South Padre Island

This weekend we went to South Padre Island in Texas. We had so much fun that we decided to stay another night. Instead of leaving Sunday at noon, we left Monday at 5:30 am. It was nice to have the extra day on the island. Michael and I drove with Mark and Robin - two Innotec employees who are down in Mexico for a couple weeks. We followed Paul and Tamera with their four children, Steve and Rebecca and their four children, and Joel and Kari Smith with their three children. Joel and Kari spent the weekend with us on the island, then headed back to Michigan after spending a year in Mexico. We'll miss them!

We had a nice condo on the beach with a great view. We spent a lot of time on the balcony. We also spent time grilling out, laying on the beach, looking for seashells, shopping, climbing dunes, soaking in the hot tub, boogie boarding, feeding sea turtles, and watching people kite board - it's a popular sport on the island because it's usually windy. Paul, Steve, and Mark all have kite boards and we watched them - along with many other people - participate in the sport.

View of our hotel, Aquarius, from the beach. Our room was on the 9th floor - way at the top!

Beautiful view of the ocean from our balcony. One morning we saw dolphins jumping in the waves.

Still on our balcony - looking toward the bay.

Setting up the kites for a cruise down the calm waters in the bay.

You are allowed to drive your vehicles right up to the water.

We visited a sea turtle rescue center on Sunday. A lot of turtles are rehabilitated then released back into the ocean.

This turtle is missing one of its front fins.

This turtle was missing three of its appendages. The rescue center developed a prosthetic so the turtle could swim on its own.

We got to feed a large sea turtle lettuce. He thought he could get it through the glass!

Our caravan of vehicles drives on several miles of beach until we find a secluded area to grill out and have a bonfire.

View from the top of the dunes. We could see the bay on one side and the ocean on the other - along with miles and miles of undeveloped beach.

The kids do a little dune jumping.

Warming up around the bonfire.

Beautiful South Padre Island sunset.