11th Day of Texas vacation - Spent the day at Padre Island National Seashore

 Padre Island National Seashore - Beach Drive

Took off about 1pm to drive south to Padre Island Seashore.  Planned to check & the Visitor's Center & decide how best to enjoy the Seashore.  97% humidity today, but only 82* & very windy.  Not a lot of folks around.  The Visitor's Center is under construction, so we didn't spend a lot of time there.  Chatted with the sweet young red headed/bearded Park Ranger & photoed from the overlooks.

The Ranger suggested we drive along the beach.  The first 5 miles are even okay for 2 wheel drive he said, so that was safe enough.  He said since we were in a Jeep, we could continue on for 60 miles if we'd like, but we were on our own if we got stuck.  There was a very high tide at 11am and the low was at midnight, so we'd be safe as far as that goes.  Just stay between the water & the dunes was his advice.  I told George that he was in charge & we could drive as far as he was comfortable.  We were heading south and the water was on the driver's side, so I took picture through the windshield & across George's face!  Saw lots of shore birds of course.  They were obviously used to vehicles, because we got quite close to them.  My Merlin app wasn't working since we had no internet, but I made notes of what we saw & got pictures when I could.  Not a lot of folks out, a few camping, a few fishing.  

 We made it almost 9 miles!  The sand was actually packed pretty hard.  We actually could have comfortably driven further, but it was becoming monotonous.  The only reason we really would have liked to go further was because we were hoping to see a Kemp's Ridley Turtle.  They come up on the beach here to nest & some have already been reported.  They are about 2' long.  If you see one, you are supposed to report it & the rangers come to collect the eggs & incubate them.  They are released in June.  They have done a great job over the years of bringing them back from near extinction.   But we didn't see any unfortunately.

The drive back was better for me because I was on the water side!  Constant waves & the breeze was nice flowing through the car!

We made a short stop at a bird blind.  Not much out there.  About 5 very large brown birds on the tall grasses that I couldn't identify and a pair of ducks that were too far away to id also.

One more stop to take the .75 mile Grasslands hike.  Saw a lovely Baltimore Oriole & lots of lizards, butterflies, wildflowers.  It was HOT!!

Home & after having grilled steak, brocolli, yellow squash & a salad, we took a nice 3 mile beach walk!  Tomorrow we might take the time to go to Port Aransas National Wildlife Reserve.  We'll see!