Walking and Sightseeing the South Padre Island Area

A sandcastle at the Visitor's Center

Decorative garage doors!

Check out the 2" x 6" homemade scaffolding!

Oh Baby! It hurts! Might be too much jewelry

South Padre Island in the wintertime is a great place for us to do our daily exercise. The weather is warm and sunny most days, and there is a cool breeze usually blowing off the gulf which keeps it from getting too hot. And, there are well marked bicycle and walking lanes, as well as many sidewalks on most of the streets. The automobile traffic is relatively light during the weekdays, so we found ourselves exploring and running errands on foot. Twenty minutes to the post office, pharmacy, and cinema, and ten minutes to the grocery with variable times to the many restaurants and other landmarks. On a typical day we do calisthenics for about an hour and then go walking for 60-90 minutes. This generally brings us up to lunchtime, and while it may not sound very exciting, we enjoy getting out and seeing the sights on the island. We have enjoyed going to the movies at least once a week, and have sampled the fare at a couple of the restaurants. However, we've limited our restaurant outings because they really cripple our efforts to stay on our diets! We'll give them a shot after we've met a couple of our goals. While we've done well with our exercise and diets, we had a temporary setback with Jane's hands. Around Thanksgiving she developed "trigger finger" in thumb on one hand and the finger of another. With her fingers in an extended and lock position, she is limited in doing certain functions. Capt. Larry has been pressed in to service to button blouses, putting on and tying her shoes, and has taken over most kitchen activities that involve utilization of her fingers. We have tried 4 different families of NSAID's and immobilized the digits with splints. But these are stopgap measures and she will probably only benefit from corticosteroid injections or surgery which we won't get until we get back home.

Merry Christmas, a resident Atlantic Green

An informational display

Checking out the turtles

Gerry has an appetite!

A sea turtle nest

One of the attractions on the island is Sea Turtle, Inc. This is a sea turtle rescue facility that was started Ila Loetscher, "The Turtle Lady of South Padre Island" in 1977. Ila began her work rescuing turtles that washed up on the island shores and started a rescue hospital that was funded solely by private donations. She made appearances on the national talk shows and National Geographic Magazine, and became renowned around the world for her work. The center works to rehabilitate injured turtles for return to the wild, educate the public about endangered turtles and their marine environment, and assist in conservation programs that help sea turtle populations recover. They rehabilitate 40-100 turtles a year and draw over 80,000 visitors a year. We were impressed with their work during our visit. There are 12-15 tanks containing turtles that have suffered from predator (i.e. sharks) attacks, infections, cold stunning, bowl obstructions from balloons and plastic bags, parasites, boat strikes, and trauma from fishing equipment (e.g. nets, hooks, line, etc.). While the goal is to return the turtles to the wild, some have injuries severe enough that requires them to be resident turtles. On our visit we saw about 20 turtles, including Atlantic greens, Kemp-Ridleys, Loggerheads, a Hawksbill, but no Leatherbacks (too big!). All of the turtles were in various stages of rehabilitation and the facility had a wall of all of the turtles they have released over the past 20 years. It was really a cool place to visit (Jane liked the turtle clothing and animals in the gift shop!), and if you are ever in the area, drop by. You won't likely be disappointed. If you would like to learn more, follow this link Sea Turtle, Inc. 

Should have brought the Range Rover

Is that Lawrence of Arabia?

After we left the turtle hospital we decided to drive north to see how far we could get on Padre Island. Turns out it wasn't far. We drove about 5-6 miles north and noticed that the sand was starting to drift into our lane (windward side). Another mile or so and the road was drifted down to one lane, and about one-half mile after that we spotted a sign that said "Road Ends Ahead." No crap! We'd be doing a Sahara Desert cross country if the sand got any deeper. Since we were down to a narrow one lane, we were lucky to find a spot about a lane and a half wide in which we could turn around. We headed back and got out the road map, and sure enough, the map showed that the road ended and there was no way to go further north on Padre Island. So SPI is separate from Padre Island and not connected. Amazing how we would have known this if we were on Bavarian Cream. When we navigated her, we actually consulted the charts first!

Every Thursday new tourist newspapers come out that tell everyone what events are happening throughout the Rio Grande Valley. Winter Texans snatch these up so quickly that by Friday afternoon none can be found. Most of the events this time of year are aimed at the winter visitors. Jane found a "garage sale" that was being held by a SPI beach bar and grill, Louie's Backyard. Capt. Larry was along for the ride. We arrived and found two long lines. Winter Texans will wait in line for anything, but Capt. Larry told Jane to go to the front of the line to make sure we were in the right one. Turns out we were in the food line for $1 hot dogs served on flour tortillas. Winter Texans will wait for anything! We jumped over to the other line to get the merchandise. When we got there the pickings seemed slim. The items were all promotional and likely donated by the booze distributors throughout the year. Louie's then takes all of this and sells it for next to nothing to the winter visitors. Who couldn't be happy with a $1 tee shirts and hot dog? Anyway, Jane got 2 pairs of Malibu Rum flip flops at 50 cents per, and a handful of tee shirts that the guy threw into a bag because he was tired of counting, and said, "ten bucks." They had a guy singing karaoke who sounded pretty good, so we decided to have a beer and relax for a while. Jane started counting her shirts and was delighted to have purchased $14 worth for a Hamilton. We left during a rendition of "Mack the Knife" and returned to the condo to get ready to see the movie Argo, which we thoroughly enjoyed at the SPI Cinema.