Going to  Medieval  Times, Dallas Castle  as a family was an amazing experience. 

To prepare for the evening, we watched a few videos and talked a little about what might happen during the dinner and as the jousting and games began, but they we already excited. Their love for swords and shields and chivalry with the boys and all things princess for Addision, were enough to get them started.

The children dressed up in their knight and princess garb to make the most of their experience and lots of people really enjoyed seeing them get "in to the show." On the way out one thirty something man told his companions that he wanted a knight suit too!

Arrive early and make sure that you tell them what you are celebrating... they make announcements during the show and recognize everything from birthdays to families! Look at all of the neat things in the gift shop, get your photos taken... be aware that the dress up pics are $35. 

DISCOUNTS: Get the Kings Court Package and receive $10 off - sign up for their emails and get a free Court upgrade!

The food was amazing and the sparks few - literally - when the knights started swinging their swords... the evening was action packed. We all loved every minute -

When we checked in at the hotel we asked about a great place for seafood and, "Gaido's  - the Casey side - look for the giant crab," is what we were told. So we did and when we arrived we were greeted and seated right away - which surprised us considering we were visiting on a Friday of a holiday weekend.

We knew it was going to be an awesome place even before we walked in with their huge shrimp and crab on the roof - what a fun place!
Our waitress was so nice and brought us all kinds of things - even told us about her favorites and what other people liked the best too. She was really nice and brought us all kinds of things to try.

If you like seafood, you should really go there.

Extending our familiy vacation so that we could go to the beach was well worth all the extra time in the car. When we drove down to Seawall Street and all we could see was water, we all got so excited. All of us kids started cheering. Our baby brother had never seen the ocean and when our sister was at the ocean she was so little she doesn't even remember it. We could hardly wait to  get in the water.

Once we finally got everything together to go to the beach, we just had to walk across the street from our hotel and down some big steps on to the sand. The beach was clean and the sand was warm. There were some older boys who had thin boards that they were tossing into the shallow water, jumping on, and then riding as they slid across the water. Another man was fishing far out in the waves and not too long after we build our first sand castle of the day a whole group of college kids came with their music machine on wheels. They were a party looking for a place to land. It was kind of fun watching them dance and be silly.

There was so much to do playing in the water... a little airplane even flew by with an ad for everyone to read. Now that's not something we see everyday.

We rode the Metro from Preston Street, because we knew that it would thrill our son named Preston, and then we walked about a mile down to the zoo. It was hot and we were pretty tired by the time we got to the entrance, but right at the front (the entrance we came in were near the hospitial) were giraffes that were being hand fed lettuce.

Walked around to the big cats and got to see the lions upclose through glass. It was really cool to be able to be that close to the boy. The children's area was neat too, with a few playgrounds and a funny ground hog thing where you could stick your head out of the hole like a ground hog. There was so much there, even though it's a very small zoo - even Diego and Dora in 3D!

To make the visit even better we read Houston Zoo Blogs and looked at theDaily Activities Schedule oniline. The zoo even has an app for iPhone and Andriod with more tips and ideas about how to make the most of your visit. At the zoo timing is everything so knowing when and where things are taking place helps you to plan your day.

Recomended by a friend that lives in Houston, we stopped by Niko Niko's for drinks and dessert after a long day walking and riding the Metro over the downtown area. Here's what Clayton had to say about it:

More Information
Market Square
301 Milam (at Congress)
Houston,
Texas
713-224-GYRO (4976)

Monday - Friday 7am - 9pm
Saturday & Sunday 8am - 9pm

http://nikonikos.com/

A visit to the Houston aquarium was about way more than just looking at fish. We
had dinner, rode a train, did the Dare to Dive ride a ton, took the ferris wheel
up over the highway, and even saddled a fish on the carousel.

Entertainment
They have a few interactions each day and we got to see them feed some fish and feed
and "trade" the tigers. There weren't just a whole lot of times to hear someone
talk or to see something out of the ordinary. I think that those two were it. We
got to see a lady feed a bunch of fish and she told us about each kind in the
huge fish tank that went up onto the celing over our heads. Then the same lady
fed the white tigers. I don't know why the white tigers were at the aquarium,
but they were. When the "new" tiger came into the exhibit, it was walking up
close to the glass and my little brother made a gun out of his fingers and said,
"pew! pew!" Those tigers are endangered and he was acting like  he was shooting
them. It was so embarrassing, but all the people there to watch the tigers
laughed at him because they said it was so
cute.

Amusement park type rides outside were my
absolute favorite. The best one was the Dare to Dive ride where it made you feel
like you were falling. My mom really liked the train ride through the shark tank
that went up over our heads. It was cool to see all of the sharks swimming all
around us. The ferris wheel went up so high we could see on top of the highway
and the two little ones really liked riding the fish on the carousel.

Price
We bought the City Pass (which made the tickets mor than half price) and added an all you can play pass for each of us for only $5 - it was well worth it too! All of the things outside like the train, carousel, ferris wheel, and the Dare to Dive Ride would have cost extra!

Dinning
There is a very nice (sort of expensive) restaraunt in the aquarium. The waiter said that they dont serve any of the fish that are swimming in the giant aquarium in the middle of the dining room, which . The coolest thing was the big dessert that had a cookie in the shape of a fish on top of it - it looked great and tasted even better.

We can't wait to go back there to see the fish and ride the rides!