzzles from cracking codes to finding puzzle pieces to mixing “poisons” (spoiler alert, they weren’t actually poisons!). I can’t go into too much detail to protect the surprise and wonder of actually doing it yourself, but we really had a great time.
They told us it would take around 4 hours to complete, which is about how much time it took us. Being that it was an Airbnb, we put our youngest to bed and kept going with the rest of the family. There was a point where we got stuck and even the older kids started losing interest. But they were reinvigorated after we made some breakthroughs. And one big reveal (sorry, no spoilers!) really got everyone interested again for the ending.

After we spent the night there we headed for our next destination, New Mexico!