Spring Break this year was another weird year because of Covid.. and so because I knew Texas' stance in general, I opted to remain in the Lone Star State this year. But I still wanted to explore a place I hadn't really seen before.. so I decided on Corpus Christi. It's a place I had been to as a kid and had driven through a couple of times on my way to different locations, but I didn't have any real memories of what the town is like. Plus, it's on the coast and that just sounded really nice... so winner winner chicken dinner! I had my Spring Break destination.
I left town on a Sunday morning that happened to be during a weekend that my mama was on her own little girls trip in Fredericksburg. And since it was on my route to Corpus Christi, of course I had to make a surprise visit! I knew where they were staying and drove up looking for a familiar car so I'd know which little cottage they were in and could knock on their door. Except that plan failed because there were no familiar cars anywhere to be found. So I called my mom and casually tried to find out where she was, and she gave me the name of a restaurant. Ok, plan B... I'll just surprise them at the restaurant instead. Off I went. Except the restaurant that she told me was closed. So I call again.. "Mother, where are you?" She gives me the same restaurant name. "Lies, mother.. lies. Where are you?" She insists she is at the same place. And that's where the surprise just went completely out the window. How can you surprise someone who insists on telling you a web of lies regarding their location?? "Mother... literally, I am at this restaurant and you are not. So again I ask, where are you?" Her: "Oh yeah we went somewhere else since that place was closed! I forgot! Are you really here?!"
It all worked out and I met them at the restaurant that they were actually eating at and then followed them back to their little cottage inn for a glass of wine, good conversation, and a few laughs before getting back on the road to Corpus. It was lovely little detour that I'm so glad I got to make.
Oh, and yes, I am aware that it was Spring Break, Fredericksburg, but thanks for the reminder! Perhaps this was for the people who didn't know it was Spring Break and wondered why it was such a busy, crowded week in town? I don't know, I digress...
It was dark before I made it to Corpus Christi, so there wasn't much that happened that night outside of me calling it a night and getting to bed. My hotel room was directly on the water on the second floor, so I was able to leave my balcony door open and fall asleep listening to the waves of the ocean. It was the absolute best. And the next morning, I woke up to this gorgeous sunrise. Does it get any better?
After I had my cup of coffee (or two, or three) on the balcony, but before I explored the town, I explored the hotel a bit. There was an indoor pool, which was cool, but I never swam in it... because I spent all of my water time on the beach. Duh.
There was also a hot tub. With no water. Because Covid. Which I still don't understand, but whatever. I digress.
The arcade/game area was also closed because of Covid. How the rules are made for what is ok and what is not ok during Covid will just never make sense to me.
The hotel advertised this really cool outdoor bar area, which was one of the selling points for me. Turns out, it was also closed. Not because of Covid this time though.. the hotel was under construction and this was part of that. Still.. I wanted my mojito on the beach and was denied! Not cool, people, not cool.
Once I got over my devastation about all of the things that were closed at my place of stay, I decided to walk the beach some. I had not even considered that this trip was after the Swowvid freeze that shut down all of Texas just a few weeks prior. So when I stumbled upon sea animal carcasses that had died during the freeze, I was taken by surprise. First it was just fish.. and then it was a bigger fish. It was just all so gross and sad at the same time.
But then I saw this sea turtle and thought it was so cool! Until I got closer and realized that it too was dead. There were about a dozen dead sea turtles along that part of the beach. Ugh. A crew eventually came and cleaned up what had washed up on shore, but I can't ever un-see any of it. So sad.
Ok, time to take a stroll into town and see what else Corpus Christi had to offer. It was a lovely walk with good views along the way.
Every few hundred feet or so apart, there are these little white gazebo things with historical markers about the town inside of them...
Except in this gazebo... there was no history to be read about here...
Good to know that if I had been on bike, I could have done some maintenance here.
When I first saw these chairs, I thought "That's neat, but what if you're sitting on the water side and fall into the water? And how do you even get your bottom to the water side of the chair without falling in?!"
"Oh, there are steps on the water side. I guess people knew what they were doing after all."
You can't really see from the picture because I didn't want to be obvious about taking a picture, but this dude fishing in the background made it a point to stop me and ask me about my inquisitive facial expressions and what sort of adventure I was on today. Apparently my face talks more than my mouth sometimes. Super nice guy though. I wished him luck on his fishing endeavors.
About a mile into my walk, I came across a Selena tribute area. The bricked ground was signed by different visitors and I thought I should add my name. Except I didn't have a Sharpie with me. I did have a Sharpie back in my car though. So I made the trek back towards my hotel and car and grabbed the Sharpie so I could go back to the tribute and add my name. Before I headed back out though, I thought it would also be a good chance to get a run in. So I also traded in my flip-flops for my running shoes and got a run in on the way back. I added my name to the montage of visitors and then got another run in back to the hotel. I rewarded my exercise ambitions while on vacation with some more beach time. I think I earned it.
Korben would have really liked this entrance to a nearby gift shop. No penguin entries were sighted for Logan though.
I had dinner at a place called Pier 99. The menu posted outside had a catch of the day listed and I was anxious to eat some fresh fish.. so winner! It was really busy though and I was told it would be an hour wait unless I wanted to sit at the outdoor bar. So of course I sat at the bar. And there was live music happening, so winner again! Then I ordered a mojito and was told they didn't have any mint, so no mojito for me. No worries.. all I really cared about was that catch of the day.. let me go ahead and order that. Oh, I'm only allowed to order appetizers at the bar? Cool. So no mojitos OR fresh fish. Dang. So I ate my appetizer and drank my drink and tried to just enjoy the music. But the sun was going down and it was getting cold. Better just head back to the hotel. I did get to see the harbor bridge lit up, which kind of cool.
