Back at Padre!

Yesterday morning, after talking to Celia, who manages Marisol, we decided to pack up and head back to the island. I know I planned to show you pictures of the aftermath of Hurricane Alex, but there really aren't any. Lots of palm frons (?) blown around and I saw one shingle as we moved back in, but other than that not a lot of damage here. Certainly not enough to live up the hype that those crazy weather reporters on the Weather Channel made it sound like! The first (& only!) casualty of Hurricane Alex were Scott's Krispy Kreme donuts that the wind blew out of the car when we opened the back to unload in the Marisol parking lot!! He was crushed. The biggest changes were on the beach. After moving all our stuff up the three flights of stairs a second time, Scott and the kids headed down to check out the beach. Tons of washed up seaweed. Looks like the water came in almost to the gate that leads from the condos to the beach. This morning they had big bulldozers and maintainers clearing all the seaweed off the beach. As the mayor said, they don't really like to do that because the seaweed is good for preventing erosion, but it's not very tourist friendly!

The kids read the last blog and couldn't believe I didn't mention the hotel pool. When Scott realized we were going to have to go inland for a day or two he found a Hampton Inn with an indoor pool so that the kids could still swim. I have to say....it was the fanciest Hampton Inn hotel pool I've ever seen. It had fountains all the way around the pool and some Greek/Roman fountain/scupture monstrosity that the kids found just fabulous for jumping off of! It was like they wanted a Hearst Castle pool right there in the Corpus Christi Hampton Inn.Needless to say the kids thought it was great and we spent a good deal of time swimming in it both nights we were there.

I am so glad things worked out and we were able to come back to Marisol. After 8 years coming to the same place, it's begun to feel like home in a way. More so than Christmas or birthdays, I find this trip every year is a milestone, or a marker if you will. I think the holidays and birthdays are so busy that I don't have much time to reflect on the past year, but here there is nothing but time and the relaxing sound of the ocean to lull me in to talking a look back a the year since our last visit. My cousin Patty posted a picture on Facebook this week of our second summer here....

Thomas was 5 and Grace was 3!! Tomorrow Thomas will be 11 years old. Wow. Our kids have grown up coming here and even though I'm sure there are better, fancier places to stay or go on a week's vacation to the beach, this place will forever hold fond memories for them. They don't care about fancy accomodations and amenities, but that we spent a week every year playing with them in the sand, splashing in the waves, hunting crabs and sea shells. And, I'm sure when they are grown that Scott and I will remember the same things...minus hauling up all our stuff 3 flights of stairs and greasing everyone from head to toe in sunscreen over and over and over again!

Kendall...The first time I put on the bathing suit Mandy is wearing in the above picture I mentioned that it was yours that you had outgrown. Now she wants to wear it every day and tells all of us over and over again that it was yours!

This is the first year we've been here for Thomas' birthday and he has a list of things he'd like to do tomorrow! First on his list is to check out the parasailing! They weren't out today, probably because it is still too windy, but he has his fingers crossed for tomorrow. Then, he'd like crab claws at Pier 19 for dinner. And, of course, as always there will be fireworks on his birthday!

Beach blessings,

Leslie