Daylight Savings Time ended during the first night of our vacation. Brandon checked his watch when the kids woke up and it said that it was 7:30. Then I checked my phone and saw that it was really 6:30. Time doesn't really matter on our vacations anyway, so I didn't grumble too much about how early we were awake. I got out of the tent and saw a beautiful sunrise over the marina.
During the winter months Port Isabel, South Padre Island, and the other cities in Southern Texas are home to "Winter Texans." These are the equivalent of what we call "Snowbirds" back home in Utah. They spend the summer living up north and then travel south to spend the winter in a warm climate. Winter Texans are usually retired, empty-nesters living in a mobile home. They most certainly are not a young couple with pre-school aged children camping in a tent. Our little family got quite a few stares from most of the residents of the RV park.
The camp ground manager came by and gave us the code to the bathroom. I took the kids on a walk to the bathroom and then we went across the little street to check out the marina while Brandon made breakfast.
The kids had lots of fun throwing rocks into the water. Even Veronica started throwing rocks. In this picture she is pointing at something. I love how she points without tucking all her fingers under her thumb.
We went on a walk around the more permanent buildings. The kids all loved this basset hound puppy at the managers home.
This was the only day in our vacation where we wouldn't have to pack up the tent. That meant we had time to make a fancy breakfast. Brandon made eggs, sausage, and hash browns for us. We would have had a very pleasant breakfast if a huge wind hadn't picked up and tried to blow away all our food and plates. So we ate quickly and then got ready for the day.
There were two things that I wanted to see for sure that day. One was the Port Isabel Lighthouse which was just down the street. The other was South Padre Island which was across the Laguna Madre from Port Isabel. We planned to have lots of fun on a beach on the island. I also had a visit to the Palo Alto Battlefield on the maybe list.
The RV park was less than a mile from the lighthouse. Seeing the lighthouse was one of the reasons I'd wanted to visit Port Isabel. Of the 12 lighthouses on the Texas Coast, this is the only one that allows visitors to tour the inside. We could see the lighthouse from the road when we drove in to town the night before. As we drove up to it on this day, I was surprised at how small it really was. In fact, I wasn't even sure it was the right light house. It was barely 50 feet tall and looked almost like it belonged on a miniature golf course.
We all got out of the car and the kids had fun walking up the small staircase to the lighthouse. I had been planning on paying for a tour of the lighthouse, but once I saw it's small size I wasn't so interested in paying to go inside of it. I also wasn't sure if tours were available that early on a Sunday morning. So I was fine just walking around the lighthouse and taking pictures.
A few minutes later I noticed a sign on the open gate that said the lighthouse was closed for restoration. We shouldn't have even been inside the little park. Oops.
The kids rolled down the lighthouse hill a few times and then we went to explore the wharf area. There were cute shops and well kept buildings all around the lighthouse. The girls loved this statute of a girl and a boy reading. They said the girl was reading her scriptures.
There was a large pirate themed area close to the water. None of the shops were open which was kind of nice. We were able to look at things at our leisure. Both girls liked pretending to be this pirate. I think this is Charlotte, though the picture of Lydia looks exactly the same.
Charlotte also liked pretending to ride on this dolphin.
The kids all liked running through this alley between two buildings.
Here is a picture of everyone looking out over the water of the Laguna Madre. The large bridge in the background is the Queen Isabella Memorial Bridge that connects South Padre Island to the mainland.
We went back to the car and then drove over that bridge to get to the island. The island was full of hotels that were all taller than the Port Isabel Lighthouse.
We could have camped on South Padre Island itself, but the only place that I could find that allowed tents was the Ilsa Blanca City Park. This park is very nice and well kept and I would have loved to stay there. However, the park is on the southern tip of the island. The tent campsites were only a few feet from the water of the bay side, and the ocean side wasn't much farther away either. If we'd had teenagers it would have been a great location, but I didn't want to worry about all my little kids getting too close to all that water. So that's why we stayed in Port Isabel.
There are many things to do on South Padre Island, but most of them were things that our kids wouldn't enjoy. Things like Deep Sea fishing, Scuba diving, and playing at Schlitterbahn water park, will have to wait until they are older. Instead we drove along the highway and checked out the sites. I through this sandcastle in front of the Visitor Center was pretty cool.
Highway 100 runs through the middle of the island. There are several side streets, but there isn't a road that runs along the whole beach. Instead there are beach access points along Gulf Boulevard. There are parking lots near the access points and we thought about stopping at one of them. But we wanted to see how far north Highway 100 went. So we drove out that way until the road stopped about 5 or so miles away from the city. There were sand dunes that partially covered the road along the way. It was pretty cool
We turned around and went to one of the beach access points that was along highway 100. I think it was #4. The kids were all super excited to get into their swimming suits and run around in the sand.
