A Nice Week on South Padre Island

Our week at Isla Blanca on South Padre Island slipped by very quickly and restfully. The weather was sweet, except for one night when we had some pretty strong wind and choose to sleep with the slides pulled in.  (I get the short end of this, as the bedroom slide closes onto my side of the bed.)

One of the days we drove over to Brownsville and visited the Sabal Palm Sanctuary. It is reputed to be a wonderful place to see lots of kinds of birds.  We saw a Great Horned Owl that was nesting in the large palm tree next to the plantation house.  They had a scope set up so people could get a look at her. The restored rooms of the house were also quite elegant and a pleasure to walk through.

There are some lovely trails that wind around the palm forest and have a variety of benches and bird viewing blinds that the birders use.

In many ways it reminded me of some of the lovely places we visited in Florida a couple of years ago. There was even some Spanish Moss in the trees. We kept our walk short to favor my foot, but we recommend it as a nice day trip from the island area.

On another day we drove all the way up the beach to the shipping channel. About 30 miles. And once again enjoyed the sea air and beautiful surf.

Going north we spotted this guy sitting high on a dune, and when we drove back we saw him (or another?) gliding over the waves. There were also a lot of pelicans and other sea birds about. 

Saturday we took a two hour dolphin watch boat ride. (No pictures worth sharing!) And on Sunday we went out for a wonderful brunch at the Beach Side Cafe. 

Life is good!

I think of the many cold Februraries we spent in Wisconsin and am so glad we are not there now. Nor, for that mater, do I wish we were back in our California house. If we were, we would probably be discussing the next fix-up project instead of making plans for a visit to the National Seashore in Corpus Christi.

I am writing this post as we cruise along in the Alfa. I wonder what our spot in Mission TX will look like, and what new experiences we will have.  Good I hope.

Laredo and South Padre Island

I blog because ...  

I want to keep a record of where we have been,
I want my family to know where we are,
Just because!

I've really been in a blogger slump for the last few weeks. Being sick didn't help, but we are over that now, and I still don't feel much like writing.

I wrote most of a post about our days in Laredo, but found it boring and I have no real desire to publish it. We did have a nice time, went to a music festival, a parade, and some pretty good fireworks. The weather was pretty nice too.

Monday we drove two hundred miles to South Padre Island.

Walk to the beach in the late afternoon

We are staying a week at Isla Blanca Park, which is a county park right on the Gulf. There are over 400 full-hookup spaces, each with a modest side patio area. The town, sea, and climate remind me a lot of the Florida Keys, but the weekly space rent of $185 is a lot less than what we paid at the State Parks in Florida.  Also, we called ten days ahead for a reservation here, but in the Keys we were lucky to get a spot eleven months in the future.

So far, the only negative I can come up with would be for dog owners. The grass seems quite full of sand spurs, and they are hard on doggies' paws.

We took a walk on the beach Monday afternoon, and then on Tuesday drove a few miles north of town to where we could drive the Jeep right on the beach.







Our neighbor at the park told us we could drive 35 miles on the beach. We didn't go that far, and instead parked and walked along the water's edge for a way.

There were a lot of fishermen working the surf. Watching a few catches put me in the mood for fresh grilled fish, so on the way home we found a seafood market. Fresh "catch of the day" Black Drum fish is on the menu for tonight's dinner. 

Wrap-up: the black drum was very good, even if it did sound like something that should have been part of the music festival in Laredo!

Curiosity: why did our post "On the Road to the Gulf of Mexico" attract 2237 page views on Friday, Feb. 19, when most of our posts attract less than 500?  Is there great interest in the possibility of a wall along the Mexican border? What do you think?