Corpus Christi, Goose Island and Amistad NRA

Tues Feb 14, 2023 - Happy Valentine's Day! We had eggs and sausage for breakfast, a workout on the beach and then drove 30 minutes to Corpus Christi for lunch and a bike ride.

Nice view for our workout

We drove to North Beach to look around and walked by the USS Lexington, an aircraft carrier museum. We've visited the USS Entrepid in NYC so we just read about the Lexington.  During WWII it participated in nearly every major operation in the Pacific and spent 21 months in combat.  The planes from the Lexington destroyed 372 enemy aircraft in the air and 475 on the ground.

I've been swallowed by a shark

Lunch at Pier 99 with a view of the Lexington

Kev was happy with his fish sandwich

After lunch we drove downtown for a bike ride on the Corpus Christi Bay Trail (we did about 7 miles round trip)

It was a beautiful ride along the water

a break at Corpus Christi beach

Corpus Christi marina

Wed Feb 15 to Thurs Feb 16 - We had originally planned a few days in Brownsville/South Padre Island, but the weather didn't look great, so we decided to save that for our next trip trip to Texas (we'll skip the extra 6 hours of driving) and stick around the Corpus Christi area.  We booked two nights at Goose Island State Park, which was an hour from Mustang Island.

The foggy view Wednesday morning at our Mustang Island campsite...everyone wanted to sit in the same bush!

A foggy walk on the beach

The Port Aransas Ferry across the pass (quick and easy and free)

We rode our bikes all over the Goose Island SP.  There were campsites in the woods and on the beach.  It's going to be windy for the next few days so we opted for the woods, but enjoyed a ride out to the bay

The bridge to Goose Island

The state park has a HUGE fishing pier and it was a nice walk out to the end

After our ride around the park, we decided to ride out to the "Big Tree".  This was a really nice 5 mile round trip bike ride. This Live Oak tree is estimated to be over 1000 years old and to have lived through 40 to 50 major hurricanes, including Hurricane Harvey in 2017, a category 4 hurricane.

a few of the big branches are being held up by metal supports

I loved this tree in the dead center of the intersection of 4 roads.  It does have a reflector on it, so that helps.

the wind is BLOWING

Thursday morning we went for a nice hike through the park

this beautiful tree is across from our campsite

Campsite 145

Thursday we drove into the town of Rockport and had lunch with a view of the bay

Rockport has lots of nice shops and galleries.  Who doesn't love a fish bench.

The town was fairly empty, and we enjoyed a few hours exploring

We spent an hour in the Rockport Art Center, which had a few exhibits that we enjoyed

 as well as a nice view of the town from above

Greetings from Rockport!

Fri Feb 17 to Sat Feb 18, 2023 - It was a 5 hour drive to Del Rio, where we decided to stay 2 nights at Amistad National Recreation Area.  The campsites here were only $3/night with our new lifetime, Senior National Park Pass.  We will do some hiking here, stock up on groceries and do laundry before we go into Big Bend for a week.  I don't think there are many services in Big Bend, and nothing very close to Big Bend, so we'll go in prepared. We stopped at the Amistad NRA visitors' center to find some hikes and look at their exhibits. Close by is the Seminole Canyon State Park which I'd like to visit the next time we're in the area.  There are some really interesting pictographs in the SP (which you can only see with a guided tour).  They are painted on the walls of caves in the park and are thought to be thousands of years old.

Our campsite at Amistad with Kev enjoying the sun (although it's a bit chilly today, a high of 67)

a walk around the campground

pretty sky (and cute van)

and a beautiful sunset

Sunrise Saturday morning was almost as good as last night's sunset

Amistad Reservoir

we're in prickly pear territory

nice 2 mile hike in Amistad NRA

a gray cloudy day

San Antonio and Mustang Island

 Wednesday February 8 to Saturday February 11 - It was an hour and a half drive from Austin to San Antonio.  We're staying 4 nights at Guadalupe River State Park,which is about 50 minutes north of downtown San Antonio.  On Thursday morning we headed into San Antonio and we enjoyed exploring the Alamo and the River Walk.  We couldn't believe how big the River Walk was, There were lots of restaurants and shops and it seemed to be quite crowded even though it was a weekday afternoon.  Friday and Saturday were spent running errands (laundry and groceries) and hiking and biking around the park.  

