Old Dog, New Tricks

** Disclaimer: The term "old dog" does not refer to any person, real or ficticious, it merely references the destination. Also, no animals were hurt in the making of this blog. Well, maybe some crabs, shrimp and a few bugs... **

The world travelers have returned! This time around we went to South Padre Island with Lauren's family. Now, you have to understand, we have been going to SPI every summer for nearly 27 years. This was not our first rodeo...
So we thought.
If you have not had the joy of experiencing your own children, let me be the first to tell you that nothing, and I mean nothing will ever be the same after their arrival. All those things you think you've got down pat. All those "little ways" of yours. Well, just throw them out the window when your first little one comes along. It's not a bad thing, not in any way. I'm just sayin'...
I have been to SPI with my family many, many times. I KNOW the island. I have done EVERYthing there is to do there. I have eaten at all the restaraunts many times. So how on earth is it that this time it was like a whole new place?!?!

To begin with we stayed in a beautiful house on the beach instead of the usual condo at the Sunchase IV. Thank you sooooo much Bates family for recommending it- it was really wonderful! This house was awesome! It was huge and very nicely furnished. It had 4 bedrooms so everyone could spread out and have their own space (even Ashley... she slept in the laundry room!!! hehe). It had a wonderful back deck that overlooked the ocean and the beach was just over the first small dune. It doesn't get much better than that! Plus, since we weren't on the condo end of the island, the beach was much less crowded which gave us plenty of room to spread out and lots of sand for my nephews and my sister to build their sandcastles. (If you haven't seen one of these, they are not your average sandcastles. They truly are works of art!

Speaking of the beach and the sand, it was great! I have grown up on these beaches and while I really don't like the ocean much, there is something very comforting about being down there. Ashley loved it too! She loved crawling all over the place and chasing A & Z around. She even saw a dog one day that was down there and spent about 15 minutes following the dog around! Of course, if you were wondering, yes, she did eat the sand... lots of it! Although, by the end of the week she had realized that it didn't taste too good, so she had pretty much stopped thank goodness. She also loved being in the water. She would giggle nervously as the waves crashed into her legs and would laugh as Marc or I helped her to "jump" the big ones. I think that she is definitely a little water baby and will only love it more as she grows.

Funny thing though, we didn't get to go down to the beach too much though. After 27 years, our luck finally ran out. It rained on us about 4 out of the 7 days we were there! In all the years that we had been coming, we could only remember about two days it had ever rained before! Oh well, it was still very very relaxing! So what do you do when it rains at the beach? You do puzzles (two of them! A first for our family), read books (The Undomestic Goddess- hilarious!), play cards (Gin and Phase 10) and eat!! :)

Rest assured, we ate very well. That is not to say that we don't when we are down there. We have our favorite rest. and we go out each night and stuff ourselves. Well, we changed it up a little this time. With Ashley with us, going out to dinner and staying out late was out of the question every night. So we ordered in half the time which was great. We also tried two new rest. (to me) that were really yummy! Marcello's Italian and I think the other one's called Fat Al's. If you ever go down there I reccommend them highly! Also, and this was a real treat for my family, we happened to have the best breakfast chef this side of the Mississippi in the family. That's right, Marc cooks the best darn breakfast I have ever had! He made his famous pancake breakfast one morning and we had breakfast burritos another morning. Yum!! He also introduced my dad to Ro-tel queso dip. Dad was in heaven! Good eatin, I tell ya'! (and that would be why there are no pictures of me in a swimsuit!)

We didn't just go to the beach and eat though. That was the OLD Padre- this is the NEW and improved Padre! Thanks to my sister and nephews for winning 6 passes at a sandcastle building contest last fall (yes, you read that right!), we were able to go to something that has been on the island for probably the last 10 years, but we had never even thought to visit. There is a Schlitterbahn water park there. (like the one in New Braunsfels) We had never been because, honestly, who wants to pay to go to a water park when you are at the beach?!?! But, you know what, it was really fun! They have a giant lazy river (not so lazy considering it has rapids and waterfalls!) that all of the rides shoot off of and flow back into. So, you never have to leave the river to get on a ride. It is the greatest idea for water parks!

Everyone but mom and I were also able to go deep sea fishing one day. They all had a great time and just about everyone caught something. We were even able to take the fish to a rest. that night and have them cook it up for the fam. (not me though, I do NOT do seafood! It was a week of chicken for me. :) )

All in all it was a great week at the beach. The car ride there and back was a whole other story, but I know that will improve as Ashley gets older. (and can watch movies in the car! ;) ) The cherry on top of the whole trip though was being able to stop in Corpus Christie on the way home to have lunch with our old neighbor, and dear friend Monica! We LOVED seeing her and her parents and getting to meet her wonderful boyfriend Kevin. While we miss her like crazy here, Marc and I are so glad that she is living a wonderful life in CC. Hugs MoMo! :)

We can't wait to drive that way again next summer!