Padre Island National Seashore

Having spent much of our trip visiting vacation spots off-season, it’s always exciting to go somewhere at the right time.
Just over a big bridge from Corpus Christi in southern Texas is Padre Island National Seashore, a marshland area boasting fine white sands, warm weather – and a ton of wind.

We spent the night right on the Gulf of Mexico, paying our record low overnight fee: $8. There was no hook-up, but who cares when you can see every star unhindered by city lights, hear crashing waves all night long and wake up on the beach?

It was in fact one of our very few no hook-up nights where we didn’t freeze.

The next day, after a pancake breakfast, we walked about five steps to the beach: Sophia and Daniel built sandcastles – following the technical plans Sophia had drawn up the night before – while Lulu and I took a long walk down the straight shoreline, meeting all of two people.

After lunch, we were reunited with Dan, Marlene & co, who stopped to enjoy the beach before we all headed off further down the island towards Port Aransas.