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.

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...

New Orleans - "America's Most Interesting City"

After my friend's wedding in Mississippi, we decided to make a trip down to New Orleans, Louisiana. We only had 1 day and night to check the town out, so we checked out a lot of things. When we first arrived we headed straight to the French Quarter to go check out the cathedral. We drove right past Bourbon street and that's all we pretty much saw of it - we heard some of the store fronts along Bourbon aren't too appropriate for kids. So we hung out on the other streets in the French Quarter.

Right when we arrived it started pouring rain. But after we parked it let up, and we took a nice stroll in Jackson Square and admired the sights of The Cathedral-Basilica of St. Louis King of France, the oldest Catholic cathedral in continual use in the United States. Established as a parish in the year 1720.

Jackson Square is a beautiful park with horse carriages and artists trying to sell their artwork surrounding the square.

There were many foreign tourists there taking pictures in front of the cathedral. It's really neat to see something so historic in person.

James took this photo, didn't he do a great job!? I was hoping we would make it to 11am Mass but we were too late.

We still went inside, there was a baby being baptized. It's such a beautiful cathedral. His Holiness Pope John Paul II visited this cathedral in 1987 and celebrated an outdoor Mass for over 200,000 on the New Orleans lakefront.

After the cathedral we did some shopping on Decatur Street and the kids picked out some masks. We headed over to our hotel to check in and caught the World Cup Final at the hotel bar and grill. James was wearing his Orange and we were cheering for the Dutch!

Too bad they lost.

Madeline enjoying her lunch and the game, also wearing her very girly mask. Stephen thought she looked like an Arabian princess.

After the game we headed over to the Garden District to ride on the St. Charles Avenue Streetcar. It is the oldest continuously operating street railway system in the world. And it only cost $1.25 one way to ride!

All the passengers sat next to a window (well for one to feel the natural a/c) to admire the architecture along St. Charles avenue. Gorgeous Antebellum homes (yes that's where the country group Lady Antebellum got their name). Large mansions really in Greek Revival, American Colonial and the Victorian styles.

We passed by many parks and Loyola University. It was a fun ride on the streetcar! After we got off we headed back to the French Quarter to get some dinner. We ate at an outdoor cafe with a live jazz band. And after we filled up on gumbo and pasta we decided to take the kids on a carriage ride.

Here are the kids in front of Sandy. They thought she was a horse but she's really a mule (I guess they work harder?). It was already dark out but it was neat to experience and see the French Quarter at night, and on a carriage.

Madeline was super thrilled when the driver Bob asked her to sit up front with him. She was even more ecstatic when he gave her Sandy's reigns! Madeline was driving us in the carriage along the streets of the French Quarter!

Bob was a great tour guide telling us about all the famous stories and tales of the happenings on the streets here. We saw some celeb homes including Brad and Angelina's. We heard some ghost tales and even passed by a home Casa Do Diabo where a supposed vampire lived in the 1830's.

James caught on that sissy had the reigns to Sandy - so Bob threw one of the reigns over the seat so James could "drive" too. New Orleans is notably absent from the Southern Protestant Bible Belt. In New Orleans and the surrounding Gulf Coast area, the predominant religion is Catholicism. But there is still a presence of Louisiana Voodoo there. Bob took us down a street where a famous voodoo home is and as we were riding by there was actually 2 women doing a chant out in front of the door. I find it interesting to see other religious practices. New Orleans doesn't get nicknamed "America's most interesting city" for nothing I guess!

