Port Aransas 2011

On the boat going to St. Jo Island

Beth and me at Bernie's Beach Bar

About to head to the beach


At the marina near the restaurant we ate at the first night




My brother and Beth

View of ocean from our balcony

Pool area looking down off our balcony

A view of the beach near our condo

The bay area coming in to Aransas Pass

Before school was out my mom really wanted to plan a trip to the beach over the summer, so we decided to try out Port A. My brother has been a few times and said that many people consider Port A to have the nicest beaches in TX, so we thought we'd try it out. I'm really glad we did, b/c we had tons of fun. Of course you don't get the beautiful white sand, or the crystal clear water, but you do get the beachy feel and it's fun to just be at the beach. Port A is an island so you have to ride a ferry in your car across the ocean (it's only like a 3 minute ride), so that part was a little scary, but once we saw the island we were super excited. Jackson and I hadn't ever been to the beach together and it was Laine's first time to go too, so we were pretty excited to have our first family trip to the coast. My mom, brother and his girlfriend, Beth came along as well.

We left on Wednesday morning around 6:30 and made it to the ferry at like 2:30, and we stopped at the Walmart in Aransas Pass to get some groceries for the weekend. I think we made it in such good time because Jackson has no fear of going almost 90 the entire way :). We took the backroads so we saw lots of the hill country and some cute little towns along the way. We stayed in some mid-range condos, but they had everything we needed so it worked out. Our balcony looked out to the ocean and was right above the pool area. Once we got our stuff situated, we headed down to the beach. Now, we've been to the beach before (my family), but it has been awhile, so I suppose we also forgot about the necessary things we'd need at the beach. We went down there without any chairs or a tent, just our towels and a few things in a bag (along with a cooler). We figured since we were only going to be down there that afternoon for a bit, we'd wait til the next day to rent chairs. I'm so glad we did the next day though because we would've been miserable sitting on sand-filled towels all day. Thankfully the second day was a bit overcast otherwise we would've needed a tent as well. We spent the entire second day at the beach and had a great time. Laine LOVED the water and was pretty fearless when it came to going in. We rented two boogy-boards too and had a lot of fun on those also. The first night we ate at the condo and the second and third nights we went to a seafood restaurant. On the second night after dinner, my mom and Laine went back to the condo and my brother, his girlfriend, Jackson and I went to a local bar and listened to some good ol Texas Country for awhile.

The last day we were there we decided to go over to St. Jo Island and check it out. The boat that takes you over there only picks you up from the island at 12 and 2, unless someone wants to come over before that. We went over at 10 and when we got there we were pretty disappointed in it, so we were hoping that more people were coming over at 11 so we could go back and not wait another hour. The island was seriously deserted and was actually kind of scary. There wasn't a chance we'd swim in the water over there because there were NO other people and the only people who were there were fishing off the jetty, which meant that fish were around that area. Thankfully others came at 11 and we were able to go back to the main island and spend the majority of the day at the regular beach. Laine by the third day was sort of over the beach and wanted to spend the time we had left after her nap at the pool which was fine because she could splash on the steps and we could sit around and lounge while she did that.

I think some of our extended family is going to try and go back with us next year, so that will be lots of fun. I think we'll make it a yearly trip (along with something else) because it's nice to just get away even if it's not the nicest beach ever...