Guadalupe River State Park – Spring Branch, Texas – Part 1 – Trip to Corpus Christi

The next few posts will be another big photo dump of our adventures. For those who are unaware, I lived in the town of Edna, Texas from the ages of 7-13. I was very excited to stay at Guadalupe River State Park because we were so close to San Antonio. San Antonio was one of my favorite places to visit as a kid and I haven’t been there since moving to back to the Sioux Falls area. Colton also wanted to venture down to Corpus Christi and take the kids to the Gulf of Mexico. Corpus Christi was another city my family visited frequently when I was a kid, so I was excited for all the nostalgia.

Before we went to Corpus Christi we watched the movie Midway, because I wanted to take the kids to the USS Lexington Museum. The museum is an actual WWII- vintage Essex class aircraft carrier and we wanted the kids to have some knowledge and appreciation of what that meant before we toured the ship. We all enjoyed the museum and also discovered that scenes from the movie Pearl Harbor were filmed there and the F-14 Tomcat featured in the original Top Gun was aboard. There was also some very interesting information on the U.S.S. South Dakota, coined Battleship ‘X’. If you ever have some free time, look up Battleship X from WWII.

The USS Lexington was not only interesting but we all learned something new. I did have the opportunity to board the USS Lexington as a kid, but I don’t remember much and many things have changed since then. I do remember seeing the USS Lexington when we would drive to Corpus Christi though. That was the beginning of my day of nostalgia. After we left the USS Lexington, we took a quick walk down the beach where Colton found some jellyfish swimming near shore. That was the first time the kids had seen jellyfish in the wild and they were thrilled. Don’t worry, they didn’t go anywhere near them. After that, we went down the street to a restaurant I frequented as a kid called Blackbeard’s. I immediately sent pictures to my siblings and we reminisced over fond memories. Food was fabulous and our service was great. I am so happy we found the restaurant and I was able to bring my husband and kids to share in some of my childhood memories.

After lunch, I wanted to take Colton and the kids to experience the ferry ride to Mustang Island off the coast so we headed to Aransas Pass. To board the ferry you actually drive your vehicle on to the boat, something that Colton had never experienced before and gave him a little bit of anxiety, but once on board he thought it was pretty cool. We got to park right up front which gave us an awesome view of the dolphins swimming with the ferry. Lylah was the only one not impressed because she wanted it to last longer.

After we exited the ferry we drove to the beach and let the kids explore. They immediately went on a hunt for seashells and sand dollars. We spent hours at the beach searching for seashells and splashing around in the Gulf of Mexico. While we were walking the coastline, Colton came across a live, beached pufferfish. He wanted to get it back in the water but didn’t want to pick it up because we didn’t know if it would be dangerous to handle. So Colton rolled the fish with his foot toward the water and tried to push the fish into the water but the waves kept bringing the fish back to shore. Colton then slid his foot (he was wearing shoes) under the pufferfish and launched the fish into the air, which caused the fish to puff up. When the slightly puffed up pufferfish landed it actually sat on top of the water briefly before it deflated, sank beneath the surface and swam away. It was a sight to see and a memory I’ll never forget. I laughed so hard watching this fish puff up as it was launched into the air. Colton felt a sense of accomplishment for rescuing a stranded fish.

We had a wonderful day trip to Corpus Christi, made so many memories, and I had the opportunity to reminisce on my childhood. I couldn’t ask for a more perfect day.