Jan's Journey: Port Aransas

Went to Port Aransas on Saturday. This is on Mustang Island. Apparently a lot of Canadians settle there for the winter. They don't call them Snowbirds here... they are Winter Texans!! There were a lot of RV parks, Condo's hotels and resorts here. The town stretches from the channel side to the Gulf of Mexico side. This is basically just south of Corpus Christi but a little north. Padre Island North where I went last weekend is south of Corpus Christi but a little south... Corpus is kinda in the middle. Once you go over to the islands you can drive from Padre to Mustang which I showed last weekend. Just to complicate it all there is a South Padre Island which is in the most southern tip of Texas - almost to Mexico. You cannot drive on Padre Island from the North to the South. You have to go back on the mainland to drive down to the South. The city South Padre Island is pretty well all resorts etc. but is a couple more hour drive so not really a day trip for me but definitely could be a weekend trip. You drive to Brownsville and then drive across to the island.
Back to Port Aransas. I found this beach a lot busier than North Padre Island and a lot more hotels that you can see from the beach. I like not seeing them better. There were 3 weddings being set up that I saw on my part that I saw. There was a lot of seaweed on the beach here that I didn't notice much of last week. Not sure if there is more there this week or not since I didn't go there this time. I went over on the bridge and drove up from the south to Port Aransas. I took the ferry back over to the mainland on my way home so travelled back to Corpus on the mainland side. The ferry was cool since there were tons of dolphins in the channel jumping everywhere. I just kept clicking the camera but hard to see them in the distance since they are not out of the water long. You can at least see the white spots where they are or were... I tried to get a picture of the power wind mills that they have all along the coast. They start from the Sun corp refinery... so I am wondering if they are using wind power to refine oil...kinda cool. I also have a picture of my new beach chair that I sat in for a few hours. I love watching the water, birds and people in it. I also read a book. It was getting warm so I put it near the water so that some waves came close enough to wet my feet to cool me off. 15 to 20 minutes later you have to back it up cause the waves are wetting the chair - combination of the chair sinking in the sand and the tide coming in... kept backing it up and at one point I backed up the car just in case. It was pouring rain in San Antonio when I left as well as on the bridge going over to the islands. I have a picture showing the black sky to the north towards mainland but the island was beautiful weather up until close to 5 p.m. I packed up and went one direction to try to get off of the beach... another thing about this beach... very few places to get on and off... I was quickly running out of beach and still could not find an out... the beach was getting narrower due to the tide coming in. There were others still there so I figured I was ok but my car is not 4 wheel drive like their trucks and I was not looking forward to driving in the water. I finally turned around and asked some people where the next exit was and which way to go to get off the beach the quickest. The told me to turn around and I was almost there to marker 99. I was at 88. Not sure how far between the markers but not very far so I was fine. At the harbour where you take the ferry back to mainland there were houses on stilts. The bottom of the house is above the roof of the SUV parked in front. Must be for flooding I guess.

Me just as I arrived

Beach as far as you can see

Lots of seaweed and hotel

New Chair with Towel Margaret gave to me

New Chair See leg at top - when you recline it all of the way down to lay down then you put that leg down to support it . It is a low beach chair so your legs just go straight out on the sand.