Back from South Padre Island
- June 16, 2008
- 4 comments
Every year around this time, a bunch of friends and family head down to South Padre Island only a few miles from the Mexican border. I’ve been invited for the last couple of years, but never made it for various reasons, some good and some lame. It had been years since I had been to the beach or had any kind of vacation. Last year I really regretted not going, so I vowed I would go this year, and I’m very glad I did.
I had already made reservations a few weeks in advance and was chomping at the bit to get down there. It seemed like the day to leave for South Padre would never arrive, but it finally did. The night before we were to leave, I only got one hour of sleep which sucked. My cousin and her husband picked me up at 6 am Thursday morning (which for those who know me was probably the earliest I’ve been awake in a very, very long time). It took several hours to get down there since we stopped a few times to get gas or change my cousin’s newborn daughter’s diapers.
When we finally made it to the island, I rolled my window down so I could smell the ocean again. I love the smell of the ocean. I love the way it sounds, the ocean breeze, the seagulls flying around, the palm trees. There’s something about the ocean that is both calming and exciting for me. I’ll probably end up living on the coast one of these days. Anyway, back to the story…
We drove to our hotel and checked in. I thought I would splurge a little and got a “king suite” which supposedly had a jacuzzi in the room. I figured it was a jacuzzi bathtub, but when I asked the lady at the front desk if it was a real jacuzzi, she assured me it was the real deal. She was lying. It was a freaking jacuzzi tub! And to top it off, my A/C unit sounded like a drill-bit on metal. I had been in several other rooms, and all their A/Cs were nice and quiet. The front desk sent a repairman to my room, and he had the gall to tell me that all the A/Cs sounded like mine! When I practically laughed at him, he admitted they were having some problems with many of them and said he would replace mine with a brand new one within the hour.
Everyone was still settling into their rooms, but I was antsy to get into the water as soon as I could. Since I’ve seen beaches all over the world and lived in Hawaii for a few years, my cousins kept telling me not to expect much with South Padre, so I was expecting the worst. Thankfully it turned out to be quite nice. It’s easily the biggest beach I’ve been to at around 28 miles long. It stretched as far as the eye could see in both directions. The surf was small, but looked like you could still body surf.
I stripped down to my swimsuit and started running out into the water. Three steps in, my right leg fell into a knee-deep hole that had a jagged rock or something on the rim. I gouged the crap out of my shin, but was so excited to be at the beach I didn’t think to look to see what kind of damage was done. A few minutes later I noticed my shin was burning like a mother. When I finally checked it out, I realized I was bleeding and had a four inch wide scrape on my shin. 28 miles of coastline and I find the hole with a sharp rock in it within my first few steps!
Friday we went to another part of the beach further south and rented some surf boards. I was able to get up on the board a couple times, but slipped off after a few seconds. We stayed out there for several hours swimming, surfing and lounging around. When we made it back to the hotel, one of my cousins pointed out the back of my hands which were nearly lobster red. In my haste to get out in the water, I had neglected to put sunscreen on the back of my hands and it showed. By that evening, they were quite painful and were swelling a bit.
Several of us stayed up until midnight hanging out on the sun patio. I had been out in the sun that day longer than I had in many years, so by midnight I was drained and ready to go to bed. All that day, my eyes had been fine, just a little dry-feeling. When I laid down to sleep, my eyes itched, burned and watered for a good hour and a half before they finally calmed down and I could go to sleep. The salt water and sun did a number on them, so I made it a point to buy some sunglasses the next day.
Saturday I practically bathed in sunscreen, but only went to the water’s edge a couple times. If the sun even touched my hands for a second, they burned like hell. I stayed in the shade all day, but still enjoyed myself. That night a bunch of us sat outside our rooms, snacked, drank beer and talked past midnight. We left for Austin early Sunday, stopping several times along the way to eat and stretch.
We’re already thinking about next year’s accommodations, and will be trying to rent a home or a couple condos. And hopefully by that time I’ll have a girlfriend to share the experience with. It was great to be with friends and family, but it would’ve been that much better with a girlfriend or wife.
It was a great trip, but nowhere near long enough for me to unwind and fully relax from work. I found myself dreading Monday and the work that would be coming with it. I’ve been burned out on work for a long, long time now, but that’s for a different post.
Chris
June 20, 2008
Russ
June 20, 2008
Say “hi” to Missy and your mom for us. A while back, we had made plans to be near Dallas just after Memorial Day weekend to see some of Sharon’s family. Then we wanted to swing through Lockesburg on the way home, and see everyone there. Sharon wound up starting a new kick-ass job, and my grandmother died while I was talking to her, so things ended up being a blur for a while, and the furthest we went anywhere, was the cemetery.
obed
Balancing all things out, it sounds like you had a good time, overall.
The one and only time I was ever at South Padre Island, was Labor Day weekend, back in 1983. We didn’t have any hotel problems, since we stayed at my friend’s parent’s house in a tiny village somewhere in the Rio Grande Valley. It was my first trip to the ocean ever, and the only injuries we received, were from thinking we could walk across the 400 degree sand in our bare feet.
It was an enjoyable trip overall, and I ended up meeting my future wife, only days after we returned back to Austin. Can history repeat itself?