Padre Island National Seashore

Sorry but lots of pictures and a very long post of our fun overnighter.

Camping on the beach.  It's not as exciting as it sounds, but we had fun making the memory because I'm not sure that "on the beach" will happen again.  There was so much sand with no running water to clean off.  The waves were loud all night long.  Maybe if it'd been a less windy time of year and the kids were old enough to keep the sand out of the tent ... Maybe.  Did I mention we did still have fun ... even if these faces don't show it.=)

It was overcast and a little on the chilly side.  But that didn't stop these crazies from enjoying the water.  The night before while setting up the tent (there was so much wind we weren't sure camping on the beach was going to happen), the kids were 'allowed' to get their feet wet.  When they came back drenched almost to their heads, ... I remember being like that as a kid and just let it go.=)  These pictures were taken in the morning and brrr.  I was sad that it was so overcast because we couldn't watch the sunrise.

Calvin slept surprisingly well in the tent but he was definitely not a big fan of the sand or water.  I guess I remember that from our last trip to the beach too until he got used to it.

Now that's a much happier baby.

This was breakfast.  We'd brought stuff for cold cereal.  The seagulls were jealous.

Make sure to always check on Junior Ranger programs at any national park.  Padre Island National Seashore has a thick book for the kids to work through to earn their badge and patches. (1 badge and 2 patches.)  The kids love it and it helps them (AND us) learn about the park.  Izzy's favorite part was coming up with haikus about our trip.  She's adorable.  The kids worked on some of their booklets in the tent and found that the next part of the day would be collecting trash and finding seashells.  So we started our nature walk and found lots of fun stuff.  We were also amazed at how clean we thought the beach looked until we started looking for trash.  When we were looking for it, it was all over the place.

First we came across a poor fish that had been washed ashore.  It was still alive and flapping like crazy every time it was touched.  Izzy tried to get it back to the water first.

Then Andrew had his shot.

Finally Glen saved the poor creature and was the hero.

Then we found some barnacles on some driftwood.

We later found this amazing one that kept coming out of its shell.  Isn't that cool!  These were lots of fun to observe.

We also found lots of man-of-wars.  The kids learned from their junior ranger books that these creatures have a "powerful sting."  Anytime we found one (there were tons of little ones all up and down the beach) or if anyone mentioned them during or after the trip, the kids used the phrase "they have a powerful sting."  Hilarious!  Poor Izzy and Andrew got separate minor stings or so they say.  Andrew's finger got a bit red, but the other "stings" ... I'm not completely convinced it wasn't just in their heads???

Alex was our good little spotter too.  Every little man-of-war she'd say "There's another jellyfish.  Don't touch!"  It's not a jellyfish, but has stinging tentacles like jellyfish so ...

Some of them were really cool to watch.  Especially this big one.  They'd slowly puff up and down as if breathing and move around.  If you find one, I recommend checking them out for longer than the "don't touch one of these" speeches.  We experimented with one by seeing if it did anything extra if we poured water on it.  We should've tried on the one we'd already seen moving because the other one might've just been dead.

Then we came upon this fisherman and loved the fun bird.  I think he was hoping the fishermen would feed him some fish.

This guy was so sweet and let Izzy reel one in.  I think either the fish got away or she only caught some seaweed.

We got to see some of their catches for the day and saw the live shrimp bait.  That brought back some memories.  Not sure if I could bait those again.  They're too cute.

We also got to observed some catfish the fishermen don't keep.  Why they didn't throw it back in the water, I'm not sure, but they were fun to watch.  I really wish I had gotten my grandma's recipe for catfish.  Now those are some good fishing memories.  Yum!

We also came across this dead bird.  Gross yes, but still fascinating.  The legs and feet are completely intact.  The wing bones look as if it's been stripped clean by something hungry because the stomach was still there with feathers attached and everything.  That's even a small little man-of-war by him.

We also came across this fun guy.  He was practicing for the sandcastle competition that happens in Port Aransas in about 5 weeks.  We may have to come back and check it out.  It's supposed to be really busy, but sounds really cool.  That's also prime time for sea turtle nesting season so we might get lucky to see a turtle laying eggs.  We'll see.

Calvin fell asleep on the walk.

Later that morning, the sun had warmed things up and swimming was a bit more fun.  The kids loved it, but we'll definitely need to come back when the water is warmer and do some real swimming.  Calvin didn't want anything to do with the waves so we dug a little wading pool.  The bigger kids had fun bringing buckets of water to fill it up and we got lucky a few times with some long reaching waves to fill it up.

And before we headed out, we drove back down to check out the finished sand castle.  Amazing isn't it.

What a fun vacation.