Blissful Days on Padre Island

I think that if the Padre Island National Seashore had water hookups or any sort of cellular reception I would have convinced the family to settle down right there and then. The beach has always been my favorite place, but the Oregon and Washington shores are missing one vital ingredient to true bliss: warmth.

It took us about twenty minutes from arriving to be running into the water.

This Padre Island isn't the same as the spring break-famous South Padre Island, which is a few hours, well, south. The national park here has a great campground right off of the beach, with no real services but cold showers. We kicked into water conservation mode, though, and managed to even extend our stay a few days longer than we thought we could go.  We all thought cold showers were a very small inconvenience to 'suffer' in order to be camped by the beach, fall asleep to the sounds of the ocean, and pay just $8 a day.

This was the view from our dining room.

When we first roughly planned our trip we had our end point being Corpus Christie by November 1st. (Disclaimer: we never actually made it into the city other than to visit our new favorite grocery store, HEB.) That was the exact day that we arrived, with very little actual planning on our part. We'd picked this date as I'd read that it was the official end to the hurricane season, and a good time for bird watching. Over the course of our RV trip our youngest's fascination with birds had rubbed off on all of us a bit; when you are looking for birds with him and see him get so excited you can't help but let his joy infect you, too.

The beach was full of plovers, which have a hilarious way of running back and forth with the waves at comic speeds.

Every morning we'd get up to watch the sunrise, with the older two usually running out to the water's edge.

If you would have asked me before this trip if I had a favorite bird I probably would have stared at you blankly for a while, and then maybe just answered the most recent bird that I'd seen in hopes of changing the subject. Now I'd say the Pelican; the beaches there were filled with groups of these birds, and they are surprisingly graceful and social (with each other, not us). 

We spent a good portion of our third day there on the beach picking up trash. At Malaquite Beach were we stayed the shores were rather free of debris, but a bit further south where we went beach-combing the amount of garbage was shocking. It turns out that due to the wave patterns most of the garbage in the gulf is deposited here in the park. We missed the official trash pick up day (bummer; when we returned from our guided bird tour that day the lunch they were hosting for the volunteers smelled amazing), but we had no problem still finding lots to pick up the next day.

The kids got to wear some cool ranger hats and get their Adopt-A-Beach patches. 

When time for school came we headed into nearby Port Aransas, in hopes of a couple of bars of Verizon and some early morning bird watching.

At this point, we're hamming it up as usual, but also the silly face may be because we're being eaten alive by mosquitoes. Hoodies were donned to protect our necks, even though the humidity was keeping us very, very warm.

Even if you're just a marginal fan of birding, you'd love Port Aransas in November. Everywhere you looked there was something interesting. Plus, we've never met a more welcoming group of people than avid birders. The couple that ran the birding tour at the national park had recommended Port Aransas trails to us, and we ran into them there that morning. They had a rare bird in their sights, and quickly ushered our youngest over to look with them. While we were all speaking in hushed tones, I didn't have the chance to ask if she had been a school teacher, but a hunch tells me that she was from the way she had her arm around him and was explaining the colorings. After a flock of roseate spoonbills flew over head, we made our way up to the birding tower. Again, we had people offering our kids views through their spotting scopes, and explaining what they were seeing. One of the biggest things that I've missed on this trip was the daily sense of community, so this morning was a real gift in so many ways. 

It's a coot, with feet designed for walking on the reeds.

This flock of ducks (I'd ask my son what type they were, but he's sleeping) shortly took off in flight, as an alligator made it's way through the marsh. It was fun to see this--from a distance!

Again, we would have plowed through this spot without taking notice, but a birder slowed us down and pointed out a dozen types of songbirds in the trees. 

If you're in Port Aransas the local coffee shop, Coffee Waves, is a great place to spend some time. The kids were serenaded (not intentionally or awkwardly) while they did their school work. 

Not a bad way to get through a geometry lesson.

