Tours of Texas - South Padre Island

Last year we went to Port Aransas/Corpus Christi and that was the first time I'd ever been south of San Antonio.  This year we took it to the limit.  We went as far south as you could go without crossing the border: South Padre Island (by way of Brownsville).

When John was a kid, his family owned a condo down there and they made many, many trips.  His dad would load them into the car at 2 am so they'd be halfway there before the kids woke up.  John stopped going when he was in his 20's and then his parents sold the condo in the late '90's.

It's a 9 hour drive from our place.  That's how long it took us to get to Florida a few summers ago.  It amazes me that you can drive for 9 hours and still be in Texas.

But I digress.  Sunday morning, 7 am, we were off!

We were making pretty good time when we stopped for lunch in Driscoll, Tx.  We ate quickly in the parking lot so we could move on only to pull into a traffic jam.  Apparently, about 1/4 a mile in front of us on the other side of the highway was a wreck and it was a bad one.  There were two care flight helicopters and four ambulances.  When they finally let the cars go through, we drove by the site and one car was pretty mangled and the other was upside down in the ditch.  I hope everyone was okay.

We were making good time once again and thought we were getting close when we started seeing palm trees.  Not so much.  We still had another couple of hours to go.

We passed a pretty huge wind farm which I thought was cool.  Those arms are ginormous!  When we were leaving, there were two trucks bringing in one arm each and the traffic blockage was ridiculous.

We passed through San Benito, Tx, which is apparently the home of Freddy Fender.  Who knew?

Our driver today is the unshakable John.  He drove the whole way and did great.

Finally, we pulled into Port Isabel.  This is a very small town on the "other" side of the causeway.  John was surprised to see that there was a Starbucks, a Wal-Mart and an HEB, which he said was non-existent back in the days of his youth.  Back then Port Isabel sported a very small grocery store.

There it is!  The Queen Isabella Memorial Bridge.  And, you should watch for Pelicans.  We were almost to our destination.

 

This is the causeway to take you to the Island.  It's the only way on or off unless you're going by boat.  The traffic was crazy.  I guess everyone was checking in on a Sunday just like we were.

Yay! We finally made it across the bridge only to fight more traffic to get to the check-in office.  The guy was super nice.  He gave us the code to get into the condo but we still had to check in at the office.

We stayed at the Inverness and got a one bedroom, one bath condo.  It was pretty small but it was only for the two of us.  Once we finally got all checked in, we found out that one of the two elevators was out of order and we were on the 7th floor.  Unloading the car was another test of our patience but we survived.

When we got up to our condo, the first thing I did was step out on the balcony.  It was everything I thought it would be and I knew this was going to be a great vacation.

This was our home for the next few days.  We had a little kitchen and dining area.

A separate living area where we watched playoff basketball all week.

Our lovely bedroom.  Those curtains are blackout curtains.  This room got dark when you closed the curtains and the door, which was awesome because the sun comes up early there.  The provisions provided by the owner of the condo were plentiful.  The dishes and cooking items were more than sufficient.  They even had a potato peeler, for which I was grateful.  They didn't have salt and pepper, which I thought odd but, lesson learned.

After a quick dip in the ocean, John wanted to drive by the old homestead.  The Marisol, where his family owned a condo back in the '70's, was at the other end of the strip.  It was kind of dark by the time we made it out.

This is Padre Street at night.  All the restaurants are lit up.  They even had a carnival going on.  We stopped at a convenience store for ice since the ice maker in the condo was struggling.  We had good timing.  John got one of the last 6 bags of ice they had.  We had to hurry back to the condo because it was melting.

The next morning, I had my coffee on the balcony.  I have to admit it was a little warm because there was no shade that early.  But what a view!

On the first day, we decided to drive into Port Isabel and look around.  This is Our Lady, Star of the Sea Catholic Church.  This is the church that John and his family used to go to back in the '70's when they came out.  The church was founded in 1849.  Not much else by way of historical documentation.

The inside of the church was beautiful!  

The Port Isabel Lighthouse was built in 1853 due to the heavy shipping traffic through the Brazos Santiago Pass after the Mexican-American War.  Early on in the Civil War, this area was held by Confederate forces until 1863 when they were obliged to give way to Federal forces.  The lighthouse was used as a lookout for both sides.  It was decommissioned in 1905 as shipping in this area declined.  This is the only lighthouse along the Texas coast that is open to the public.

The light at the top is stationary and could be seen up to 16 miles away.  For $5, you can go into the lighthouse and climb the stairs to the top.  The view is supposed to be pretty amazing.

So that was our excursion for the day.  Then back to the condo for happy hour and reading on the fabulous balcony.  

The balcony really was great.  Once it hit about 11-ish in the morning, there was enough sun and breeze to sit out there all day.  And, if we weren't on the beach, we were on the balcony.

This go-round, we thought we'd eat out a little so we only brought a couple of things to cook at home.  One was the makings for "taco meat" which we used to make nachos and burritos.  This was one of the best things I ate on the island.  I can make some nachos.

