Corpus Christi, TX

It has been an amazing week here with Cindy.  I am thankful that even tho we grew apart for several years we were able to reconnect and keep our friendship going.  She has really spoiled me with wonderful home cooked meals, and even let me take over the kitchen one night for me to make home made coconut shrimp. Yum!

My first day here, I went out to Mustang Island park too see if the campground was open. No luck, they are still recovering from hurricane damage that happened last August.  I also went down to the National Seashore on Padre. Got lots of good informatioon on beach camping, but was warned that by next week there would be a lot of people around for spring break. It was a nice day on my own exploring the beach and enjoying a little down time.  Such a difference from Big Bend.  

Cindy worked out to have a little extra time off work, so we hit the road.  One day went to the aquarium and explored down there and the next she took me out to an island nest Port Aransas.  That town was a little farther north and you could see they had much more damage than the southern areas we visited the day before.  We got to take a short ferry ride to get to the city, and then booked a boat ride to get to the "uninhabited" island.  The boat only had 6 of us on it, and I bet there were not more than another 8 people out there.  Quiet and peaceful.  We picked up lots of shells (especially me) and poked at dead stuff the ocean had deposited onto the beach.  The strangest part was the the animal tracks we saw on the island.  My first reaction too one set was "MOOSE!" I thought another set we found looked like small deer.  We found out later that the owner of the island still has a few cows wandering around, and the smaller deer like prints came from an animal called javelina, which is a small wild pig. 

We got in a little more beach time on Sunday, but the crowds were really starting to show up, and the weather was turning cooler, and the wind was blowing so much sand around. We decided to head back home and relax. 

We also went to the botanical gardens near here yesterday.  Lots of tropical birds and some of the plants were coming into bloom.  They still had a lot of work to get done on their displays, but you could see that once things were done it was going to be really nice.

Today I am going to try and put my travel plan for the next week into place.  Not much more here in Texas along the shore, and not sure how far east I want to get into Louisiana before heading north towards Hot Springs National Park.  Laundry is done, so just need to get thing a little organized in the car and I will be ready to go again.