The Tip of Texas

 Ben and I took advantage of his last week off before starting his new job at Google on Monday. We took the six-hour drive down to South Padre Island and left the kids with Aunt Susan and Uncle Paul, where they had a blast without us.

South Padre was pretty and also quite deserted. We were happy to have beaches and stores and restaurants to ourselves in the off season. We visited a Spanish mission in Goliad on the way down to the very tip of Texas.

We went on a dolphin boat excursion and saw a whole pod of dolphins diving and swimming and playing. It was amazing, but our photos of them were not.

We spent some time at Sea Turtle Inc. where they rescue turtles from the gulf shore who have been injured or caught in nets. 

We drove the main road as far north as we could go where the road dead ended on miles and miles of beach.

There were so many sea shells everywhere.

Other highlights were beautiful sunrises and sunsets, a sandcastle building competition, and a ferry ride in Port Aransas.

On the way back, we stopped for one night in Corpus Christie and went on a tour of an out of commission aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Lexington. It was fantastic. Not only was it devoid of other tourists, it was interesting to see how sailors live on a boat for months, and learn about WWII. The highlight of the visit was finding the F-14 Tomcat used in the Top Gun movie. 

Meanwhile, the kids were in school and enjoying cousin time. They went to Sonic for shakes, Dads and Donuts at the grade school, and to the school book fair.