It was a foggy day in South Padre Island.
So much for sleeping in on a Saturday at the beach… I woke up at 5am with back aches and just could not sleep anymore, so I’m up and working on getting caught up with writing posts. It’s nice to be at the beach, the high for today is 73 and the low is 66. The forecast says it will be cloudy\foggy most of the day, but I hope it is a bit better so we can enjoy the beach. There’s plenty to do here though, so we’ll be busy one way or another.
I ended up getting a few posts caught up and finishing yesterday’s post, so I’m a bit closer to being caught up. Bia woke up, then Carol and the last one was Bella. Bia woke up around 7:30, and Bella was the last one around 8:30. We had the girls at least have breakfast before touching their computers, and later we had them change for the morning so they were not stuck all morning in their PJs and without having breakfast. I then got ready to leave for a run, kind of mapped out a beach nearby that should give me enough miles, and left.
The island is small and there is no crazy fast traffic so walking around is easy, but they also have walking and biking paths most everywhere. I left for my run, it was nice and warm, there was a breeze but it was foggy, so low visibility. I was running slow as I had not ran for like two weeks, but it was nice to be out and I was having a good run, until…. There was a spot I wanted to run just a bit faster to pass this lady in front of me, nothing crazy fast, just a tad faster than super slow… I did that, and soon after I passed her, I slowed down again and within a few minutes I felt a tad light headed. I then looked at my watch to see what my heart rate was, and it was 198! These easy runs for me usually take me to 135 average, so 198 was not only crazy because that’s not my average, but mostly also because it is way passed my max! I stopped running right away, and just walked for some time until my heart rate hit 150, then I jogged again and it hit 200 within a minute or so, I did that one more time and no dice. I then just walked the rest of the time, and the crazy thing is that even after walking the remaining 30 minutes, my heart rate did not go much lower than 150. That is not right, 150bpm for me is an intense workout. As I walked back, I looked up a few things and just could assume from reading that my blood pressure had lowered, likely due to dehydration. That light headed feeling I had when I hit 200 for the first time was similar to how it felt at the end of my marathon race, and I was dehydrated then as well, so it’s highly likely that’s it. I have not rested well the last few days as well, so that didn’t help either. Anyway, the workout was nice aside from this little incident. I ran\walked through a beach, and even though I could not see much, there were some dead fish, puffer fish, and easy to run on sand. Once in a while a spot would open up and I could see the sun, and sometimes the buildings around would show up as well. There was a fishing pier, a saint statue that protects the fishermen, etc. Most of the run out of the beach was on paths, which were easy to find right out of the campground. I got back and made sure to drink plenty of water, and that was my plan for the rest of the day, lots of water, minimal to no beer.
After I got back, the girls were on their computers and Carol was doing her nails, so they started getting ready to leave while I showered. Again, while it was nice and warm, it was very foggy, so not a great day to be at the beach. Our first plan was to go see the turtle rescue place, and maybe some of those types of places. We finished getting ready and left to the turtle rescue place.
This island is small, in some points it is less than a mile wide, and I think the paved portion is maybe 10-12 miles long. The turtle place was just a bit over 4 miles from our campground, so everything is close. My only concern was finding parking, but this is low season for this island so we found parking easily once we got there. We paid $20 for the four of us to get in, and started checking out the turtles. They have two buildings there, the first one by the street is the older one and smaller one. That building has 8 tanks or so, with many turtles. It was nice seeing the different turtles, and that they were rescued as some had visible marks, missing limbs, etc. It didn’t take long to see all the tanks, even with reading the info about the turtles. We then moved to the new building, which has about 6 tanks with giant turtles. That was cool, the turtles there are pretty big, and they also had a variety of problems. The most obvious one was missing its tail, and had a mechanical device attached to its back, so it could swim better. We checked out the turtles in those tanks and were done with the visit. It was kind of quick, the kids liked it but said it was hard to see the turtles. Overall score: ok.
