Sam And Saundra's Year Long Adventure - Part 30

Sam And Saundra’s Year Long Adventure – Part 30

1/23/09 -  South Padre Island  - Overnight Getaway

Romantic

Buenos Noches. Buenos Dias.  We had another experience of a lifetime.  We watched a very romantic sunset, with the sun sinking slowly behind the ‘ocean’. Wonderful, bright colors with the silhouettes of pelicans skimming the water and perching on nearby docks. The next morning, we watched the sun rise out of the ‘ocean’ from our 8^th floor, two-bedroom, condo suite.  Bright, bright pinks, turn golden and the beach just glows.  The pelicans come from the other side of the island to greet the morning with us, then leave to do what pelicans are meant to do. 

Oooh - Romantic!

We wanted to do a little sight-seeing in Texas and after talking to several natives, went with their unanimous recommendation and headed for South Padre Island, which Islanders call SPI.  It was not a mistake.  Sam found a room for the night at South Padre Hotel, which is also a condominium.  They had a corner suite available for only one night, as the owners were returning the next day, they gave us a fantastic, fabulous deal on it.  The sliding glass doors on both sides, with wrap around balcony, gave us a panoramic view of the open Gulf of Mexico and the entire beach section going north.  We spent most of our time walking.  Walking the beach, walking the ‘land side’ dock area, walking to the shops, walking.  The wind blows on the island almost all the time. The difference in weather usually involves how strong the wind blows and how hot the sun is.  We had a nice combination and walked. Shells were present and fun to hunt. Due to the last hurricane, the beaches looked manually raked and were sooo smooth.  On the way back to Pharr, we drove to the mainland over the same long, long, long bridge and opted to go to the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. 

Down Town - Not Romantic

Sam talked me into going on a guided tour in an open motor wagon.  Due to the number of tourists, we were in the back of the second wagon.  It was sunny when we started, but the wind started blowing hard, the clouds hid the sun and it got cold.  Really, really cold when we went by the bay.  The wind blew so hard that my summery long sleeved top was almost useless. My sweatshirt was trying to help my legs stay unfrozen. Sam shared his warmth until then he started getting cold. At milepost 11 on a 15-mile tour, I was hoping we would stop seeking wildlife, and that the guide would lose all knowledge for at least an hour, and that the driver’s right foot would turn to stone.  Instead, we crept on.  We finally got back to the visitor’s center.  Sam and I re-took the path of the tour, only in the warmth of Brutus.  Unfortunately, we only saw a few astounding birds and two deer during the tour. The other animals, including the resident American alligators, were showing that they were smarter than man by staying out of the blistering cold wind.