Not content with the bug bites accrued that morning, we stopped by the University of Texas' bird study site before heading home. It was very nicely laid out, but about half-way through the walk I had to adopt a weird walk/run as the bugs were starting to get to me. 

I probably shot this picture with the phone out to the side, screaming 'aargh' as I smacked my leg and ran toward the truck. The birds must be used to that sort of bad behavior, as they didn't seem phased at all.

Every afternoon we could be found at the beach, which we had nearly all to ourselves. When we were coming out of the water before dinner we noticed that we had a bit of an audience, and when we got up on the dock we had a guy ask us where we were from.

"Washington? See, I told you Bob that they had to be from someplace up north!"

"Yeah, we're from the northwest corner of the U.S., right by Canada. In fact, the kids grew up in Canada so they're really warm at anything above 70 (or 20' C)."

Insert a lot of chuckles from the gang in sweaters, coats, and jeans that had formed to watch us frolicking away content as can be. I can't imagine not feeling warm when it's 85 and sunny, but I think if anyone offered me the chance to stay on the gulf coast long enough to find out I'd take it.

~Judy

Everything's Bigger in Texas, Even Texas

It took us two driving days from Carlsbad, New Mexico, to cross western Texas and arrive in San Antonio. It was a long, slow, slog! Since it was a city visit, we opted for an RV park between San Antonio and Austin, and found a great spot in New Braunfels, TX. It was the off-season we had the run of the place, and a spot right next to the pool, inflatables, and trampolines. 

You could have fit a dozen of us on the jumping pillow, it was seriously Texas-sized.

Even some of us grown-ups enjoyed bouncing around.

Of course we visited the Alamo, and finally learned the significance of the "Come and get it" slogan. 

Our 'urban hiking' was in full effect, and we also made our way over to El Mercado. It was fun to stroll through, and of course we had to pick up some Mexican pastries for the trek back to the river walk area.

We had dinner down on the river walk at the Iron Cactus. It was great Tex-Mex, and it was a fun place to spend the evening. 

Can you see the humidity's effect on the ol' hair do? 

After dinner we walked through the entire river walk path. It was as romantic as a family stroll could be, with lots of sore feet at the end. =}

Of course, we also had to get some Texas bbq during our visit. It was like no other restaurant we've ever been to. We may still dream about their smoked sausage. Half-way through the meal our oldest noted that he'd seen more AED machines in San Antonio than anywhere else.

We also managed to spend a day in Austin. It looks like this portion of the trip was all about the food. That seems to be the trend with us: nature = hiking, city = eating. 

We had the chance to meet up with good friends in Austin, who'd also invited our kids to trick or treat with theirs. We thought that our neighborhood in Bellingham knew how to celebrate Halloween, but this neighborhood really pulled out all of the stops. On the way home, with multiple full-sized candy bars (and a king-size bar as well), our youngest declared: "I love Texans." 

We'd agree with his sentiment, as of all the places we've been on this trip we met the most social and friendly people in Texas.

Seriously cute bunnies, no?

Surprises in Carlsbad, New Mexico

Funny thing about a long trip like this, is that we sometimes forget to tell the kids where we are going. Not as in "Surprise!" and we pull up to a great destination, but we just decide that we'll stop along the way at a place and forget to give them any warning. Not that a national park needs warning, per se, but you know, maybe we should give the youngest a heads-up that we're headed over 750 feet underground that morning. 

Well, he wasn't too worked up about it, which was great.

After another beautiful New Mexico sunrise, we started our day at Brantley Lake State Park. This is just outside of Carlsbad, and another great New Mexico park to use as a base for adventures.

There is some elevation gain as you head into the park, but it's a rather unassuming park entrance.

We took the natural entrance, which is an easy walk but long enough that you can have it all to yourself on a fall morning. (The rest of the folks in the parking lot opted for the elevator.) It's a smooth path for the most part, but about half-way down you feel the thigh-burn from the steep descent. From this path, you pass the bat cave (yay, guano!), but also get to interact with the park rangers more as they patrol the area. 

