– Corpus Christi, Texas –

Corpus Christi is a town that we visit fairly often. We were last here in late June, 2014. Since we visit so frequently, we have a reasonably good idea of what we like to do here.

We got up to run this morning at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, which is almost always where we run when we are here. The little running and biking trail along the island is great, and while we normally see a bunch of feral cats, we only saw one this morning. I’m hoping that we just missed them, and no one eradicated them or anything drastic. They were a little obnoxious to have around for us, since Ripley wanted to chase them, but it was odd not to see them. I almost missed them.

The weather was already lovely, if a little humid, so we were pretty warm when we finished. We stopped by Dunkin Donuts on our way back to our hotel for a little breakfast. My Favorite Muffin, which we usually get when we’re here, is closed on Sundays, as we discovered. In any event, we had better donuts than yesterday, and Mark said the bagels were better here, too.

After our quick breakfast (which we ate in the car), we drove on back to our hotel for a shower and to pack up for our beach day. We took Ripley’s entire backpack, towels, swimwear, sunscreen, sandals, and a change of clothes. We also packed our cooler with the things we got last night at Target for our lunch. I think the swimwear was a little optimistic, given that it is January, but we did see some kids out in the water, despite what I can only imagine was very cold water.

Our beach day began at Padre Island National Seashore, where we stopped at a natural trail just inside the park. We’d never walked the trail before, so spur-of-the-moment as we drove by we decided it sounded like a good idea. The trail is entirely paved, and winds through the grassy sand dunes closer to the center of the island. We could barely see the ocean from the trail.

It was a cute little trail though, about 3/4 of a mile, and we had a good time. Ripley was especially excited, and she thoroughly searched the grasses along the edge of the path for tiny critters that needed to be eaten. I don’t think she found any, or at least she didn’t get to eat anything alive, but just dreaming that she might find something was good enough for her.

It was very windy, and the sky was still a little hazy from the morning cloud burn-off, so we drove around other areas of the park to see what was going on before we stopped at the beach. In spite of the strong winds, we didn’t see anyone out windsurfing, which I found a little disappointing. I always think it is neat to see.

By the time we did make it over to the beach area, the sky was mostly clear. We visited the park’s visitor center and climbed to its top for a view of the beach from up in the air. It’s not high enough to be a spectacular view, but it was pretty, and we could see the hazy line of clouds blowing away in the distance.

After we’d spent a little time there, we decided we were going to move on, since we wanted to eat lunch at our other favorite beach in the area, Mustang Island State Park. It was cool enough on the water that I needed a sweater, and we both wore our hats. We carried Ripley’s gear and our cooler out to a little picnic table by the ocean there and sat for perhaps two hours, enjoying our lunch and the beautiful day.

Lunch was bananas, pretzels thins, hummus, baby carrots, cheese, and unsweet tea. We didn’t really plan a feast since we hadn’t packed any plates or flatware, so we had a snack-like lunch that left us plenty of room for dinner later. We bought a yogurt, but we forgot our spoons, so it remains in the cooler. Mark will almost certainly have it in his lunch later this week.

Ripley got to walk along the beach, but we didn’t let her get wet, even when she wanted to. She was shivering when she was in the shade, so we knew she would be cold if she got wet. You couldn’t tell her that, though, and she cried like a broken-hearted child when we wouldn’t take her all the way down to the water. Other people were letting their human children get wet, so obviously we were monsters for not letting her take a dip. We didn’t even get our feet wet. If it hadn’t been so windy, it would’ve been fine. The temperature was easily over 70°F, but with that wind, being wet would’ve been a nightmare.

We were pretty sandy when we made it back to the car, but we were dry, so it mostly just brushed off. From Mustang Island, we drove down to Port Aransas to look at the brightly-colored vacation homes and shop for some candy at the local sweet shop. Mark and I split a huge peanut butter cup that didn’t end up being that great, and Ripley had a treat from her backpack. We also bought some sour rope candy and Mark picked out some jelly beans and some taffy. We always split the taffy, but I am not really a fan of the jelly bean. I’ll eat citrusy ones, but otherwise I’m not interested. I was probably a great trial to my mother when I was a child around Easter.

The line for the ferry back to the mainland was quite long, and the wait-time was at least 45 minutes, so we turned around and drove back the way we came to save time. We like the ferry, but it isn’t a long one, and it wasn’t worth the line. When we got back to Corpus Christi, we headed downtown, since we never really visit the center of the city.

It was around 5, but since today is Sunday, the traffic wasn’t bad at all. We drove right along the coast for a bit before hopping on the bridge over to North Beach, which is a little beach area that sits between the city of Corpus Christi and the bay. The Texas State Aquarium is there, and the retired U.S.S. Lexington is docked nearby for tourism and to serve as a museum.

The U.S.S. Lexington closed its gates at 5, and Ripley wasn’t allowed anyway, but we were able to walk out on a breakwater that ran alongside to take a few photographs. I didn’t enjoy the walk as much as Mark and Ripley, since it was really narrow and stood several feet above the rocks and water to either side. Some people say I have a fear of heights, but what I really have is a fear of falling. It seems more logical to me, at least.

It was narrow enough that when we needed to pass some of the people fishing along the breakwater, I had to pick Ripley up and carry her past them to avoid her walking over them. It had also crumbled away in a few places to leave the concrete even narrower and rougher. I’m not sure why it crumbled, since other blocks remained untouched. It’s hard to say what was different about the blocks that were damaged. They looked the same, overall.

We did run into another dog along the breakwater, although I hesitate to use the word “dog.” It would make more sense to call it an animated stuffed toy. I bet the little thing only weighed two pounds, and it was smaller than my hand. It was adorable, I’ll give it that, but I would be terrified of of accidentally tripping over my “dog” and pitching it out into the ocean. Even when it is full grown, it will probably still fit inside a small purse.

Overall, North Beach is fine, although I don’t think I would stay out there. It has way too much seafood and too many people concentrated in such a small area. Still, we hadn’t seen it before, so the hour we spent poking around was fun. Some of the hotels looked cute, others looked shabby, and one even had a small ferris wheel. I guess you need something to distract your kids when they get bored at the beach, the museum, and the giant ship?

We made it back to our hotel after 6pm, so we brushed the new sand we’d picked up off of ourselves and put the puppy away so we could find some food. Mark was interested in the restaurant we visited the last time we were here, so he drove us there by memory, which I thought was pretty impressive. I’m a terrible navigator without my iPhone, so it doesn’t take much to impress me when it comes to remembering where you are going. Mark seems to have some great compass hidden away in his mind. Sometimes I’m jealous, and other times I just assume the Boy Scouts did something magical to him back when he was a kid. Maybe a secret ritual?

In any event, dinner was Bamboo Garden Restaurant. They serve spring rolls the size of burritos, which is definitely the draw for me. I love spring rolls with chili paste. I know you are supposed to put peanut sauce on them too, but that just ruins it, in my opinion. We split a vermicelli bowl, too, and had plenty of food. I’ve recommended it before, and I have to do it again. So far it has been consistently delicious.

After dinner, we stopped by Corner Bakery and bought some sweets for our dessert later. We probably didn’t need them, but we are on vacation, and we didn’t want to have any more of our candy tonight.

Tomorrow we have some boxes to pick up a from a newspaper a few hours from here and 3 courthouse photographs to take. We won’t get to run in the morning since we need to get going, which makes me sad. I’m sure the feral kitties will be out in force tomorrow morning, when I can’t see that they are still there.

 – Trip Total : 911 miles –