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The red tide was so bad when Mike checked the beach this morning that we decided to head to one of our other non-beach activities. We drove off the island over to Port Isabel to go and visit the Sea Life Center. We basically had the place to ourselves, so the girls got a lot of attention and at closing time, Nadia even got to lead a tortoise back to his pen for the night. It was basically the highlight of the trip for her. The girls also got to hold hermit crabs and a starfish, plus they all fed the tortoise.

We had a really nice time and learned about the animals at the rescue center. The woman who runs it gave our girls a bag of very cool shells when we left which I thought was so sweet.

After the Sea Life Center we went next door for ice cream at this cute little place. We also bought salt water taffy and had a nice chat with the woman who owns the place. She suggested that we go across the street to her friends little shop called “Art Sea Gallery” and it was so cute! Mike bought the girls souvenirs and bought me the neatest stained glass light up sea turtle for my birthday.

We had a lot of fun wandering around Port Isabel taking photos before heading back to the island for dinner.

The red tide wasn’t too bad when we woke up so we headed for the beach!

After lunch they needed to do some indoor stuff for a while.

Etch a Sketch by Amelie and Nadia

After dinner we told the girls they could go for a night swim and suddenly we became the coolest parents ever 😉

The annual sand castle competition was happening when we were in South Padre so we headed out to see the entries one day. It is absolutely amazing and artists come from all over the world to this event and their work is so cool! Here are some of our favorites.

 

 

We realized pretty quickly that Red Tide was going to be so unpredictable and that we would have to have back up plans besides the pool. Lots of people were wearing surgical masks or bandannas just to breathe. The island was mostly empty since it was the first week of October, but the weather was nice and most places were still open. Monday was a bad day for the beach, so we headed down to the pool to start the day. Fortunately the pool was in the middle of the buildings and so it kept the breeze off of the ocean away from our sensitive lungs.

Preparing for the day with sunscreen.

After the pool we had lunch in the condo and then told the girls that we were going to go on a sunset Dolphin watching cruise. They weren’t totally sure what that meant, but they were excited because I was excited!

In the Captains chair

The girls LOVED being on the boat and everyone screamed with delight when we saw the first dolphins swimming around the boat. It was fun to go all around the bay and even out into the ocean for a little while. Then we watched the sun go down and they took us back to the dock. It was a really fun time! We had so many amazing photos that I thought I would include the link to our flickr page for anyone who is interested.

https://flic.kr/s/aHsktK6yHw