Showing posts with label South Padre Island. Show all posts
Showing posts with label South Padre Island. Show all posts

Friday, July 6, 2012

South Padre Island {SPI} vacation part II

 
This is the "Whaling Wall" at the South Padre convention center. I had read about it so I wanted to drive by and see it. So pretty!
 
There is a sea life nature center on Port Isabel. We stopped in and the kids enjoyed touching the starfish and hermit crabs.
One of the state beach parks on the island is Isla Blanca. Right on the beach is this beautiful statue of Christ. It was put there as a symbol that Christ blesses all the fisherman who were lost at sea. It reminds me of a smaller version of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio. 


One of the recommended restaurants on the island is Blackbeards. We had a great feast that night. Madeline loved her shrimp and James loved his fish. Stephen and I shared steak and crab legs and had a margarita and pina colada. Yum!

 
Day 2 at the beach and the kids were right back in the water. 

 
Stephen took these pics of the kids as he was trying to teach them how to body surf.

The current was really strong, red flag. So I felt better having the kids wear their life vests. And every time they went swimming in the water they would drift 20-30 yards because of it. But they were good about looking to the beach where I would sit every 5 minutes and to come back over.




After doing some souvenir shopping we headed to the North side of the island where there was a beach access that allowed you to drive onto the beach. So we parked right by the water and did some more swimming. Lots of seashells on this beach.

 After watching a Daytripper episode on South Padre, we took his recommendation and headed over to Gravity Park on the island to do some go-karting.
 I've never seen a go-kart track like this, it was all wooden and 3 levels high! SO FUN!!!
Madeline drove with Daddy and James drove with me. :)
Here's a video...

On the evening of the 4th we walked around Pirate's Landing pier and then called it a night. We headed back to our suite and had dinner in. We were pooped. :) But it was such a fun vacation. We will definitely be heading back to South Padre again.


Thursday, July 5, 2012

South Padre Island {SPI} vacation part I

 
We just returned from our first trip to South Padre Island, Texas. 
We vacationed there for the 4th of July. It was a lot of fun in the sun!

 
You can cross over to the island from Port Isabel.

 
I had heard that the waters down here are more green-blue and tropical warm since it is so far down south by Mexico. It is true! The water temp was a nice 85 degrees!

 
Do you like my new beach chair? :)
The first part of the beach we went to was more secluded and North of all the big hotels. 

 
Stephen and the kids got into the water right away! The nice temps made the water very inviting. And the sand was super soft, white dune sand. There was also tons of seashells.

 
One of my new favorite pics with my baby boy. He was so happy to be at the beach.

 The kids spent a lot of time digging for sea snails and crabs. They caught quite a few.

 They have horse back riding and atv riding along a secluded strip of the beach. James is still too young, so we'll have to try that next time we go.

 Was so nice to feel the ocean breeze and watch my kiddos.

  James was a bit more daring to go out deep and play in the waves.


 We had some friends join us on the beach when they noticed we had crackers.


Stay tuned for part II of our SPI vacation...