Port Aransas and Mustang Island

Our road trip continued to Port Aransas, where we could either swim to the island or take the ferry.  We opted for the free ferry ride and we were heading to the island on the boat just as the sun was setting.

We spent the night on Mustang Island, and the next morning we were blessed with a beautiful blue sky beach day.

We started the day at the University of Texas Marine Discovery Center.  We looked at their educational exhibits and enjoyed the children's section displays as well.  Denisa and her Mother were "fishing" with magnetic lures, and Mark is posed with his best sea turtle face.

 

But our favorite part of the Discovery Center was looking at their aquariums.   The fish pictured below changed from light tan with small dots when he was resting on the light sand, to dark brown with larger dots when beside a rusty pipe.  We could watch the color changes that took place in less than a minute when he moved around the aquarium.  This is a picture of him in "change mode" going from light to dark.

After our fish entertainment, we headed to the beach at Port Aransas.  They have the sand solid packed so we could drive the car right on the beach beside the ocean for miles.

For future reference, we also saw RVs parked alongside the ocean.  We might have to try that next time.

We did some sea-shelling as we stopped at three different beaches along the island.  We found a few unbroken sand dollars and other treasures.

We stopped at Mustang Island State Park, and even found a starfish on the beach!  Mark wanted me to add the disclaimer that no starfish were harmed in the making of this blog.  All the sea life was dead when we found it.

Mustang Island turns into North Padre Island around Corpus Christi, so we have now been on both ends of Padre in the last few days.  Again we had to have some shrimp, flounder, and crab cakes to eat before we left the coast and headed back to our home on wheels!