Sunset was at about 8:45pm and if we stepped out the front door of the condo, we could watch it.  It was stunning.  At this point in the process, it took mere seconds for the sun to sink beneath the horizon, leaving a red glow over the city.

After sunset, we could still hang out on the balcony and read while we had cocktails.

Another day on the beach.  This is my Corona moment.  After three days, my feet are no longer pasty white.  One one day we took a long walk on the beach, jumping in the water to cool off along the way.  It was fantastic!

Relaxing on the beach.

Chillin' on the beach before we head into the water.  One thing you need to watch out for is jellyfish.  Apparently, they will sting you and then bad things must happen to stop the pain.  I saw three jellyfish in the water and was able to avoid them.  What purpose to jellyfish serve exactly?  You can't eat them.  

Note the chair that John is sitting in.  Yeah, that chair was purchased about an hour prior to the photo.  Our older chairs finally gave up the ghost and the option was to sit on the sand or get some new chairs.  Note to self, next time be prepared and bring better equipment.  That chair broke - no kidding - about an hour after the photo.  The cool Corona vibe that existed moments prior was gone.  But seriously!  We knew they were cheap but to only last an hour?  Frustrated, our beach time was over for the day.

That night we decided to dine out.  We'd already had lunch out once at a place called Senor Donkey.  We walked up there because parking in this town is a nightmare.  In light of the pandemic and the resulting shortages of labor and supplies, we packed patience.  Senor Donkey got good reviews so...why not?  I'll tell you why not.  The service was terrible and the food was mediocre at best. Once we got seated, we hung out for a while waiting for someone to acknowledge us.  When the waiter came by she wanted us to order and we hadn't even been given menus, which other tables had so we knew they existed.

Once again, I digress.  This was dinner.  I was hoping to get really good seafood here but oddly, everything was "Mexican/Seafood", which seemed to be mostly Mexican.  We went to this place called Pier 19.  We got there at 6 pm and the wait was an hour and twenty minutes.  The "bar" area was outside and none of it was shaded.  Needless to say we left.

We tried driving into Port Isabel but the dining options there weren't any better.  We got gas because there was only diesel or premium unleaded (at $4/gal) on the island.  We thought we were destined for mediocre pizza.  But then John called an audible.  He pulled into the parking lot of Cap'n Roy's.  It was also called "Mexican Seafood" but we thought we'd take a chance.  

We were willing to wait.  Imagine our surprise when we walked in to a packed restaurant and a passing waiter noticed us and led us to an open table for two.  They brought us beer and wine and this amazing ceviche.  I'd wished we'd ordered some to go for the next day.  The food was actually good as was the service!  It was the happy ending to a stressful day.

A little about South Padre Island.  It was originally called Isla de Santiago and was given to Nicholas Bali by King Carlos III of Spain.  The island passed to the grandson, Jose Nicholas Balli, who was a priest.  He settled the island and preached Christianity to the natives and, because of his kindness, the island became known as la Isla de Padre, aka Padre Island.  There's only one grocery store on the island that we saw.  As for national restaurant chains, we saw a Dairy Queen, McDonald's, Pizza Hut and KFC.  The other restaurants were local and very touristy.  

We were slated to leave Friday morning.  But Thursday we woke up and the thought of spending another day in the sun didn't really appeal either of  us.  We overestimated our "beach endurance".  Neither of us is really much of a beach person.  Sand gets everywhere!  After breakfast we looked at each other and nodded.  We were going home a day early.  

The drive home was quite leisurely considering we left at 10:30.  We were stopped by Border Patrol...no where near the border.  The agent barely looked at us as he waived us through.

We drove through (?) Armstrong, Texas.  This was the post office.  I googled the town and this is pretty much it.  How they qualified for a post office, such as it is, I don't know.

Once we got on 130 around Lockhart, we put the pedal to the metal...legally!  Note: this was a toll road and not a cheap one....

In Pleasanton, Tx, we stopped for gas and decided to try some BBQ.  Originally, I had asked a friend, who does this kind of thing - driving around Texas trying great BBQ - and her suggestions were a bit out of our way but, we did make note.  We've taken some inspiration from her and decided we needed to tour the state in which we live and see what's around.

Meanwhile, we found this little gem in Pleasanton called Cowboy Smokehouse BBQ.  It's just a small place with no indoor dining but some fantastic BBQ.  We bypassed sides as they are never really good and went straight for the good stuff.  We got moist brisket which was heavenly.

We also got pork ribs, which were also to die for.  But my favorite thing (not pictured here) was the sausage link.  I have not stopped thinking about it since we got it.  It was amazing!   

Oh and John said I should mention that they had fixin's.  I always thought this meant sides.  Apparently, it does not.  It means fixin's.  Pickles, onions and bread.  Their sauce was homemade and quite tasty.  

This was a great trip.  The journey to and from was as fun as the actual stay on South Padre Island.  But as I always say, it's nice place to visit but there's no place like home.