A couple of summers ago we toured the Oregon Caves, which are similar in formations. What the Carlsbad Cavern has over that park is the sheer size once you get down the the bottom. You could fit a big dragon in there. 

It was a place of wonder.

Have I mentioned that I love the sunsets in New Mexico? 

After a great day at the caverns, we had a quick dinner, then went back into town for a drive-in movie. Not only had we seen that Carlsbad had a drive-in theatre, and it was open, and they were playing a movie the kids had asked to see--it was playing for free that night! It was the first time at a drive-in for 4 out of 5 Parks; being from southern Oregon I grew up with this as the main form of entertainment in the summer. It was so much fun to pack up the truck and get out the hoodies and snacks. In an improvement from the crackly speakers from the late '80s, the sound coming through the radios and amplified from the party trucks with the fancy sound systems in the back row made it actually audible. We saw the second Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, not nearly as good as the first movie, but who really cared when we were sitting out under the stars?

Hooray for the Fiesta Drive-In!

We all were up the next morning, to watch our last New Mexico sunrise before heading to Texas. (No small feat for a couple of night owls in the family.) Watching the sun rise and set is one ritual from this trip that I hope we continue once we settle down.

We spent all of yesterday driving, but did want to send out our thanks to all of the veterans. Especially my dad, who served in Vietnam. All our love to you!

Roswell Wasn't Nearly Cheesy Enough

To be honest, I'm not sure what the original draw to Roswell was for us, it just seemed like something that you should do if you are on a RV trip. I'm not a fan of UFO stories, didn't know much about the Roswell sightings, but I do love a good cheesy road trip destination. 

The drive from Las Cruces to Roswell was amazing. We passed through another border check, and the White Sands Missile Range. We had one 'movie' moment, where two black SUVs with flashing lights passed us at about 100 mph, but of course we were traveling down the road way too slow to find out what was going on. (Heck, they could have found an alien twenty miles down the road, had a tea party, and cleaned up before we would have caught up with them.)

 

We were feeling quite excited about the storefront aliens when we pulled into Roswell.

Kevin had work to do, so just the kids and I went to the downtown UFO museum. It wasn't nearly as silly as I was hoping it would be, but we still had a nice time. The documentation on the 1947 incident was actually interesting and thorough. A bit too much reading for our wee attention spans, though. 

Then, we just couldn't make a normal face when taking photos in front of any of these exhibits.

Roswell also has a city museum, which was nice to explore. Our favorite part of the visit though was the state park where we stayed. We'd read the reviews that the flies were 'of biblical proportions'; we'd have to agree that while their size wasn't all that big, their numbers were the highest we'd ever seen. We had to adopt this weird technique for getting in and out of our RV--smacking the door in a circle to get the flies off then running in. (Likewise for getting out, giving the door a vigorous tapping to shake them off before we opened up.) When new people were pulling into the park and driving past us doing our little routine I'm sure we looked like real OCD cases. (To which we said to ourselves, "Wah ha ha, you'll know soon enough!")

Somehow, that didn't distract us too much from really enjoying this park, and the stargazing at night. 

I'm glad that the park was so beautiful, and the New Mexico nights were as enchanting as ever. Roswell itself seems to be a city missing the opportunity to go full-on cheese. Our dinner conversations were funny, though, as we discussed what type of attractions we'd add. Think along the lines of tubes that suck up visitors randomly, maybe some probing. . . 

Layover in Las Cruces

After a great week in Tucson, we pointed ourselves east again, so that we could get to Roswell and Carlsbad in New Mexico. Our stopping point in between was Las Cruces, which according to the brochures has a thriving main street.

Silly brochures.

Some nice architecture, though.

That being a bust we headed to nearby village plaza of Mesilla, which was good for walking around, and some more interesting architecture. 

While that's about all that we found to keep ourselves busy in between driving days, we did end our visit on a high note at Pro's Ranch Market. This was a super fun place to shop for groceries, and they had delicious tacos. We are so easy to please sometimes.