The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment — Attraction in San Marcos

This place was an adventure in what, at first, seemed like an old school Resident-Evil styled laboratory on the edge of a suburban forest. The experience is made more surreal with the presence of an abandoned 1970's-futuristic styled amusement park where the vegetation and nature has reclaimed the man made structures! The glass bottom boats are cool, you get to see the creatures living in the vegetation below, within the pristine spring waters! There are still relics from the shows and rides that they had here during the 70's. The tours are loaded with local history of this "aquarena"! It has additional museum and info inside. Overall, a real learning experience. The flora & fauna above and below the spring...

I went to the amusement park that was here long ago - wanted my children to ride on glass bottomed boats.

Luckily the boats still run, but all the shows and crazy stuff (piano playing chicken, swimming pig, mermaid show, etc.) is gone - it is more educational.

Kids still loved it. Smashed some pennies in an old machine they kept around, looked at the fish aquariums and the turtle aquarium.

They loved the ride on the boat and pointing out every fish and turtle they saw. The water was perfectly clear, the plant life underwater thick and fantastic and the springs were a sight one must see to appreciate.

Although the amusements from when I was a child are long gone, the boats are still worth it for young...

A very laid back place with a slow pace. We called ahead to get the schedule for tours and planned our day as we were visiting from out of town. Arrived and then the same person we spoke to on the phone just 30 minutes prior, said that the tour was cancelled because everyone decided to take a "spontaneous" lunch break. We were put off by that after having planned our tight schedule. The unconcerned, laissez-faire attendant (bored college kid) suggested we kill an hour touring the museum(?) until the next boat tour. Really? Ok, finally the tour. Because of their impromptu schedule change we got a private tour being the only people on the boat. NICE ending. We...