South Padre Island

Joel's parents came down for a visit in June and we took them to South Padre Island for a few days. Larkin was super excited because she's been asking to go to the ocean ever since the BP oil spill. When the spill first happened she asked for daily updates (for months) on what was happening, how they were fixing it, and how all the animals were doing, etc.

When we arrived on the beach (after 6 long hours in the minivan!), she ran out to the water and stood mesmerized looking at the horizon. She looked completely amazed and turned to me and said, "Wow. I didn't think the ocean would look like this. Did you? It's sooo big!"

Our condo was right on the beach and had an ocean view. It also had an indoor (and outdoor) pool that we used when it rained! I think it rained every day that we were there, but no one seemed to mind. Really it was a blessing--the cloud cover kept us cool and the rain was always short-lived. Plus we were in our bathing suits 95% of the time anyway!

On our first day on the beach we had a professional sandcastle lesson. Here's our work, and you can see our condo building in the background-



One of my favorite places we went was to the birding center. They have these long boardwalks that weave though marshy areas and it's a mecca for all kinds of birds and wildlife. We went at dusk and had a great time walking off our seafood dinner and doing some birdwatching. There's even an alligator that lives around there somewhere, but we didn't find him. Maybe next time!
We also went on a dolphin tour and got to see the bay. The dolphins would come close to the boat and jump out of the water a little, and each time the girls would count out loud excitedly. Really there were never more than three dolphins at one time, but the girls thought there were 12 or so. Each time a dolphin surfaced they'd count it and yell, "There's another one!" and think it was a new one. Here's a pic of Willa on the boat with the "dolphin dog"--he would bark anytime he saw a dolphin. It got a tad windy on the boat. :)


Our favorite part of the beach is going to the beach access points on the north side of the island that are far away from all the development. There is a section where the paved road ends and you are allowed to drive your 4x4 vehicle on the beach. Joel and I came here before the girls were born and drove up the island for miles and miles--you really feel like you're in the middle of nowhere and hardly see any other people. Unfortunately the "off road" section was closed while we were there, but I'm not sure that the minivan could have handled it anyway! We settled on going to the furthest most beach access point,and that was good enough! There were tons of shells (very few people walking on the beach to grab them all!) and it still felt pretty remote. The girls said this was their favorite part of the trip. Larkin spent well over an hour collecting shells, and Willa "kept the shells warm" by piling sand into the shell buckets.



Here's a pic of a flock of pelicans overhead. These birds were huge and every 3o minutes or so a new flock would fly over us. It was really impressive!

If you take your bug nets and flashlights out on the beach at night you can catch crabs! Joel caught the biggest one and the girls loved holding the smaller crabs. They were both pretty good at shining their lights and running like crazy all over the beach to find the little guys.


We were lucky enough to see a sea turtle release while we were there. South Padre Island is a nesting spot for the endangered Kemp's Ridley sea turtle. The Kemp's Ridleys are the rarest and most endangered of all sea turtles. There is a conservation group that collects eggs from nests and keeps them safe from predators, and then once they hatch they release them back into the ocean. The last morning of our trip happened to be a turtle release day so we were on a remote section of the beach at 7am to witness the little turtles swim out to sea! I've always wanted to go see this, and it was a great way to end our trip!