Recharging on North Padre Island

 We reached the end of our journey south during the last week of February:  an Airbnb on North Padre Island.  We stayed for nine nights, and it suited our needs perfectly: one bedroom, a full kitchen, channel views, and a ten  minute walk to the beach.  

This was our second recent trip to the area.  The condo was only a five minute drive from the county park where we camped in 2019.  Julia and I spent our first time on Padre Island as a couple in 1983 when we were seniors in college on spring break.  We like the area a lot.  In fact, although we're not serious about moving from Wisconsin in the near term,  we even looked at some small condos for sale during this trip.  

There are definitely some things to consider:  hurricanes and hot summers.  But the cooling gulf breeze, and the fact that our building had survived since 1974 are things to think about also.   North Padre is  pretty close to heaven on the down-slope of a Wisconsin winter. 

This was the view from our balcony for morning coffee.

For happy hour and sunsets, we settled into the building's back deck, which was rarely used by the other residents.

We took full advantage of the kitchen, buying fresh fish several times from Paul's Seafood in Corpus Christi. We ate red snapper, redfish, and black drum.  On other other nights, we ate on the outdoor decks of area restaurants.  

Every morning at sunrise, we took long walks on the beach.  There wasn't always a sunrise, due to fog, but it was almost always warm enough to walk without a coat.

Through some good fortune and planning, we hit the travel window just right. We were the first ones in the Airbnb after the winter storm was over.  Today, I see that the spring break crowds have arrived.  There were very few people out and about during our trip, and we felt very comfortable spending almost all of our time outdoors.  

I'll probably have another couple of posts on our stay to touch on some of the other highlights.