Camping on Laguna Madre

Looking across the lagoon at Padre Island

About midway between downtown Corpus Christi and Padre Island National Seashore, the two places we visited from here, twice each in 4 days. It was pretty windy during our time in Corpus Christi, with temps that broke 80 the 1st 3 days, and didn’t break 60 yesterday!

Visits to 1 new National Park Site:

• Padre Island National Seashore (#278), which protects sixty-six miles of wild coastline along the Gulf of Mexico, the narrow barrier island is home to one of the last intact coastal prairie habitats in the United States. Along the hypersaline Laguna Madre, unique tidal mud flats teem with life. Native Americans, Spanish explorers and cattle ranchers have walked along its shores. 
  
  At Malaquite Visitor Center, we learned about saving the Kemp Sea Turtle, what flora & fauna are on the island, and about all the “stuff” that can be found on the beach, including seed pods from Asia! Then we walked a few miles on Malaquite Beach. In the Grasslands, we walked the Grasslands Nature Trail, visited the Novillo Line Camp (last remaining structure from the Dunn Cattle Ranch operation), and a Freshwater Pond. We saw pelicans, crested caracaras, royal terns, turtles, white-tailed deer, jellyfish, evidence of the Texas pocket gopher and more.

And what did we see in Corpus Christi?

• USS Lexington Museum, a naval aviation museum on the USS Lexington (CV-16), a World War II-vintage Essex Class aircraft carrier, which set more records than any other Essex Class carrier in the history of naval aviation. The Japanese reported LEXINGTON sunk no less than four times! Yet, each time she returned to fight again, leading the propagandist Tokyo Rose to nickname her “The Blue Ghost.” Among other firsts, she was the first Foreign heavy fleet carrier to enter Tokyo Bay and the first Aircraft Carrier in US Naval history to have women stationed aboard as crew members (18 Aug. 1980). Aside from 5 “Tour Routes” to see the ship itself, there were SO MANY exhibits and movies (e.g. Pearl Harbor, the capture of U-boat 505), we couln’t see them all, even in 5¹/2 hours!
  
• Texas State Aquarium, which focuses on the species in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, with exhibits containing representatives of the area’s main marine ecosystems, with both sea and land creatures. In 2¹/2 hours we saw all the major exhibits and had time to just watch activity in a few of the displays, like the hermit crabs, dolphins, sharks, stingrays, and…Flamingos! First time either of us have seen them live and up close. My goodness, they are loud!

Heading on to South Padre Island

For more pictures, see (in-work) Adventure Album: Across South Texas

PREVIOUS Traveling Where Now? . . . . . NEXT Traveling Where Now?