The birding place was next door, but we didn’t feel like going there. Bella was hungry, so we decided to go eat. We had some good recommendations for Pier 19 by our campground, and we had a 10% discount card, so we drove back and went there. We got in just before noon, and when Carol went to get a table they said the wait was one hour! Wow. Well, we were hungry and didn’t want to wait, so we went back to the camper and packed for the day, then left to a place I found online that had “ample space”, called Longboard. We got there about 12:30 and they were right, lots of room and lots of tables and places to sit. The place is cool, it’s right by the water, there’s a stage and a band was playing, very tropical feel to it. We got our food, which was just ok, I could tell they don’t do a good job pouring draft beer, it comes flat. I had a big glass of water then got a beer and well, it was disappointing. The band was good, and the place looked nice. Bella was not happy with her drink order (because she changed her mind), and then her Mac and Cheese sucked, so she had that replaced with chicken tenders. Anyway, we finished eating and moved on.
We then drove all the way towards “The end of the Road”, which is actually a place at the furthest end of the island that has pavement. That stretch is cool, it is too bad it was so foggy. There are sand dunes around the road, and you can drive your car right to the beach in some spots, one side is the open ocean and the other is the bay. That is pretty cool, but with the weather, it did not look line much, just the nearby dunes and the beach front immediately in front of us. The girls picked a place to stop, where there was enough sand for them to play, and we stopped and unloaded buckets, chairs, matts, etc. We had the sled from White Sands park yet, so that came down too as they could slide down here. Once we were situated, the girls were doing their thing, playing in the sand, making holes, collecting shells, etc. Carol and I were relaxing, I had the chair with foot rest and she was laying on the mat. We both tried to take a nap, but it is hard for me to do so, so I just relaxed. Carol was out quick, she said the sound of waves is magical for her. hahahahaha…. After relaxing there for a while I went by the girls, took the sled and went down a nearby dune. Bella kept saying it was not going to work as she had tried before, but it did work! hahaha… that was fun. Then she kept going up and down. We stayed by this spot for a good few hours, then Carol woke up, Bia was frustrated that her sand castle was not turning out, and I was ready to move on to something else. So we left.
I wanted to see a few more places before we went back, so I opened the map and looked for restaurant or bars on the shore that looked big, and put the first one in. That one was called Claytons. That is the spot where the parties happen, I’m sure. We arrived and it looked busy from the parking lot, then we walked in and the bar is right by the beach, it has a big patio \ deck and is big overall, and it was pretty full, with live music and tropical drinks and what not. It is the place to be! Hahaha… but, it is not the vibe you want with kids, so we checked it out, and moved on.
We drove along the shore from there and there are a lot of other areas that have beach access, but we didn’t stop in any other places again, just checked out from the truck. At that point it was 4:30 and we decided to drive back and maybe hit the pool. I recommended we check in at Pier 19 and get in the list, so we did that, and were given a 1:40 wait time… wow! But that was the plan, so we got on the list. We went back to check the pool, but the girls felt there were too many people in there, so they chose to go to the playground. Carol went with them, and I went to the trailer, and just laid down watching TV, catching up on Facebook. The sun was peaking out here and there, so I got a few pics. Oh, and when we went to Pier 19 for lunch, which we didn’t stay for, we saw Dolphins nearby, so that was cool.
When it was about 6pm I got a text from the restaurant that they were ready for us, so I called the ladies and we headed there for dinner. We were seated at the way end of the pier, it’s indoors, so it’s nice to get a view of the water and if Dolphins decide to show up it’s a great spot. We had a nice meal there, food was very good, drinks were good, no issues. We had dessert as well, and it was all very good. The girls were having fun with the funny hats they got from the place, and we had an overall great time there. It was also not very expensive, so great!
From there, we went back home (we are walking distance to Pier 19), and did our wind down thing. Showers, TV, bed. Bella was laying down with me on the couch while we watched the first movie, then I went to bed for the second one. Before I fell asleep I booked the last two campgrounds we had pending, the one in Orlando and one in Kentucky, so we are now all booked all the way until we get back home.
We had a nice Saturday here in South Padre Island, even with the dense fog.