Padre Island is a narrow strip of land, less than two miles wide at its biggest point. The island runs 113 miles--all the way from the tip of Texas to Corpus Christi. But no road exists to connect the south and north parts of the island. We drove until the road heading north was closed.
The paved roads literally ends in a sand dune. We climbed over the dune on the right for a walk on the beach.
We are far from the groomed beaches in town. Strewn with pieces of kelp and sea weed, this is the most natural litter we've seen on a Padre Island beach.
Another thing littering the beach was a healthy crop of Portuguese man o' war. Those blue tentacles pack a powerful sting if you touch them.
The other animal life on the beach was this group of horses. We found out that as well as driving a car on this stretch of Padre Island, you can also ride a horse here.
We didn't find any unusual shells, but we did find enough run-of-the-mill shells to spell the usual abbreviation for South Padre Island.
Even though it seemed like Denisa was placing her shells far from the water, a rogue wave washed over her project just minutes after the last picture was taken.
Besides going to the beach, we have several other stops every time we visit the island. We always go by the Padre Island visitor center to check out the sand castle. We were here last year when the artist was tearing down the sand sculpture that had been in this space for several years.
The detail of the visitor center sand castle is frozen in time by a coating of glue and water. This pile of sand was sculpted over a year ago and is still looking good!
This section of the sculpture is fashioned after the lighthouse across the bridge that connects the island to Port Isabel.
The visitor's center has a brochure that gives addresses for the "sand sculpture trail." The trail can be followed to find more examples of these temporary pieces of art all over the island. This one was outside the sea turtle rescue center, which welcomes visitors until 3:15. We know this information because we arrived at 3:30. Oops! We'll have to visit it next time.
We never leave the island without some fresh sea food. Even though we have been a fan of Dirty Al's Cafe for years, we decided to try something new this trip. We enjoyed the combo plate at Pier 19, and we all thought their fresh fish was particularly good. Afterwards, we took a walk on the pier that juts into the water.
The pier also offers lots of photo opportunities for tourists like us. Connie snuggled up right beside the pirate on the bench.
The two sisters felt quite small sitting in the adirondack chair out front. Those stylish pirate hats might have also helped to make them feel little.
There's an optical illusion at work in the picture below. The sisters are looking especially small when we added more of the family into the foreground of the picture.
The next necessary stop on a day on Padre Island includes a view of the bay. We can usually find kite surfers using the ever-present wind to glide across the shallow water of the bay. But a car show at the convention center had all the usual bay parking filled. So today's bay stop included a more urban view on the edge of town.
After visiting the beach, the bay, the food, and the visitor center, we had one final stop. We ended the day with dessert at the island's Dairy Queen, hitting all the classic stops necessary for a complete day on South Padre Island.
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