When I got back to my hotel room, I enjoyed the fun luxury of completing some homework while on Spring Break. Again, thanks to Covid. Some colleges, including mine, only gave students two days off during Spring Break this year to deter us from gathering in large crowds and taking the virus back to campus. Since I'm an online student, it didn't affect me quite as bad and I was able to take my computer with me and get done what I needed to. Still a Spring Break first for me and not one that I particularly enjoyed. But oh well.. thankful to have even been on a Spring Break trip at all.
The next day, I spent some time exploring a nearby park. It was really nice and made me wish that the kiddos were with me.
Look to my right... nope, no water over there...
Look to my left... nope, still no water... am I even sure I'm really on an island?
Turns out, I was actually on an island and I finally turned in towards the beach once I made it to Port A. I could have turned in towards the beach a while back and driven on the actual beach... I had no idea. It was a completely different atmosphere here than it was at Corpus since it was a beach to drive on. So many more people, most of whom were camping on the beach. I parked and explored a bit, but I still preferred the bluer waters back at Corpus.
It was an extremely windy week, so perfect weather for all of the kite flyers.
And that was the end of the trip, thanks for reading! Ok, it wasn't the end of the trip, but it was the end of the solo part of the trip. Yes, I broke my own Spring Break rules for a second year in a row and didn't do the entire thing solo style. I had some company the second half. This company and I went out to dinner that night and checked the times for high tide and low tide because said company suggested we take a day trip to the Padre Island National Seashore where the rumor was that we would see all sorts of neat seashells.
So the next day, that's exactly where we headed...
And of course along Texas coasts you would see a crowd of people riding horses. What else would you expect?
We talked about getting on this boat but never did. I'm not sure why...
Again, there were people camping on the beach everywhere here. And everyone had a different way of doing said camping. It was kind of neat to see all the different set-ups that people had. We took some notes for future reference in case we ever attempt to be professionals like some of the folks we saw.
The focal point of this dude's set-up is that ginormous light. We saw it turned on later and that thing lit up the entire beach. Kind of cool, but also kind of obnoxious and over the top.. especially to those camping in close proximity who may not have appreciated their own campsite glowing all night long. But I digress..
And then.. more dead animals. There was a dead stingray on this beach, but the hardest one to see was this dead dolphin. Sorry if it's hard to see, but it was a part of the trip and I don't want to forget it, hard as it may be. What we did not see, were any amazing seashells like the rumors had said. Sigh.
We had debated on whose vehicle to take along the beach and it turns out, we probably should have taken mine since homie's truck ended up stuck in the sand... while we were 25+ miles down the island... fairly close to when high tide was coming in. Thankfully, a saint named James was as far down the beach as we were and pulled us out pretty quickly. But not before we made a trek to find some insanely heavy driftwood to carry back to the truck to use as a ramp getting out of the sand. Oh well... I needed some exercise anyway.
Oh, yeah... side note.. yes, my company was a boy. And yes, he is someone I am currently dating. I know, I know, "but you don't date, Cassi!" Well, I guess I do now. But also, no, I did not jump back into the online dating world. His name is Eric and I know him from my high school days. He was a soccer player when I was an athletic trainer and he was also my date to winter formal my junior year... as friends. We never dated back then, but have obviously since reconnected and are now trying the dating thing. He hasn't been a secret to anyone in my everyday life, but I haven't made a big deal about it on the interwebs because it has been my experience that all relationships eventually end -and I just don't want to have to deal with the awkwardness of explaining an inevitable future breakup to social media world. But whatever, I always document all of these little trips of mine, so here we are. Now you know. Sorry the only picture I have of him from this trip is the back of his head.
But also, I don't want to undermine the fact that I was glad to have him along for the trip. While I don't know how long this thing will last, I am enjoying it while it does. Ok, now leave me alone about my love life! Back to the actual documentation of the trip..
Eric knows how much I love crawfish, so once we departed the beach, we headed pretty far north to Rockport where rumor had it that there was a spot for some good mudbugs. I'm happy to report that those rumors were true. Those bugs were good-sized and nice and spicy. Also, according to this new boy in my life, I have a mudbug "game-face" that appears whenever I consume those tasty little guys. I mean, it is pretty serious business... what can I say? Also, don't mind the beach hair..
The next day, we decided to try the beach camping thing. So after jumping into the freezing ocean water at the hotel just to say we did, we spent most of the remainder of the day running around for supplies before ending up at a restaurant called Docs to get some grub. Still no mojitos available thanks to an apparent mint shortage, BUT... I was finally able to get some fresh fish! Seems like an insanely difficult task for being on the coast, but regardless, I was happy!
It was dark before we actually made it back to the beach and it was soooo windy and cold! Seriously, I was pretty miserable. Not at all what I had envisioned in my head! But Eric made a fire and that helped. I think I stayed no more than one inch away from that thing the rest of the night. We thought it would be fun to to just camp out in the back of Eric's truck for the night. Except did I mention it was cold and windy? Yeah. Another fail. Not a great night's sleep that night. We tried the camping thing one more night (because we are masochists I guess) but were smarter about it the second go round and slept INSIDE my car. Maybe next time we'll do it right like the cool kids with all of the professional gear. Nonetheless, the days at the beach were much better. We saw hermit crabs, made more fire, and we even got in the water that was much too cold for my liking... but you know... when in Rome! And waking up to those sunrises each morning along with the sounds of the ocean... unbeatable. So all in all, I'd call the trip a success.
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