Beach driving in our tour vehicle, Padre Island

Our job as mobile marketing tour managers has a number of perks. When we’re on a contract, we’re on-call 24/7, but when we have a day off, it’s always somewhere new. No matter where, or how tired we are, we try and make the most of these days by exploring whatever’s nearby.

A Day-Trip to Padre Island

Padre Island National Seashore

Having finished our events in and around Corpus Christi, TX. We spent some time lounging on the beach at the Padre Island National Seashore. The seashore is 65.5 miles of coastline, the longest in the country. As the tide came in, the body surfing definitely got better and we spent a long time in the water, riding the waves in to shore. In an attempt to take a different route home, we ended up driving about 8 miles on the beach on our way to Padre Balli Park, Bob Hall Pier and the highway. On our 4 wheeling adventure we encountered may fishermen and sunbathers, some of them clothed and at least one not! Once we got close to the pier there were lots of large groups on the beach having cookouts and playing horseshoes and other games.

After our long day at the beach we headed over to one of the local favorites Snoopy’s Pier. The restaurant is said to be “a product of the Redfish Wars, a battle over commercial fishing rights in the inland waterways and bay systems of Texas.” When the owner decided it was too difficult to keep catching fish legally, he came in and decided to start focusing on cooking them! A good seafood dinner was followed by dessert next door at the ice cream shop called Scoopy’s Veranda. We felt like kids again! Since it was so hot, it was impossible to eat the ice cream fast enough to keep it from making a total mess.

Laguna Madre

Needing stroll, we head to Laguna Madre, a boardwalk by the bay through a rare, hypersaline (saltier than the ocean) lagoon. The lagoon is home to many protected species, and even though you can’t tell by looking at it, it’s a very unique ecosystem. There are only about 6 known hypersaline bodies of water like this in the world! The first thing we came upon on our walk was a sign warning us to beware of alligators. You know what we were thinking: “Alligators? Yeah right! We’re not in Australia. How are there alligators at the beach?” We got to the end of the boardwalk where the alligators were supposed to be hanging out, but the only creatures we spotted were a few birds and a cool turtle. Then, out of the blue, we heard a lady clapping and calling “Pete.” It took a couple minutes before we realized she was calling the alligator. It turns out that Pete knows his own name and responds to clapping. He swam right over to us and got out of the water to show himself off in all of his glory. After a while, we left him to finish his afternoon nap.