Day Two

The next morning we had a great breakfast along with a Texas shaped waffle! I had hoped to check out a thing or two in Victoria, Texas but we were in a hurry to be on our way to our next destination- so we packed up and headed out.

After about 4 hours later we arrived at Port Isabel -

Although the closest that we could find a hotel that was one that we could stay at and earn points- we ended up staying on South Padre Island

On our first day there we checked out several cool places.

 

At the Convention Centre there is what is called the Whaling Wall" -where there are 3 walls with these great murals painted on them. They are 23 feet in height. The visitors booklet says that it took 111 gallons of paint and 100 volunteers nearly 4 days to complete.

 

Right off to the side of the Convention Centre is a nature trail - which draws a lot of awesome birds- which in turn draws bird watchers- that is why we knew there was something over there - because we saw a whole LOT of people with lots of BIG, cool cameras.

There were a couple of board walks which take you over some marshes and even out over a part of the ocean.

As we watched we saw some awesome things - like a crab scurrying about. We saw a male and female bass spawning down in a circle- it was awesome to be able to be above and look down and see them. Probably would not have ever got to see that event if not.  

 

My husband actually found an alligator- he was about 2 1/2 feet long. J started making a clicking sound and the alligator actually came over closer to where we were.

  

I saw the cutest lizard. I wish I had have made a video of him to share with you all- but I did not think of it till later. Anyway he would stand up and then blow the skin on his neck out - it was an orange/pink color. Then he would lower himself back down closer to the tree- and repeated that. It was cute!

  (so I have some photos that I wanted to add in here - for each of these things but it turns out that they are on my laptop and I will have to add them later - so be sure and check back to see photos)

 

Next we went to the Visitors Center. We found what is called the largest outdoor sandcastle in the USA. 

And this is just one side of sandcastles- Hopefully my husband got some more photos and if so I will share more on another post. But this gives you an idea.

There was actually a guy working on one of the sandcastles while we were there.

 

Oh and this is the sandcastle that was inside:  

What is really cool about the outdoor sand castles is that we got a very heavy rain - along with hail and strong wind - and we drove by the next day and the castles didn't get damaged as much as I thought they would!

 

Now no trip would be complete with out an oops moment, and we had ours. While we were visiting the visitor center and we were about to go- my husband and I put our pamplets into the car and then my husband said something about going to get a better photo of the castle that the man had been working on. Well I didn't realize it but he had thrown his keys to the car onto the drivers seat - so I could start the car. I didn't realize that and I locked the car and shut the door....oops.....

The good thing is - a real blessing from God - is that my husband had rolled his window down about 1 1/2 inches or so. And that a lady in the visitor center actually had a wire hanger- so my husband d was able to use the hanger to get the keys and pull them out. Disaster avoided! Of course, the rest of the trip - we would ask the other one if they had the keys before we locked the doors. Lesson learned, thankfully it was an easy lesson to learn.

 

Next we went to the beach. 

 

 

 So when we were planning our trip and we were looking at places to eat on SPI - We noticed a place called Senor Donkey. It looked cool and we wanted to try it out. And then I was watching a House Hunters show or Island Living show and they had one about SPI and they actually showed a scene of the people talking at Senor Donkey - or as it's also knows - "The Big Donkey"

 

They had very good food! In fact - I don't think I have ever had as good of Spanish rice as what they served- it had carrots, corn and bell peppers. Yummy! I am looking for a great recipe so if any of you out there have a great Spanish rice recipe - please share! Pretty Please :)

 

Oh we did end up with another "disaster" or close to it on this trip - come back for "Day Three - Kind Of" to read about it.