Month: March 2017

We were on South Padre Island, Texas for the two weeks. We left this past Wednesday. South Padre Island is a barrier island on the gulf coast of Texas and is very far south, close to Mexico.  We did not like it as much as Mustang Island. South Padre is more populated (lots of hotels and skyscrapers) and the beaches in many places are full of trash (very sad).

We were there during Spring Break Week and we had been told by numerous people that the Island would be overrun with college students and we would not be able to drive anyplace due to gridlocked traffic. When we arrived at our campground some of the neighbors said they were leaving early to avoid the Spring Break “chaos”. We did see a number of college students and a slight increase in traffic but probably would not even have noticed if we did not hear the dire warnings from friends.

We were hoping to do some 4-wheeling on the beach as we did on Mustang Island and Padre Island National Seashore, but the tides and weather were against us. On the beaches where 4-wheeling is normally done the water was so high it almost touched the dunes – even at low tide. The sand that was uncovered was soft and deep – easy to get stuck. So we did not drive on the beach but we found other things to do.

Nature Center

We visited the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center.

 

 

 

 

 

Dolphins & Doggy

We went on a dolphin tour. The tour was on a small pontoon boat with a great skipper and a small dog who communicates with the dolphins. It was a beautiful day for a boat ride and we saw lots of dolphins.

 

 

ISLA BLANCA STATE PARK

We stayed in the Isla Blanca State Park Campground. We had a site close to the beach.

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday

And we celebrated Bill’s birthday.

We saw this one day on the Mustang Island beach. Apparently the skipper fell and hit his head then was airlifted for medical attention. We heard conflicting stories about where the accident occurred – one version said he ran aground right off Mustang Island, another said the accident occurred near Port Isabel and the boat drifted up to Mustang.  Nevertheless the guy is OK and the boat was removed from the beach two days later.

 

 

As usual, we have our kayaks with us. One day while still on Mustang Island we took the kayaks over to Wilson’s Pass on the bay side of the Island.  The route we selected seemed typical for us. We saw some wildlife and had lunch on a small island.  But on the way back the wind picked up and for the first time ever I was not sure I could paddle back to our starting point against the wind. We noticed a dirt road by the edge of the water that we thought would lead back to the place where we parked the jeep. So I pulled my kayak out onto the shore while Bill paddled the last mile or so by himself so he could drive the jeep out to where I was waiting. Turns out that some of the “road” was nearly under water and very mucky. Luckily we have a 4-wheel drive and an excellent driver, otherwise: who knows!!! He did make it out to me with a very muddy jeep and we found another way back to the main road.

 

 

 

 

 

There is a boat channel at the northern end of the Mustang Island – an entry into Corpus Christi bay.  There is a free ferry run by Texas DOT to cross the channel. One day we  took the ferry and then drove up the coast a bit to Rockport, TX. Rockport is a cute little coastal town with an ‘artsy’ flavor.

 

 

 

 

 

We left Mustang Island in Port Aransas on the Gulf Coast of Texas a few days ago. We were in Port Aransas for two months and took many trips in the Jeep down to Padre Island National Seashore. The National Seashore has 62 miles of 4-wheel drive beach.

On one of our first trips in the National Seashore we were flagged down by the owner of a motorhome. He had gotten himself stuck in the sand and Bill pulled him out with the Jeep. There are actually very many RVs on the beach. It’s amazing we there are not more of them stuck in the sand.

 

We often saw many people surf casting on the beach. One day we saw a couple of fisherman pull in a shark!!

 

The currents in the Gulf of Mexico cause lots of interesting items to wash up onto the Padre Island beach.

 

 

We found a deserted cabin at around mile 40.

 

And many pelicans !!