from the Mermaid House
Just returned 2 weeks ago from our second annual family vacation to Port Aransas, on the Texas coast.
It was a great trip with about 18 of us — cousins and spouses with kids, uncle and girlfriend, Mom, sister and her husband and their kids. We rented two houses that were side by side last year but this year a new house had been built on the empty lot in between.
Those of us that arrived early enough, went to the beach that evening. I
Splish splash
was out boogie boarding with some of the kids (wearing my protective water shoes mind you) and all of a sudden something poked me really hard on the side of my foot. Oh my gosh the pain was immediately intense. I motioned for my sister, who was still on shore to come out and help me. We got to the shore and I sat down and my foot, right above my shoe!! was bleeding slightly but already puffy! Was it a jellyfish everyone asked. I said no; I’d been stung before and this felt very different. Was it a sting ray was the second guess. I didn’t think so. Of course the water being not the clearest didn’t help because I didn’t see what had struck me. But at the moment I was cursing all sea creatures!
Anyway, I kind of hobbled around the rest of the evening, icing my foot off and on. By the time I went to bed that night it was throbbing! I finally took some ibuprofen (don’t know why that didn’t occur to me earlier). The next morning it was a little bit stiff and puffy but not painful, so I went about my business of vacationing.
Nick’s 1st double catch
The day we all loaded up in several vehicles and made the half hour trek to the Padre Island National Seashore to swim and fish. We heard the was the location where the National Park Service releases Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle hatchlings several times a year and decided we would come back to witness that. We stayed at the beach several hours then made our way back to our beach houses for a little out-of-the-sun rest.
Later in the evening we went back out to the local beach and Nick
Park Ranger with baby
decided he wanted to take part in the fishing. Members of his family had tried to get him to fish in the past, but he always thought it boring. This time though he must have been enticed at the large amounts of fish being caught by my uncle, my cousins and others. Bam! His first cast, he caught two fish! And then he caught singles and then bam! Again he snagged another double!
Kayaking
Early Saturday morning, we roused ourselves in time to get back to the National Seashore and watch the sea turtles being released. It was really cool and I’m glad the kids and adults) got to watch it. We decided since we were already at the beach, we might as well stay and play even though it was only like 8 am. Never too early to go to the beach. For whatever reason though, the water at the Nat Seashore was several degrees cooler than the other beach we swam at. Didn’t even phase the kids, or the adults for that matter. The water also seemed clearer and cleaner. My cousin, her husban and their son are big on kayaking so they brought their kayaks with them. My cousin’s husband took my niece out for a short paddle out to deeper waters and they managed to not tip over luckily.
We ate, we drank, we made merry and we’re already counting the days until next year’s KBYLMP (Krause, Benites, Yeats, Loftis, McDonald and Pinson) Family Vacation!
Just Back From... 