Thanksgiving 2009: Part 2

Departing San Antonio, it was about a 2 and a half hour drive down to the coast, but after the long drive the day before it went pretty quick.  With a few pit stops along the way stocking up on food, we arrived at Padre Island National Seashore around 4:30pm.  Initially my plan for this trip was to spend Thursday in San Antonio then then Friday and Saturday on the coast, driving back to Alpine on Sunday, but after arriving at Padre Island though I ended up changing my plans. 

As I pulled up to the entrance station and showed the attendant my park pass, he noticed Tess in the back seat and informed me about how several Coyotes had recently died in the park and about 3 visitors dogs had also died, and that bringing a dog into the park would be putting them at risk, since they didn't know what was killing these other dogs.  Concerned I drove to the visitor center to inquire some more information, where I talked to a few people who thought it might have something to do with the recent red tide (an algae, that when in bloom causes respiratory problems in people and animals and kills a lot of fish) thinking that the dogs must have ate something that had died as a result and washed ashore.  I also talked to another visitor who was there with her dogs and she assured me that if I was really careful to make sure Tessa didn't eat anything she should be alright.  After that I decided to at least stay the night, but was watching Tess like a hawk, since being a puppy she has to put everything she finds in her mouth.  This aspect made what was supposed to be a couple of relaxing days at the beach really stressful and so I decided to leave Saturday afternoon.

But while there we drove down the beach and set up our camp on the edge of the sand dunes about 150 feet from the ocean.

From there we were able to see a beautiful Sunset, a rainbow and a sunrise.  After spending the evening walking on the beach, watching Tess chase birds, it was time to settle in the tent.   However while reading before sleep, I noticed that sand kept blowing in under the rain fly and through the screen creating a sand drift in my tent.  So I spent the next hour or so remedying that problem, first I found a few logs I could use to close the gap between the ground and bottom edge of the rain fly once I had that in place I had to pile sand around it to further seal the gap.  However in the meantime more sand had blown into tent so I then need to take it all apart, take everything out of the tent, unstake the tent, and then shake out all of the sand, Followed by putting everything back together.  But when I was finished I had a sand proof barrier in place and slept pretty good that night.

The following morning after a simple pop tart breakfast I just relaxed and enjoyed the sun and beach.  I tried to go swimming but after wading up to waist in water something slimmy brushed my foot and after seeing a bunch of jelly fish I chickened out.  Then about noon I packed everything up and we headed to Lake Amistad National Recreation area near Del Rio, TX to finish out the weekend.

Thanksgiving 2009!

Since I live so far from home, I was not able to make it there this thanksgiving, so I decided instead to tour Texas a little.  First on the itinerary was San Antonio, I had heard a lot about this city including how nice the river walk is, as well as how there is a ton of crime.  Well, the first aspect turned out to be true, and I was fortunate enough to not experience the second aspect, although I can still imagine it to be true.

So here are the details...

Thursday Morning I woke up later then I had planned thanks to the stupid local radio station that went off air, leaving my radio alarm high and dry, but I was thankful for the extra sleep anyways.  So that morning I packed everything up and departed a little late then planned, but it didn't really matter anyway.  After a long and boring 5 hour drive, with very few stops along the way, I arrived in San Antonio and checked into the hotel.  After settling into my room, I knew that Tessa was quick needing some exercise after the long drive and I was also, so I decided that we would go and check out the river walk.   Unfortunately though my hotel was in the outer suburbs of the city and so we had to get back into the car and drive downtown.  When we got there we really lucky to find a parking spot on the street for free, and were able to go on foot from there.  After a short walk we were at the river walk and found it to be pretty sweet.  Basically just a river that winds through the city and has sidewalks on either side with all sorts of different shops along it.  Although I can't say I'm one for shopping, I did find the area rather picturesque.

As cool as the river walk was, Tess was not prepared for it.  This being her first time in a city all the sights and sounds overwhelmed her a little bit, not to mention all the people, with whom she had to try and meet everyone of.  After a harrowing hour or so of walking around, I decided she had had enough and we got back in the car to head back to the hotel where I put Tess up in her crate, and I went out for a Thanksgiving feast.  Unfortunately it being Thanksgiving very few resteraunts were open, and I eventually settled on Denny's where I was able to get a dinner plate consisting of sliced turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and corn; everything you would expect a thanksgiving feast to consist of... and it was alright for Denny's.

The following morning after a usually crappy continental breakfast and checking out, I needed to run a few errands that I couldn't do in the small town of Alpine, including going to a bank, and getting my oil changed (in less then 30 min).   After that we headed back towards downtown, where this time we weren't so lucky in finding parking and ended paying to park in a garage where I left Tess in the car while I went exploring.  First off I went to the Alamo, which was kind of boring, it's really just an old building with a bunch of tourists.

After that I went and walked around the river walk some more and that really was about all I saw there.  I have to say San Antonio is a really nice city if it weren't for the homeless, I saw more homeless people there than I ever have in a city before.   Really it was hard to walk a single block without seeing at least half a dozen.

From there we were on the road again, this time with our sights on the ocean, Corpus Christi, well actually Padre Island National Seashore.

Stay tuned to read more...

Oh and all the photos from my trip can be viewed at my Picassa page linked here