Padre Island National Seashore

On December 21, 2009 we visited Padre National Seashore.

Padre Island National Seashore has over 60 miles of beach that is open to driving and camping. There is also a campground located in the park but there is no hookups. The Visitors Center has an informative display on life at the seashore. The Park Rangers were very helpful. One Ranger even let the children borrow his binoculars to view the dolphins off shore.

After a picnic lunch, we headed for the sand.

This is Melissa, Katie and Joshua's first time to see the ocean.

All the children enjoyed jumping the waves in the Gulf of Mexico, playing in the sand, and looking for shells.

Katie found a piece of driftwood in the sand. It reminded her of Grandma Skelton's exercise pole. (When we were visiting Grandma she taught Katie some exercises. Grandma you would be proud to know that Katie does them often even at the beach.)

While we were walking on the beach, we found a Jellyfish. There are a lot of Jellyfish on Padre Island.

We picked up lots of seashells as we walked.  Part of our school today was to identify the shells we found. We discovered that we found a Southern quahog, a Giant Atlantic cockle, a Saw-toothed pen shell, a Florida sand dollar, a Scotch bonnet, a Disc dosinia, an Angel wing, a Banded tulip, an Incongruous Ark, a Common Atlantic baby's ear, a Lettered olive, and a Lightning whelk

As we walked back to our car, no one was ready to leave the beach.

Everyone is is looking forward to the day when we can dig our toes in the sand and smell the salt air of the ocean.  Our visit to Padre Island National Seashore will linger with us for a long time.