April 21, 2019 Last Beach Day

Day 5 Malaquite Campground Padre Island National Seashore Corpus Christi, Texas

We took our time getting up and ready this morning. After breakfast, we packed our picnic and went back to the beach. Everything was a lot less crowded today.

We made a bunch of observations as we traveled south. I was driving today.

  • So many people
  • It will thin out
  • Ooooh soft sand…
  • 5 mile marker
  • Lots of pelicans today
  • Couple of coconuts
  • It must be gull mating season
  • Put it in 4 wheel drive
  • Turtle patrol…do they have eggs???
  • No eggs…any day now
  • 2 dead juvenile sea turtles
  • Only 1 in 1,000 survive
  • It takes 15-20 years for them to mature
  • 13.5 miles
  • The wind is coming from the east
  • Small shells
  • Not many fishermen today
  • That’s a big piece of rope
  • Want to drag it back?
  • I’m not sure we can lift it!
  • Sand moguls…like a roller-coaster!
  • Splash!!!
  • OOPS!!!
  • You might want to stay away from the edge of the water
  • 30 miles
  • The tide is still going out
  • That breeze is pretty stiff!!!
  • Let’s pull over here
  • Not too many people out this far!
  • Never did see dolphins!
  • I could watch pelicans all day
  • I believe that you did!!!

We didn’t take many pictures. We set up a tarp so that we could stay out of the wind and the sun. We had our lunch and picked up trash. We got 13 bags altogether this week. That’s a lot of beach detritus!!!

This is a Portuguese-man-of-war. It is an organism made up of 4 different kinds of polys that all live and work together in a colony. One type is the balloon or the float, another captures food, another eats the food and the last type reproduces. They are usually blue or violet. The tentacles can sting even after it is dead.

A perfect beach day!

On our way back this pair of pelicans followed us in the Jeep for miles! We were traveling about 25 miles an hour and they kept right up!

Someday we hope to be able to bring Oliver and Austin to the beach!! I cannot wait for them to see the waves and the sand. PopPop will show them all the cool stuff…pelicans and shells and stuff!!!