Padre Island Anniversary Trip

One year ago....

Our first year has included three moves, two new homes, one new job, and a whole lotta love (haha, sorry it just needed to make the list:)). To celebrate the milestone, we packed up J.R.'s truck and drove to Padre Island for the weekend. Our online research had prepared us for pristine beaches, good eats, and sunny weather. One out of our three expectations were met--the weather was gorgeous! I couldn't help but feel the excitement of beach proximity, as I stepped out into the salty sunshine. 

I will preface this next part by saying that as a Tennessean, the beautiful white beaches of the east coast: Florida, the Carolinas, etc. were popular vacation destinations turned nostalgic memories that can't be touched these days. Texas beaches probably never had a chance in any case, but when we saw the mounds of seaweed (sprinkled with trash in places) that littered the coastline, I must admit my hopes were slightly dashed. Still, we had made it to the beach....we were going to have to make some semblance of a rake to make room on the sand for our camp, but we had made it! 

I must also mention that our camp was pretty awesome. We had spent the better part of an hour the day before studying the canopies in Walmart, and I had given J.R. such a hard time about wanting one, thinking we were over-preparing. "Oh no," he said, "I watched a video of the beach on youtube, and these are all over the place down there." I couldn't believe it when we pulled into the beach at our hotel, and our same canopy was being rented to the beach goers. 

I humbly apologized for my doubt, and my skin was quite thankful for the extra shade the next few days. 

Fishing was difficult, as J.R. quickly figured out the seaweed was catching his line and dragging it down the beach, but we had a little excitement the second day when he felt a hit immediately after casting out, and with one swift jerk, had hooked his catch. Any idea what kind of fish this might be (daddy--your guess?)?

We also tried to catch a few waves with a wake board, but there is just something about having the seaweed touch our legs constantly that rubbed us the wrong way, and haunted us with the slight fear that the next touch would be the nibble of a small shark or worse. I am happy to report that J.R. did catch his very first wave, with the help of my excellent instruction.

Later, we checked into our hotel (built in '81 and as J.R. put it, had not aged as gracefully as he had) had dinner at a nice, but not extremely impressive restaurant, took a walk on the beach and turned in so we could get up the next morning for what turned out to be one of, if not the best parts of our trip.

We convinced ourselves that we definitely had to see the Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle Release, but that meant getting up and out of the hotel in time for a 15 mile drive to the Padre Island National Seashore Visitor's Center by 6:35, a.k.a really dang early on vacation time. So early in fact, that the sun was just barely peaking out of the clouds when we arrived (which made for golden lighting--a photography enthusiast's dream). We are both so glad we suffered a little sleep deprivation for the occasion! 

Prepare yourself for the extreme cuteness that is about to scroll onto your screen...

I found myself envying these volunteers, not for the fact that they had to stand waving off seagulls and other predators for over an hour while these little guys made their way to their new home, but that they were allowed to work with these beautiful creatures.

They are definitely facing a major fight for survival out there...

 These guys are a major threat, but according to the park ranger humans are their main predator.

 

We spent the rest of the day on the beach again, soaking up some sun, fishing and looking for shells. 

Even though it was not what we had expected, we were able to get our beach fix for a while...

You just can't beat the sunrises, no matter what beach you are on...

Walking out of the hotel after checking out, a lady stopped us to talk for a while. Apparently she and her husband were visiting the island to celebrate their 47th anniversary. "We are going to really do it up big for our 50th!," she said. Upon learning it was our first anniversary she wished us luck, and I couldn't help hoping that we will be just as excited fifty years down the road. 

My Grandmother always reminds us to tell each other how happy the other makes us. Well, I am so happy to be married to the love of my life and I truly look forward to whatever the next 50 years bring our way!