Port Aransas

Port Aransas, Texas, is an interesting place.  Situated on Mustang Island, an 18-mile long barrier island along the Gulf, it appears to cater mostly to tourists and fishermen.  The main road into town crosses a major shipping channel, using at least five ferry boats that cross the channel all hours of the day and night.  Rush-hour here takes on a new meaning when the ferries are backed up.  When we crossed yesterday, the ferry had to wait for a large freighter to pass and then dove out into the water so close to the stern of the freighter that I thought we were going to hit it.  These guys have a schedule to keep!

The shipping channel here is one of the deepest along the Gulf Coast.  This allows some pretty big stuff to pass through here.  Two years ago, we watched an entire oil platform being floated through the channel and out to sea.  This thing dwarfed everything else.  I know this is a repeated picture but it was just such a thing.

One thing that is in great abundance here is condominiums.  It seems like whole cities of them.  Most of them are situated right behind the dune that runs along the beach, with little access paths coming over the dune.  The dune is high enough where most of the city and the condos are hidden from the beach.  So it gives a feeling that you are not next to these massive developments.

There are also many very large RV parks in town.  And they are all full.  I’m a little surprised that I don’t see more of these RVs just camping out on the beach but I suppose they need their hookups.  On the beach, you are on your own.  No power, no water, nada.

The beach area gets busier during the day when all the day-trippers come.  From sitting out in lawn chairs to having several lines in the water, they are all here enjoying the day.  When the sun goes down, they all disappear. Then it’s just the overnighters and the surf.

Another thing in abundance is golf carts.  They are probably more numerous than cars here.  All those condos and RV parks use golf carts to get around.  They are all over the place in town and on the beach.  So we hear them putt-putting by frequently until later on in the evening and then everything goes quiet.

And some people outfit their golf carts with very loud music.  Kind of like a boom box on wheels.  A favorite thing for them is to drive up and down the beach road blasting sone unknown but raucous music.

Fortunately, there aren’t many of these.  But they are memorable.

It was a delightful night for sleep last night.  The tidal symphony and the cool breeze, delicious.

We woke up this morning to dense fog.  Probably 100 feet visibility and that’s it.  The fog made everything feel cool and clammy and it hung around off and on until about 11am.  Even then there was still a haze on the horizon and things weren’t very clear.   I probably won’t get any sunrise pictures like I did two years ago.

We took a long walk on the beach in this fog.  Since we were on a sandy beach, I decided to forego the shoes.  Bare feet on a sandy beach on a warm day in February, what could be better?  And the sand felt great.  Three miles later, it was not so great.  My feet were exfoliated a bit too much and were starting to hurt.  I wore shoes for the rest of the day.

We took a bike ride for five miles down the beach.  And discovered that the tide was coming in near the end of that five miles.  So the ribbon of firm sand was getting rather narrow.  We left the beach and  came back along the highway, not wanting to ride back in loose sand.  

In town we stopped at the Marine Science Institute of the University of Texas.  They have some exhibits here about the marine life in this area.  This is listed as one of the 8 wonders of Port-A so we have now checked it off our list.  This is located right by the shipping channel so we walked there and watched the dolphins for a while.  We also saw a sea turtle come to the surface a few times and then sink out of sight.  It's the first time we've seen a sea turtle in the wild.

Eventually the mundane will catch up to you and this mundane presented itself by us not having any more clean socks.  Which meant the laundry was due.  The only game in town appears to be Wacky Willies, but it was a clean laundromat and we redeemed the time by having dinner in the parking lot while the laundry was in process.

Now we’re back on the beach, it’s dark, all the windows are open, and the breeze feels delicious.  We’ll have our nightly ice cream in a bit, and then go to bed and listen to the surf. Today’s ice cream: Raspberry Truffle from H-E-B.