Coastal Texas

We're here on Mustang Island, near Corpus Christi, camping in the State Park. This is an amazing part of the state, and so definitely not what people think of when you say "Texas". In general, the area is wide, wide, wide and flat - flat - flat, and full of marshes and ocean waves! It's easy to see how hurricanes pick up so much speed and power as they  move into this area. There are salt marshes as far as you can see and if you look out over the ocean you'll see the occasional oil well.This is a far cry from the cactus-and-cattle most people envision, and yet the famous King Ranch is only a few miles away.

Kendra and Scott joined us for the weekend, along with the grandpuppies.
We spent the first afternoon exploring the beach here in the park and letting the dogs get their fill of wallowing in the seaweed and running in the waves - all except for Molly. She hates getting her feet wet, so she daintily sidestepped each wave as it rolled up on shore. The next day Scott's family took us fishing on the back bay - should say, fish feeding. They really enjoyed the bait shrimp we fed them! No fish to bring home, but we did have fun, and saw several interesting birds wading around in the shallows.

Sunday afternoon we took a short drive to Port Aransas, just to the north of the park. Former home to Karankawa Indians and pirates this little town is now a wonderland of colonial tropical architecture in the style of the Bahamas. At first all the houses look like they are three stories high, but it's the standard coastal architecture with garages on the bottom and two story living space on top - beautiful pastel colors with light or white trim. The colors are very refreshing, and a real contrast to the weathered gray and white we saw so much of on the Oregon coast. With palm trees everywhere, you could easily be on a tropical island. Most of the windows have hurricane shutters of one type or another, a constant reminder that we are in an area that has real "weather"! 
We drove around town and then stopped to slake our thirst at the Port Aransas brew pub, then headed back to camp after a brief stop for fuel (which included yours truly accidentally locking the keys in the truck - Onstar to the rescue!)

Monday we took a drive to the south, to the Padre Island National Seashore. This was a scouting trip to scope out future camping areas. We stopped in at the visitors' center just in time for a ranger-led walk on the beach. Ranger 'Buzz' did an excellent job of engaging all the children in the crowd, and teaching us all quite a bit about the wildlife in the area. The hour went by so quickly I could have sworn it had only been a few minutes!

Check out the album for photos of the area.