South Padre Island

We took a mini vacation for my birthday and went to South Padre Island. It's supposed to be a quick 5 and 1/2 hours drive from San Antonio (which ended up taking 10 hours due to an accident on the bridge to the island). We took our dog Cricket with us for the trip. We were sad to leave the other two boarded, but one gets car sick and the other is a complete spaz who would have eaten the seats within the first hour away from home.

The car trip was great until we were 10 miles from South Padre Island. Traffic just stopped. People turned off their cars, got out and walked along the shoulder, and my husband took the opportunity to take Cricket for a walk. We sat there for 3 hours. Misery. Once we finally got to the island, we were in desperate need of a cold beverage and some fried shrimp. Nom... nom... nom! We hit Pier 19 for dinner and it has a dog-friendly patio area. We just couldn't throw our dog in the hotel room after she was in the car with us for 10 hours! She enjoyed a few fried shrimp of her own at Pier 19. We checked into our hotel exhausted and we were all snoring within minutes... including the dog.

Saturday morning, I woke up to this. I let the husband sleep in and took Cricket for a walk on the beach to watch the sunrise.


She was scared of the ocean but loved playing in the sand.

We hung out at the beach on Saturday morning but it was SO WINDY that we weren't able to stay very long.

By the time we showered and got ready for the day, it was already time for lunch. We went to a cute little Tapas/wine bar called Zeste and had an amazing lunch and then went back to the hotel balcony to read and listen to the ocean for the rest of the afternoon.

The beach was pretty but there was quite a bit of seaweed near the water. I can deal with seaweed for a chance to see the ocean!

I just love the sound and smell of the ocean. There's nothing like walking a dog on the beach and watching the sunrise. I think it may be impossible to feel sadness, stress, or anxiety while looking at this...

After a relaxing day, we went to dinner at Gabriella's Italian restaurant and ate some incredible bruschetta and stone oven baked pizza. Delicious!

We headed home Sunday after another morning walk along the beach. Luckily the trip back home only took 5.5 hours! We had a great time on our weekend getaway!