Sand Crab

Scenes of North Padre Island

While at North Padre, both Dan and I saw several sand crabs. I wanted to capture one so bad. Dan spied this little fellow and I quickly snapped a picture with my macro lens. Can you see him?

This little fellow was so brave. He froze there never moving a leg. I slowly got closer and I snapped another picture.
I got even closer and snapped another picture.
I eventually got so close to him that my lens were probably about three inches away from the fellow. The following picture was the one I was really shooting for. I'm mighty pleased with my efforts.

Wordy Wednesday

While at North Padre Island, I spied this plant at The Padre Island Burger Company. I really loved this plant. It reminded me of the Spider Lilies except the flowers hang from branches and each one has a "tail". Here is a closeup of one flower:

Does anybody know the name of this plant? I would so love to find and plant one at our future home. We have Spider Lily bulbs that grew at my Dad's lake house. I took some bulbs and planted them at our house in Houston. When we moved to San Antonio, I dug up and took some bulbs with me. I'm hoping they will grow at our future house. Anyway, this plant would be a perfect complement to our Spider Lilies.

Scenes of North Padre Island

We went to North Padre Island Friday night (September 10, 2011) and stayed through Sunday afternoon. I had a wonderful relaxing time. I am a beach girl at heart. Here are some random pictures taken over the weekend. I noted the ones Dan took underneath all his pictures. The ones without his name underneath are the ones I took.

I woke up so excited and happy long before the sun came up. I decided to see if I could capture the sun rising over the ocean. I quickly got dressed, grabbed my camera, woke Dan up to tell him I was going onto the beach, and promptly left him to his sleep.

I started wandering down the beach after the sun was completely up. Early mornings and late evenings are the best times to take pictures because the sun can be so harsh midday. Dan joined me a little later and we just wandered and had a good time.

{Someone had a crab for lunch or dinner.}
Before we knew it, it was time for lunch. We went to Padre Island Burger Company. We've been there and the burgers are "oh my goodness" delicious. When we came back, we grabbed our popup tent, threw snacks into a small cooler and headed out to the beach to vegetate.
{taken with an Olympus digital water camera}

{taken with an Olympus digital water camera}
I did a lot of swimming, people watching, and exploring. Dan joined me a few times. I think he was just happy sitting underneath the shade watching me do my thing. The time got away from us and soon, I was hungry. So, we gathered up all our crap and headed back to the hotel. We went to Padre Pizzeria for dinner. We had a white pizza and oh my goodness, it was so delicious. We then took a walk along the beach one last time for the day.
{photo by Dan}

{photo by Dan}
I was up early the next morning again. I tend to rise with the sun. This time Dan joined me out on the beach. I took pictures of the sun rising again because I did not know if the ones I took the day before were good. I wanted at least a couple good pictures. I was surprise I had more than a couple that turned out decently.
Once the sun rose, we wandered for a bit before going back to the hotel to check out.
{Photo by Dan}

{Photo by Dan}

{Photo by Dan}

Looks like the man is walking on water, does it not? He is actually surfing.





I hope you all enjoyed this trip down memory lane. Until next time,

Just Letting You All Know....

The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley.
~ Robert Burns

Note: The above is often misquoted as "The best laid plans of mice and men go oft astray."

{taken with my phone on September 10th, 2011 at North Padre Island}
I am just letting you all know that I have not fallen off the face of the earth. I will be back to regular programming in about two weeks. At least, that is my hope. I miss the creativity of blogging. But, life takes priority. By the way, I received awesome news while at North Padre. I became an Auntie again! I can hardly wait to see the newest little one.

North Padre Island (6/11 - 6/13)

We went to North Padre Island this past weekend for a much needed break AND a belated 16th Anniversary vacation. Dan decided some time ago that we should go to the shore for our Anniversary (because I’m a beach hog); but, instead of going in April, we should go in June. So, that is what we did. We took a nice long weekend too. We had two full days (Friday and Saturday) at the beach.


{Washed up debris with live bivalves embedded onto the wood. I believe these may be Cocquina Clams otherwise commonly known as bean or butterfly shell clams.}

I didn’t take a lot of pictures on account of the beach weather affecting the lenses. Plus, I was more focused on relaxing and enjoying the beach. Dan didn’t take even bother taking his camera along as he didn’t want to get sand or water on his camera or lenses. I was very careful with mine; so, it should be alright.

The last time we were at Padre Island was in April last year and the beach back then was so clean, calm and free of seaweed. However, this time the ocean was very rough and it was extremely windy at times. And, there was tons of seaweed. In some places, the seaweed was knee deep. I think that whoever takes care of the beach is being wise in leaving the seaweed as a natural barrier against oil IF it should ever show up on our shores.


