Briefly ...

Mr. Jones and I stayed overnight at a Holiday Inn on Padres Island. I'm in the lobby using their computer because we are unable to connect to the internet from our room ... so I can't show you any pictures yet.

I had searched for "affordable" hotels with beach access while at home in Grand Rapids and came up with this one. I agree with the reviews I read about it. It's right on the same order as the Flagship was on Galveston Island ... old, and definitely in need of renovation. But having said that, the location is pretty nice. Miles and miles and accessible beach. I took a really long walk last night to see what I could see, and I guess I just ended up missing Galveston Island! The tide was up last night, so I had to walk right in the water to get any decent pictures. There is a lot of debris on the beach and I didn't want that in any of my pictures. What kind of debris? Well ... lots and lots of seaweed and assorted trash from horrid folk who don't dispose of it properly! Once you get past that, it's very pretty. I took some pictures of stranded jelly-fish (uck!) and some other weird stuff as well ... but can't post those yet ...

I saw a pier way in the distance and since there wasn't anything else to walk to, I went there hoping to walk to the end of it and get some decent pictures that way. However, once I reached it, it was inaccessible ... closed ... with a high fence to prevent any wayward folk from climbing over and up. It was really a beautiful pier too, except there was no lighthouse at the end of it.

I was back on the beach at 6:15 a.m. hoping to get some decent pictures of the sunrise; and I think I did. It's difficult to make a good composition at this location, though. The tide was farther out, but what it left behind was pretty unsightly. I took a lot of pictures of the sun coming up through the clouds and perhaps got one or two that were really beautiful. The birds were amazing this morning too.

The best part, though, was the sound! The wind has been quite gusty and the waves have been awesome. I could listen to them forever ...

We're going to head further south for awhile this morning and see if we can walk through any of the parts of this island that are known for it's wonderful wildlife. We'll have to see. Mr. Jones seems awfully intent on going back across the causeway to Corpus Christi in search of trains ... (!)