One of the last historic sites we saw on the carriage was the famous Cornstalk Fence Hotel. At one time Elvis and President Kennedy stayed here. We enjoyed the story behind this hotel because it relates to Iowa (where Stephen's parents are from). The hotel is set behind the iconic 'cornstalk" cast iron fence. There is a lovely story of an early owner who brought his young bride to live here far from her native Iowa. To soften some of her loneliness for the waving fields of corn back home, he caused this replica to be made in graceful iron so that from her front gallery she could forever see something of her native land. Isn't that sweet!? Next time we go back to New Orleans I'd love to stay in this hotel. And we'd also like to check out the local plantations and do a swamp airboat tour. We have had an awesome summer full of vacation trips! Things should start to slow down now. Madeline starts school in a month. And our Fall and Winter holidays seem like they will be pretty mellow. But we definitely can't wait to plan our next vacation trip, where ever that may be!

Vacation Recap

Madeline with her cousin Ella at Corona del Mar State Beach, California

It's been difficult for me to find the time to blog about our vacation. It was a whirlwind 12 days and I thought of so many things I wanted to blog about but I'm afraid it will just turn into one monster post and some of my readers may become bored. So I'll just keep it simple with some bullet point highlights and links to all of my uploaded photos.

Our vacation officially started on June 3rd, which also happened to be the day Madeline graduated from Kindergarten. It all worked out with her ceremony early in the morning so we could fly out to California later that day. Madeline along with all of her classmates performed a music program where they sang and danced to 6-7 songs they had learned. They did awesome! After their program and diploma ceremony there was a small reception with her teacher where she gave her predictions of what each student would grow up to become...Madeline was her most creative and artistic student so she thought Madeline would become an Artist. Click here to view pics from Madeline's last day of school.

Once we arrived in California we had a jam packed weekend full of wedding events for my best friend Robyn. Stephen was most happy her rehearsal dinner was held at his favorite Mexican Restaurant, Mario's. On Saturday Stephen watched the kids so I could take the bride out for a day of pampering and a nice dinner. I stayed with Robyn in a hotel the night before her wedding. On wedding day we prepared for the beautiful ceremony and reception to be held on a yacht in Newport Harbor. Madeline did perfect being one of the flowergirls. And the celebration went off without any hitches! Click here to view pics from Robyn's wedding events.


James with his cousin Bryson on his quad in Mesa, Arizona

After all the wedding events and the happy couple headed to Hawaii for their honeymoon we enjoyed some visiting time with family and friends. We had a beach day ended with a bonfire. boy did the kids have fun and by the end of the night were sandy, filthy, and smoke-smelly. We spent a few days out with family in Corona celebrating our nephew and niece's birthdays, bbqing, doing another beach day, watching the Lakers and taking the kids to the Rain Forest Cafe. On our last day in California we visited with my parents and then bbq'd burgers and dogs for the Laker game. Some friends with their kids stopped by. It was a great time! Wish we would've seen more family and friends and had more time, but I guess all things come to an end including vacations.

Instead of flying back home we used Stephen's Hertz perk and took a roadtrip back in order to transport some furniture we inherited. Our first stop was in the Phoenix area. We were able to visit with Stephen's mom's sister, Aunt Margaret and her family. Cousins Chris and his wife Tatiana were there with their adorable 3 kids Bryson, Jaxon and baby Macie. We had fun playing games on their Wii and the boys got to take turns riding on the quad. That evening we had dinner over at one of Stephen's best friends, Tim and his wife Kacey's home. Madeline and James were so happy to play with their daughter Elizabeth on her slip'n'slide and we also got to meet her baby brother, Matthew. They graciously put us up for the night.


Stephen and the kids swimming at the indoor hotel pool in El Paso, Texas

The next day we made our way through Arizona stopping in Tucson. We stopped at a souvenir shop somewhere in New Mexico and made it to our home state of Texas and stayed the night in El Paso. We stayed at the Radisson near the airport, had a nice family dinner out and then took a late night swim in their indoor pool and spa. Then finally the following day we made our 8.5 hour drive through our big state of Texas to home! Click here to view all of our vacation photos.


Overall we had a nice vacation. It's always nice going back to California to see family and friends. We were very blessed by everyone. I know Madeline and James will have these memories forever and be so very fond of their time spent with everyone and doing all the traveling we did.