Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Day 4 Texas Vacation Xmas 2008

Today is Tuesday December 23 2008

Dec 23

Welcome to South Padre Island Texas.

5098 Welcome to South Padre Island Texas

We slept in a bit this morning, we are on vacation. Got up and went down to the lobby for breakfast. We are staying at The Ramada Inn and breakfast is included every day. This hotel has a nice assortment of items for breakfast, but I would say that the fresh made waffles are the main attraction. We have been at other hotels and not many offer waffles, but those that do, you had to cook them yourself. Here the manager cooks them for you. I like that better than figuring out how to cook them myself.

After breakfast we went out to explore the island from one end to the other. Our hotel is located about in the middle, so we headed north to see how far the road went. Past the last hotel, the road continues for another mile or two till it dead ends. There are several beach access areas, but other than that there is just the road and the sand. We had to stop to take a picture of this sign.

5065 Watch for Sand Drifts South Padre Island Texas 5066 Watch for Sand Drifts South Padre Island Texas 5068 Sand Drifts on Padre Blvd South Padre Island Texas

Being from Ontario, we have seen many signs warning of drifting snow, but this was my first experience of being warned about drifting sand.

We parked at the dead end and got out to take a walk around. We found a hay bale partially buried in the sand. I believe they set these here to help prevent beach sand erosion.

5078 South Padre Island Texas 5082 Sand and Ocean South Padre Island Texas 5080 Hay Bale on Beach South Padre Island Texas

There are some big sand dunes, and even some horseback riders.

5072 Sand Dunes South Padre Island Texas 5070 Horses on Beach South Padre Island Texas 5073 Sand Dunes South Padre Island Texas

We notice that there are a lot of sea shells scattered everywhere. We will come back and search for some good ones another day.

5081 Sea Shells in Sand South Padre Island Texas

We then headed back South, past our hotel and we wound up at the South Padre Island Visitor Center where we spent some time chatting with the agent on duty and picking up brochures of things we would like to see and do. There was a really neat sand sculpture inside the Visitor Center

5083 Visitor Center Sand Sculpture South Padre Island Texas 5088 Visitor Center Sand Sculpture South Padre Island Texas 5091 Visitor Center South Padre Island Texas

At the Visitors Center, I found this post card and thought it was appropriate considering what we have left behind us in Ontario.

5101 Fishing and Snowblowing South Padre Island Texas

We went to Denny’s for lunch and then crossed over the causeway back to the mainland to go to Wal-Mart and buy some groceries and other items that we will need for our stay.

We had dinner at The Texas Moon Restaurant where we enjoyed a very tasty steak dinner.

To see all of our photos from today, you can click on the link to my FLICKR site.

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