{This picture shows the seaweed – it was like this all along the shoreline.}

There was a jetskier (take note of that idiot jetskier on the right in the above picture). And, there were surfboarders (not in picture). I was surprised to see them as I have never seen surfers along the Texas coast until now. I always thought it was a Californian thing to do. They had to go way out there in order to get a decent surfing experience though – that is too much work if you ask me.

Anyway, we both got sunburned on Friday. We did use suntan lotion; but, neglected to add more throughout the day. What’s interesting is that both of us previously had a “turtle tan” and both of us got burned where the skin hasn’t seen the light of day for quite some time. The exception is that Dan got burned on the tops of his feet and I did not. I think it is because I wear sandals a lot; so, my feet get exposed to the sun frequently. However, Dan wears shoes and hates flip-flops. So, as a result, his feet got burned.

We ended up renting a popup tent with two beach chaise lounge chairs on Saturday. It was pricey ($40 a day); but, well worth it considering we were both burned and I wanted to be on the beach all day. I lathered on 45 SPF suntan lotion AND wore a t-shirt. Dan did the same and wore a tank top.

I went swimming quite a few times and both of us people watched. Dan was quite content just laying here in the shade of the popup tent. He never once got up – just laid there and vegetated. He is not really a beach or water person. However, I think he was happy knowing I was happy. I even had fun burying his foot in the sand and watching mini earthquakes that occurred from his big toe. Ha!

We did something slightly different this time around as far as food. Instead of sticking with the mainstream and driving around to find a familiar place to eat, I wanted to go “local”. So, I did a little research and picked two places to try out. I wrote about them at the bottom of this post if you're interested.

All in all, I had a very good time. I think Dan did too. It was what we both needed -- just mindlessly vegging out and doing nothing. I was extremely sad when Sunday morning rolled around. I had a hard time saying “goodbye” as I didn’t want to return to “life”. It’s been a rough road for me the last year or so. It has not been not easy on the both of us.


{My splotchy sunburn}

Padre Island Burger Company

We went to this place on Friday for lunch. There was a sign saying “Hippies use back door” at the main entrance. Inside, bottle caps were nailed onto door casings and beer coasters were nailed onto portions of the rafters. We chose to sit in a rather cozy area that was quite hidden. There was a ceiling fixture that caught my attention. I couldn’t figure out what it was; but, it had tons of signatures. I found out much later via a flyer that I snagged that it was a Volkswagon hood belonging to a friend of the place who was tragically killed in a traffic accident at age 24. This guy was mostly responsible for the décor including a hand-crafted bar, which seems to be the centerpiece of the entire place.

The menu was eclectic offering Appetizers, Salads, and some unusual ingredients for burgers plates. You get a choice of ½ lb Fresh Ground Beef patty, Marinated Grilled Chicken Breast or Marinated Portobello Cap. Some examples are “First Date” – wild mushrooms, smoked bacon, roasted garlic spread. “The Hang Over” – fried egg, caramelized onions, American cheese. “My Boy Blue” – smoked bacon, blue cheese spread. “The Mexican” – cheese enchilada, avocado, sour cream.

We both went with “Boring” – w/Cheese. Dan went with sweet potato fries and I had regular fries. Once you place an order, they give you this gadget that buzzes when your order is ready to be picked up.

Let me tell you, the prices were a bit steep. (Boring w/Cheese was $8.50 each.) However, the food was delicious. I’m not a burger fan; but, I pretty much ate a good portion of my burger. There was just something about it that was flavorful. Dan thinks it was the bun that had a hint of sweetness. I’m not so sure. I only know that it was the best burger I had in ages. The sweet potato fries were interesting. My fries reminded me of Jack-in-the-Box curly fries without the curls.

I won’t hesitate to go back to this place again should we return to North Padre Island in spite of the cost. And oh, by the way, expect to wait a bit for your meal.

Padre Pizzeria

We went to this place for lunch on Saturday. It is just a simple, clean, and plain “hole in the wall” type of restaurant. They had pictures and “paintings” up on the wall for sale from various artists. All of them were too pricey for me ($75 was the lowest price I saw).

We ordered the medium (12 inch) pepperoni. It was very good pizza. The crust was good and the mixture of cheese topping was delicious. I wished that I could figure out the cheese mixture because I would so love to create the same for our own homemade pizza. The convenience of going to this place is that we didn’t have to go far from the hotel or beach to get eats. I’d go to this place again. But, I may be biased because I’m such a pizza freak.

So there you have it, our Padre Island belated Anniversary vacation.