The church at the Alamo (Mission San Antonio de Valero)

Lunch on a bench

The iconic view of the Alamo

The River Walk from above

We found a quiet garden (with a pretty mural) for our daily crossword

Then more walking the River (lots of tourist boats on the river)

Interesting tunnels

and bridges

red velvet ice cream (and a mariachi band walking by?)

Tower of the Americas behind the sculpture.  The tower was built for the World's Fair in 1968

We stopped at the Buckhorn before heading home

quite the interesting spot for a beer

This deer had 78 points!

A beautiful night to cook outside.  We had unstuffed peppers

We walked down the hill from our campsite to watch the sunset over the hill and river

somebody has really thin blood

Our campsite at Guadalupe River SP

A hike down to the Guadalupe River

It seems like this area was hit even harder than Austin by the ice storm.  A lot of the hiking trails were closed due to downed branches

Sunday February 12 to Monday February 13 - Sunday we stopped at the San Antonio Mission National Historic Park on our way to Corpus Christi.  There are 5 Spanish missions all within 10 miles of each other and they are linked by the river walk.  You can go from the Alamo all the way to Mission Espada by bike. When we found this out we decided to get the bikes off the back of the van and use the bike trail to visit one of the missions.  It was a 3.5 mile ride from Mission San Juan to Mission San Jose.  The National Park Service has done a nice job with the sites and we learned a lot about the missions which are found all through Texas (and we've seen them in California as well).  The missions were a protected area to live, and the Spaniards of the missions taught the Native Americans how to live sedentary lives, taught them to be "civilized", and taught them about Christianity.  In Corpus Christie we're staying 3 nights at Mustang Island State Park, and will see what we can find to do in the area.   

Mission Espada (I loved the pretty door frame).  Each of the 3 missions we visited on Sunday were having Sunday mass.  The missions are maintained by the NP service and the churches are run by the Catholic church

Lots of interesting structures at the missions

Mission San Juan (this church wasn't as pretty as the other two, it had been a storage building at one point)

bike ride along the San Antonio River (still part of River Walk this far south of San Antonio)

Mission San Jose, the dome here is being reconstructed

the church at Mission San Jose

lunch along the river on our bike ride back to Mission San Juan

It was a 2.5 hour drive from Mission San Juan to Corpus Christi.  Looks like we're getting close to the gulf.

Our site at Mustang Island State Park.  Just over the sand dune behind Kev is the gulf.

Nachos while watching the Super Bowl

It was a beautiful sunrise our first morning at Mustang Island SP

We took our bikes to Port Aransas (15 minutes from our campground)

We took a 6 mile round trip bike ride down the Port Aransas beach

Then lunch with a view of the pier

We then rode our bikes into the town of Port Aransas.  Someone didn't want to walk up the steps in the observation tower

We were hoping to watch a tanker come through here, but all we saw were the ferries going back and forth

We rode our bikes to the Leonabelle Birding Center.  You know we can't pass up cut-outs.

We enjoyed the boardwalks at the birding center

and we were happy to see our first alligator!  He's a little hard to see, but he's there!

lots of birds (plovers and pelicans)

bench with a view

It got cloudy while we were gone.  Down the road from where we parked for the day, there is free camping on the beach. We will definitely try this next time we visit. (And free means you need a $12 beach parking permit-but it's a permit for the year!)

There is a woman in Port Aransas who has made all of these covers.  As we rode our bikes by, there was a woman who was brushing each of them off.  She said she is part of a group that keeps them clean.