Padre Island - Keeping Warm Waiting on the Kids

At KOA South Padre Island, Texas...

Keeping warm is an understatement! When I stepped outside of Phannie's cool confines here in the KOA park, my glasses immediately fogged over and my clothes began clinging to my ample body. I found myself wanting nothing more but to complete the checkin and get back inside. I'm afraid Sandy and I don't do hot and humid very well. It was a lot different from our trip here last winter.

This was on the beach at Padre Island back in February. Although I was wearing shorts, it was quite cold that day.

The KOA is almost completely full here, but most of the RVs parked around us are of the very rudimentary variety--you know, mostly small trailers used by young families for weekend excursions. Phannie stuck out like a sore thumb among all of her much smaller brethren. We know, of course, why this is so: The snowbirds--the ones with the scratch to get the big rigs--fled north months ago. The owners of these small campers have brought their kids here for a fun weekend on the beach or in Schlitterbahn. That, of course, is why we are here, but I'm afraid Sandy and I will spend a good deal of time in Phannie, enjoying the frosty climate provided by her three air conditioners. Mason and Pryce, who will be captivated by the Schlitterban experience, won't miss our occasional absences a bit.

Still not having had our quota of fresh seafood, we motored over the bridge to Port Isabel to look for some. We usually go to Dirty Al's here in South Padre, having become aficionados after Ed and Marilyn took us there in recent years, but we decided we would see what is available across the causeway. Using Yelp to help us, we found Joe's Oyster Bar, a restaurant that became the offshoot of a local seafood market. The food here was wonderful, and the ceviche got our nod for the best we had ever had.

Joe's pretty well qualified as a dive, since we had to walk through the fish market to get to our table, and patrons ate their meals from plastic picnic plates. But we didn't care because the food was SO good.

Strolling around Port Isabel, we enjoyed visiting the historic lighthouse built here in 1852. Back then, Port Isabel was an important pre-civil war shipping point for cotton, and the old lighthouse guided many a ship safely into the harbor over the years.

 After dinner, we went to Wally World to pick up some treats for the kids to have on hand in their hotel room. When we finished with that, we stopped at an ice cream parlor near the old lighthouse and enjoyed a cone as we strolled out to a nearby dock to enjoy the sunset. It was a fine day, and we enjoyed all the new experiences.



Sunset at Port Isabel

We continue to pinch ourselves as we travel to all the places we go, enjoying scenes like the one above. Here's to retirement!

Thank you, Lord for the wonderful life you've given me,

and please forgive me if I fail to appreciate it enough every day.