We’ll we’re back. Our vacation was wonderful & we can’t thank Aunt Janna & Uncle Eddie enough for letting us use the condo. I can’t even begin to explain how much better this trip was than the last time we went. Even after the first night it was a million times better. We had a few issues as can be expected when traveling with 2 & 4 year olds, but nothing major & loved our vacation. We ended up staying an extra day & it’s our longest vacation since we went to Cayman Brac for the wedding. Here’s the link to all the pics that I put up on Picasa. Hope you enjoy.
South Padre 2009 Pics (I will be adding some more pics later today, but I have to get on the other computer since Erik took them & it won’t let me access them from the laptop at the moment)
Let’s see, what did we do? We got in on Wednesday afternoon. That night we just unloaded & then went to dinner at Padre Island Brewery. We actually got there during happy hour & got to refill our growlers at almost 1/2 price. Erik was more than a little excited. They still didn’t have my Raspberry Wheat. I guess they only have it during July & I got lucky the one time that they had it in August. After dinner, Daddy & Ethan went to walk on the beach (we needed to get Ethan accustomed to it as quickly as possible) & Evan & I went over to Port Isabel to grab some groceries. That was about it for the night. We all just relaxed & enjoyed being out of the car. The boys both slept incredibly well & Erik & I were able to sit outside on the balcony & just enjoy being alone for a little while.
On Thursday, we got up & went to lunch at Daddy’s. It was our first time there & it was wonderful. After lunch, we went down to the Sea Turtle rescue. I remembered driving by there when we were down previously & wanted to make sure that we went during the week so that it wasn’t crowded. It was fun. The boys enjoyed looking at all the turtles. After that we went back to the condo so that the boys could nap before going to the beach. When we went down to the beach it was so nice. Since it was late in the afternoon, it was nice & breezy & just wonderful. We all had a great time. After we were all cleaned up we went to dinner at Tom & Jerry’s. Erik & I had gotten take out from there previously & weren’t too worried. The service this time was completely awful. We won’t be going in there again. Take out in a fix, but that’s about it and with so many other options on the island, it just isn’t worth it.
I can’t really remember much about Friday. I’m pretty sure that’s the day that we all ended up taking LONG naps after lunch & just relaxed in the condo for the most part. I know that we had lunch at Dirty Al’s which was awesome & ended up having dinner at Daddy’s again after everything else had closed. We were trying to get the boys to watch the fireworks from the front area of the condos before we went to dinner, but Ethan was a little scared of them. I’m not sure why since we used to do fireworks at Erik’s parent’s house for the 4th & New Year’s, but I guess it’s just been long enough that he’s forgotten.
On Saturday we had lunch at Lost Galleon in Port Isabel. All you can eat shrimp for less than $12! Erik & I had way too much, but it was wonderful. However, we’re both convinced that the shrimp at Dirty Al’s was the best. Anyway back on track… after lunch (& naps) we went back to the beach at the condo. Ethan said that he wanted to go in the water with daddy, but changed his mind after got close. However, because it was low tide there was a pretty big puddle & the boys & I played & splashed around in there for quite a while before we went back to playing in the sand. We had a great time. We didn’t do anything special that night. The boys had fun playing around with daddy while I went to Port Isabel to take back our movie. While I was out, we found out that we were going to be able to stay another day & didn’t have to leave the next morning. YEAH!!!!
On Sunday after lunch (we just had DQ – nothing special, we’d had more than enough seafood at that point… never thought that was possible after being landlocked for the last 8 years) we went to the Nature Trail that’s by the convention center. We had lots of fun looking at all the birds & Evan loved running around out there. Ethan got a little scared when we got to the end & were out over the water, but all in all it was a good time for all of us & a good spot to just let the kids run since there weren’t many people out there. After that, we headed to the north end of the the island where the dunes are. We found a wonderful spot to get shells (once you got past all the trash) & the boys enjoyed it out there as well. We just had to keep an extra close eye out since people can drive on this part of the beach & they tend to drive like they’re on the highway. Erik & Ethan ended up going out there again after Ethan’s nap since Evan was still down. Sunday night… wow. We thought that we would head over to Port Isabel to go to the store & get some crab legs & Erik was going to cook. BAD IDEA #1 We aren’t sure what caused it but traffic was completely backed up like crazy. It wasn’t moving really at all. We ended up taking a back road to go to Shell World so that Erik could look for some big shells (& then couldn’t decide) & then the same way to get back to the condo. The boys ate in for dinner & headed to bed & we planned on Erik heading out later to the store alone, however when traffic was still backed up at 10pm I resorted to Whataburger. BAD IDEA #2 I’m assuming this is partially because a lot of other restaurants on the island had already closed & partially because so many people had come onto the island to start their vacations on Sunday (it had been pretty quiet up until Saturday) but Whataburger was jam packed. The drive thru didn’t look too bad (I’ve sat in longer car length lines at home) so I was hopeful. It was awful! By the time I got back to the condo I’d been gone for an hour! and it’s just a couple blocks away…. and this delay WASN’T caused by traffic. Craziness. Erik & I ate, had our nightly ritual of sitting on the balcony & relaxing before heading to bed.
On Monday morning, we just got up & packed & headed home. We got here about 4:30-4:45 so we unloaded the car & I headed to work. Luckily that only lasts a few hours.
Like I said before, we had a wonderful trip and we can’t wait to go back. When we were almost home yesterday, Ethan asked if we were going back to the condo, when we told him no that we were going home, he got upset & said No I just want to go back to the condo. It was really really cute & I couldn’t be happier that he enjoyed himself so much that he didn’t want to come home.
