Posts
If you are a Texan, then you know that the title of this post is a cry evoking spring break and a break from all of the intellectual and moral rigors associated with normal life. South Padre Island, down near the border with Mexico, represents, for many a college student, beach, booze, and all manner of excess.
Guess where we went for spring break. Padre!!
Well, North Padre Island. And the closest we got to college students was waving to their retired grandparents camping in RVs as we drove the first few miles of wild, undisturbed national seashore on the unpaved but drivable (we only got stuck once) sandy beach. We like retirees. We stayed with some marvelous ones--relatives of JB's--in Rockport, TX and took day trips to Aranzas National Wildlife refuge and North Padre. We had such a relaxing time full of good food and conversation, and (my favorite part) lots of extra hands to hold and play with Benjamin.
We saw lots of things. Like the largest live oak tree in Texas. JB and B are pictured at left climbing a large but not the largest live oak. Being there reminded me of visiting the Angel Tree in South Carolina with friends in college--the largest live oak in the south maybe? Not sure. But it was big and sprawling and beautiful. 
And we saw lots of gators basking in the sun at ANW. The one in the photo below is underwater and not visible from where the people are walking in the mid-ground. We didn't see the gator until we were standing where we took the picture. Yikes.
At some point during the trip, I innocently asked if JB was planning on eating any raw oysters while we were at the coast. He gave me a quizzical look and said, "That's the whole point of going on this trip." He knows of course, that I don't like oysters, but Benjamin and I humored him while he indulged. I did enjoy watching the oyster boats come in for the evening as I ate my cheeseburger. As I watched the fishermen in their bright yellow overalls unload the heavy burlap bags of oysters off of the boats as the sun was setting on the ocean behind them, I was overcome by a strange desire to like oysters. I'm not proud that I don't.
Benjamin seemed to enjoy beach to some extent. The crashing waves put him to sleep pretty quickly, but after a nap he seemed to enjoy the breeze and kicking on a towel in the sand. He left with sand in every crevice of his body, and the wind made it too cold to even dip his toes in the water.
As I type this, bringing a four month old to the beach doesn't actually sound like a whole lot of fun. But there's something about introducing him to new and interesting places that appeals to my imagination if not to the part of me that has to clean the sand out of his armpits (and his car seat) afterward.
