I woke up to an amazing sunrise. I had the presence of mind to lean out of the door and take a few pictures. There’s always a half dozen or more tanker ships lounging around out there, so they show up in the picture also. They look like little cities at night, with all their lights on.
After breakfast, which included one of those super delicious Texas grapefruits, we took a long walk on the beach and then headed out for the day’s adventures. First order of the day, check out the pickleball courts to see if we can play a few rounds.
In contrast, our site is right on the beach, with the back window facing the water. The sunrises and moonrises over the water are fantastic. The nearest neighbor is perhaps 50 yards away. I would imagine that is different during Spring Break, but for now, the beach camping is nearly deserted. We don’t have any hookups so we have to rely on five solar panels to supply all of our power. We have to make 35 gallons of water stretch for several days. But the price is right. For the cost of a beach parking permit, at twelve dollars, we’ve been camped out here for five nights. It’s super quiet, except for the sound of the surf and an occasional golf cart driving by. We’ll be sorry to leave this place.
I suppose when you stay longer than a few days, you will eventually need hookups. And the beach parking is limited to a few days every three weeks. Which some people get around by simply moving to a different location on the beach every few days. People that stay at the RV parks are not really transients like us, but more like Winter Texans (yes, that’s a thing) who spend several weeks or even months here. The Winter Texans are probably the ones plugging up the pickleball courts (many of them seem to know each other), and they probably participate in the local activities, such as the belt sander races, put on every other Saturday by a local bar.
We soon figured out we got there at low tide. Which made most of the paddling trails inaccessible. So we paddled along the channels on either side of the Redfish Bay Causeway. The day was super calm so the water was like glass. Except when a boat roared by. Then we bobbed around in the wake for a bit.
One unexpected treat we had were the dolphins. They were frolicking around in the channel, sometimes quite close to us. We could hear them breathe when they surfaced. I tried to take a picture a couple times but really didn’t get a great shot.
One small channel we paddled into was very popular with fishermen. And I could see why. As we paddled along, we startled large schools of fish which would churn the water around our kayaks, making the water appear to be boiling. The fishermen would drop their line in the water and have an almost immediate hit. We saw some beautiful fish being pulled from the water.
Even in this smaller channel, the dolphins surfaced near our kayaks. They probably were enjoying the fishing also.
The description of the paddling trail warned about getting lost, especially at low tide. When I looked at this area from the air, that became apparent also, as this whole area is a maze of waterways, many of them becoming mud paths at low tide. We had to turn around several times because of shallow water. A few fishermen in an airboat simply plowed right through it.
We spent 3 1/2 hours on the water. Even without doing the paddling trails, it was a fun paddle.
We drove back to the pickleball courts and found several were empty. So we played several games with just the two of us.
Now we’re back on the beach at Port Aransas, probably our last night here. We’ll be moving on tomorrow.
We saw a bunch of kites in the air on the beach and walked down there to take a look. It may have been a vendor selling his wares, but it was a rather cool display, even from far away.
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