I was excited to finally see the ocean for the first time on this trip. Watching the waves roll in was so mesmerizing. I was also in love with the weather. It was about 70 degrees and hands down the very best weather I'd ever experienced on November 2.
We were at a free beach so there was seaweed everywhere, but other than that it was really nice. And the seaweed wasn't annoying or gross.
The kids were terrified of the ocean waves and wouldn't go near the water. They liked playing with the sand though.
Veronica loved walking around. Charlotte and Lydia were both scared of the seagulls, but Veronica liked chasing the seagulls around.
Brandon dug a big hole and filled it up with water so the kids could play in it. He disappointed that they wouldn't play in the ocean. He actually got a little frustrated that our kids were scared of everything. I had to remind them that they were 4 and that they were pretty adventurous for how old they were.
There came a point where all the kids were done with the beach and were melting down. We had to get back to the car pretty fast. After that we drove to the southern part of the island. Here is a picture of the bay side of the island with the bridge in the back ground.
We thought about visiting the birding center, but we didn't want to pay the $5 adult admission price to go walk around a boardwalk.
So we decided to go explore the Brownsville area. Here's a picture of what Port Isabel and the lighthouse look like from the bridge.
We drove an a road that boardered a channel of water. We also passed the Port of Brownsville where ships are brought in to unload their cargo.
Originally we were trying to get to the Baco Chico Beach which is Texas's most southern beach. It's supposed to be a primitive beach without all the tourist elements of South Padre Island. However, we took a wrong turn through a construction detour and ended up in the middle of Brownsville. We wanted to try to see the Rio Grande river, but since it is an international border they don't really have a touristy location near it. Finally we just found a nature preserve park and parked so that Brandon could take a nap.
They kids were happy to play with the gravel in the parking lot. This is why we do lots of free things - they are easily entertained.
This was also a great opportunity to bust out the Halloween candy.
We could have gone for a walk on a trail that was nearby, but the kids didn't want to.
So we just took in the view.
The kids just wanted to go back to the tent, but neither Brandon or I wanted to do that. So we decided that we would check out the Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Monument. This is where the first battle of the US - Mexican war was fought in May of 1846.
There was a trail that went out to the battle field. There were markers that showed where the troops lined up.
It was interesting to look out at the area and imagine the battle. This battle was mostly an artillery battle, with the US cannons out-shooting the Mexican ones.
Apparently, Derrick learned to levitate here.
We'd brought the umbrella stroller for Veronica, but she just wanted to walk around on her own.
Charlotte found a stick and put it on Hundley. She said it was his horns and he was pretending to be a big horned cow. She also told me that Hundley wanted his picture taken by a cactus, so we did that.
Then we drove back to the RV Park. Here's a picture of the Port of Brownsville.
Brandon made dinner when we got back to camp. We had rice, stew, and bread bowls. The wind was still blowing so it was another hurried dinner.
The kids threw more rocks into the marina while Brandon cleaned up dinner. Then it was time for bed. Thanks to the end of daylight savings time it was now getting dark at 6:30. Thanks to our busy day they kids were ready for bed. Veronica fell asleep right away in her pack-n- play. The older kids took longer, but were still asleep by 7:30.
After the kids were asleep Brandon and I sat on the wall by the marina and had a long talk. Ever since the kids' melt down on the beach I'd felt like he wasn't having a good time. I felt like he just wanted me to keep the kids away from him. In my mind he wasn't enjoying himself. Part of me was willing to just scrub the vacation and go home.
He admitted that some of that was true, but it wasn't as bad as I imagined. He was still getting used to being around the kids again. He forgot how quickly they could go from enjoying themselves to completely falling apart. The wind and the pokeys in the grass were't helping things.
So, as we've done a hundred of times in our marriage we talked about all the things that were bugging us. Some things we could find a solution to. Other's we couldn't do anything about, but we felt better once we'd aired our grievances. It was a very good talk. Our ability to effectively communicate with each other is one of our marriages biggest strengths.
One thing we realized was that I needed to tell him more about our plans for each day. So as we sat there I told him what to expect for the next day when we would go up to Corpus Christi. I told him about the things that we might see like the large harbor bridge, an aircraft carrier, a helicopter repair facility, and of course the ocean and the beach. Brandon and I both got really excited for the next day.
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