San Antonio and Corpus Christi

Rick and I went to the beach 5 times, usually with kids, in North Carolina, and to the Blue Ridge mountains once. We wanted to go back, especially to the mountains but didn't before we left. In Philly there was a whole bunch more stuff we wanted to do before we left.

We decided we had better do the stuff we want to do right away and not wait for the perfect time. On Fri we left for San Ann and Corpus (as the local yokels there called them) and came home on Sunday. In San Antonio we went to the Alamo, and stayed on the Riverwalk. We walked up and down it - it was quite fun. Since we had a hotel right on the Riverwalk, we walked late at night and early the next morning.

On Sat we drove to Corpus Christi, went to Padres and Mustang Island (which is actually one long barrier island). We stayed on Mustang Island, which is where our neighbor recommended. These beaches are used in ways we haven't seen before - people could and did drive right onto the beach. You're also allowed to set up tents and camp, and have bonfires. Lots of people had their poles stuck into the sand and were fishing. We also saw lots of kayaks and fishing boats. The water is not pretty like Florida's water.

In NC, people go to the beach or the mountains. In New Jersey, people go to the shore and play in the water and walk along the boardwalks (we never got there). In Maine, people went to the beach but even in the hottest part of Aug the water is Cold, with a capital C. We were there in Oct on Halloween weekend and only dipped our toes in. The last morning we also woke up to a couple of inches on snow on our car and the ground (that was unusual).

It's interesting seeing what everyone calls the beach/shore, and how they use it. I wasn't surprised to see that Texas allows the most liberal use of their beaches.

If we go again, we will rent kayaks and kayak around in the shallow bays.