Somewhere In The Middle of Texas: 40th on South Padre Island

Saturday, August 30, 2014

40th on South Padre Island

This morning we packed up and headed out for our end of summer vacation to South Padre Island. Our end of the year vacations usually coincide with Toby's birthday so I guess you could call it a vacation/birthday celebration.

Texas is not known for it's beautiful beaches and there are very few along the coastline that are worth traveling to. In the years we have lived here we've heard through the local grape vine that South Padre is considered to be close in comparison to the Florida beaches. Toby and I finally got curious enough to make the 6 hour drive to see for ourselves.

The drive was an easy one, which is always a plus for me.

Once we got to Port Isabel located a couple of miles outside of the Island we stopped at HEB and grabbed a few groceries for the room....fruit, lunch meat, rotisserie chicken, cheese, soups, etc.

We got an excellent deal on our room. $80 bucks a night and a room with an ocean view. Can't beat that!! It pays to vacation off season.

DAY 1.

By the time we got checked in and settled into our room it was too late to do anything but have an evening drink out on the balcony while listening to the surf and taking in the beautiful view of the ocean.

DAY 2.

The weather was beautiful today. The water was great! Clear and Blue. It was akin to the water at Gulf Shores....not as blue and clear as the Florida beaches but certainly beat any beach in Texas. I also took note the beaches and Island were a lot cleaner than Port A....and more touristy.

Toby was excited -as well as everyone else who was on the beach at the time - to have spotted a very large school of fish just swirling along right at the shoreline. If you look really good in this picture you can see the shadowed area of the school to the right of Toby...

Everyone followed the school for awhile until they swirled on out to sea.

We also had some tropical fish nibbling on us in the ocean. At first it freaked me out a little bit, but it helped the water was clear enough that I could see what was doing the nibbling.

DAY 3.

Toby's birthday today! We ate a birthday lunch at an Island restaurant. Good food!

Creepy pose!

Toby decided he wanted to parasail for his birthday, and he encouraged Skye to join him. Of course, I didn't want any part of this adventurous activity so I opted to stay behind and take Bo for a walk along the beach...

They had a blast! Skye couldn't stop talking about it and I think Toby had fun too...except for the part where his swim trunks tore down the back seam and his butt cheeks were revealed. Skye loved that part too.

DAY 4.

Good thing we spent an enjoyable day on the beach on our first day there. The rest of the time we were there the surf was rough and there was a red flag warning. We didn't let that stop us from playing on the beach, nor did Toby let it stop him from boogie boarding in it, taking advantage of the surf.

Me and Skye made mermaid fins for ourselves...