Video Clips from the Corpus Christi Trip

Padre and Mustang Island

Making forts in the car!

We took a trip in August to the Texas coast and spent a week in a condo on Mustang and Padre Islands. Above are pictures of the travel portion of our trip - 10 hours in a car with 4 kids (13 hours including stops) and... wait for it..... NO ELECTRONICS! (The trip back took 15 hours because we went sightseeing thought Houston). Dare to resist the DVD player! Chuck that DSi! The kids did really well. As we entered the coast area, refineries (in the picture right above) began appearing. Gave me a spooky feeling, for some reason. The coast was developed Texas style - that is with a complete disregard for basic city planning, making the cities ugly, to be frank. But the kids loved the palm trees and there were pockets that were delightful. And the beaches were heavenly! Below are some pictures of the condo we stayed in. It had a sort of 80s beach decor that the kids didn't seem to mind.

Julia slept in the closet!

The kid room.

Master bedroom.

Outside of the condo we had direct access to the water. The kids fished from the dock using shrimp and bait and Isak caught many fish. he let them all go.

First dip in the ocean, ever!

Port Aransas beach.

 The pool at our complex.
We swam every nigh after we got back from the beach.

 Detta är en affär. Vi köpte varsin t-shirt till alla familjemedlemmarna här inne. 3 för $10!

 We decided to have a picnic dinner on the beach one day.

 The kids loved it, but we soon learned that we must have distinguished ourselves as tourists big time. 

We soon gathered a substantial fan club:

 Oodles of completely unafraid seagulls gathered near us. We chased them away (even Julia growled at clapped her hands as she raced after them), but they returned within 30 seconds. So we ate and then packed up the food and put it in the car. That seemed to do the trick.
Everyone parked their cars on the beach, as you can see in this picture above.

 Our condo complex had a club house by the pool. We did our homework here because there was on internet connection in the condo, only here. They had a fort for the kids to play in, too.

 This is Corpus Christi.

 Ferry ride from Port Aransas.

 Flat and endless coastal area...

 This is Isak and Elina petting sea creatures in the Textas State Aquarium.

 The sting rays were SO tame and SO fun! 

They kept splashing and playing with the kids.

Because school had started the week we were there, we virtually alone in the Aquariaum.

It was awesome!

 See? No other people! It was like we rented it for ourselves for the day!

 The USS Lexington.

 One of the many bridges we drove over to get around the area.

 They had a classroom in the Aquarium too.

 Map of the area. "Our" beach was Port Aransas.

Like I said, the cities were ugly to me, but I confess I have NEVER been to beaches as nice as this in my life.

And I have been to quite a few. 

They had smooth, packed sand, very shallow and endless... The water was clear.

I am so glad the kids had these beaches as their first experience with the ocean.

 The dolphin show went on even though the crowd was minimal.

 Beach houses in Port Aransas.

 We spent every sunset at the beach.

 The name of one of the ferries!

The Houston, Texas LDS Temple!