Before we took a break in December, we spent some time exploring the beaches along the coast in Texas. We started off in Sea Rim State Park, just across the border from Louisiana. This park is a gem, however to get to it, you do have to drive through a whole lot of oil refineries, which can be a little off putting. The park itself seems small, but it actually more than 4000 acres and consists of 5.2 miles of coastline! There is a board walk (closed the day we were there) that takes you on a walk through the marshes where you can view the many birds that live in this area. They tell you to be careful of alligators, so you are well advised to stay on the designated paths! When we arrived, we purchased a Texas Park Pass, which would give us access to all of the parks we planned on visiting while in this very big state as well as a discount on the camping – well worth the money if you plan on being in Texas for a few months. Camping here can be either in the designated campground or right on the beach. We chose the beach for the first night and it was delightful! There is just nothing like sleeping right next to the sound of waves coming in at night. The only thing you need to be careful of is to park above the high tide mark (duh!). We enjoyed exploring the beach while here and will have to return to take advantage of the board walk. There is also an extensive canal that you can paddle through – another adventure to be had! All in all, this is a lovely park, and well worth the drive to get here.

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As we further drove along the coast, we encountered a fierce cold front. It had arrived on our last night at Sea Rim and we went from wearing shorts and t-shirts one day to full on winter clothing the next – ah, Texas winters! Best be prepared if you come down here! We spent a couple of cold days in the town of Galveston, which looks like a great place to be in warmer weather – big beaches, a pier with rides and an old downtown full of interesting shops to explore. Since it was freezing, we spent little time outside, but did enjoy checking out the old downtown area and having a nice hot lunch there.

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We moved on along the coast, briefly stopping at North Padre Island (not in the park) before heading to South Padre. We were staying with our good friends, Danny and Kristina in Brownsville for a night and then headed off to check out South Padre. Brownsville has a very cool vibe and we very much enjoyed our short visit there. South Padre was interesting in that the sand dunes are slowly taking over the road. We drove to the end (well, as far as the dunes would let us) before getting to to explore. Here, outside of the national park, Jim could fly the drone, so he was excited. We climbed up and over many dunes, walking along the beach and enjoying the sunny day. However, the current of the Gulf has washed up a lot of plastic on this beach, which made for some interesting pictures, but left us feeling pretty sad about it. The camping options here were not great, so we headed down off the island to Boca Chica beach, just past where Space X has a test sight! It was cool to see what was going on there. Turns out that the following week during a test, the top blew off of one of the prototype starships we had seen! Oops!

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From South Padre, we headed back up to North Padre and the national park there. Using my lifetime Senior Park Pass, we were able to camp on the beach for a minimal fee. The beach here is good to drive on for several miles in any vehicle, so there were lots of motorhomes and van campers out there, but since it is a pretty big beach, we were able to spread out. It was a perfect spot for us to just sit and relax and soak up some sunshine for a few days. This beach is much cleaner than South Padre and it is a much more quiet atmosphere as well. People do drive further down the beach in their 4 wheel drive vehicles to fish and camp, but the traffic is pretty minimal. We plopped our red chairs down in the sand and spent our time just watching the waves and sea birds. What a great way to relax!! If you ever get the chance to explore the beaches of Texas, make sure you take the time to stop here!

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