{"id":1330,"date":"2015-07-13T03:07:05","date_gmt":"2015-07-13T03:07:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christinashaw.com\/?p=1330"},"modified":"2015-07-13T03:28:26","modified_gmt":"2015-07-13T03:28:26","slug":"abandoned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/christinashaw.com\/?p=1330","title":{"rendered":"Abandoned…"},"content":{"rendered":"

For some reason, I am infatuated<\/em> with abandoned things, especially amusement parks and water parks. \u00a0So, I love reading articles and looking at old photos, like this<\/a> or this<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Waiting<\/a>
Waiting for the train…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My mom took the kids and I on a vacation back in 2002<\/strong>. \u00a0The kids and I rode the Amtrak train from Texarkana to Fort Worth. Dumb. REALLY dumb! \u00a0What is normally a three hour drive in a car became a nine hour ride on the train! It stops for EVERYTHING! While we did see some interesting things along the way, like the horseshoe park in Mineola (that, according to Google Maps<\/a>, may not exist anymore), and met a few nice people, like this man traveling from Massachusetts to Fort Hood<\/a>\u00a0to go to boot camp, who had no idea what an armadillo was, I probably should have rethought the whole train ride experience!<\/p>\n

\"(Not<\/a>
(Not the Amtrak train we rode. We ran to the train station a couple weeks before to show the kids, though!)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We\u00a0were seen off by a lady who has known me most of my life…love her!<\/p>\n

\"20020810Pic05a\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And to ease the pain of the trip (I knew the train ride would take longer, just not that<\/em> long!), I packed a bag full of toys and activities I picked up the dollar store for each of the kids. \u00a0They were allowed to get one every hour. \u00a0They ranged from things like travel sized checkers and Connect Four<\/a>, to plastic bubbles<\/a>, which easily was a favorite of not only the kids, but the train passengers as well (thankfully, I thought I was going to offend by the kids throwing those around)!<\/p>\n

\"Sightseeing<\/a>
Sightseeing from the train…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once we made it to Fort Worth, my mom picked us up and we spent the night with her. Then, we proceeded on with our trip. \u00a0We headed to San Marcos, Texas!<\/p>\n

Anyways…the whole point of this post is to document some photos of our trip, so if any of the places shut down, one can still see what the places looked like, at least at the time of our visit!<\/p>\n

Our first stop, was checking in to the hotel in San Marcos. Pretty sure it was the Days Inn (we didn’t spend too much time there, but I distinctly remember the Walmart being just on the other side of the freeway!). \u00a0The rest of the day, we spent at Aquarena Springs\/Aquarena Center (now owned by Texas State University<\/a> and known as The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment<\/a>). \u00a0The best part of this trip was my mom asking about the swimming pig show<\/a> and the lady who worked there telling her that ended in 1976 (I don’t know why I didn’t take any photos of the submarine theater – the submarine was there, appeared abandoned and creepy<\/a>\u00a0{more photos after the center had been closed HERE<\/a>} and has since been removed<\/a>); I even found this story<\/a> about a time the submarine theater flipped over! \u00a0Photos…<\/p>\n