Summer 2008 Vacation

Joe and I just returned from a 10-day road trip. We like to go away for our anniversary and this year decided to see a bit more of the US with our ultimate destination being a beach (we both miss living close to a coast) and so we decided to head on down to South Padre Island in Texas.

First day we drove down to Amarillo in Texas, passing by Cadillac Ranch. This is one of those 'roadside attractions' that seem to be popular here in the US. It was fun to see and take a few snaps.

Next we we made our way to Fredericksburg. I loved Fredericksburg -- a cute little German town in the heart of Texas.

We were lucky enough to enjoy a memorial day service at the National Museum of the Pacific War. It made for a beautiful and special day. The museum was huge. You'd have no idea looking from the outside, but it actually occupied 6 acres. Joe was in military history heaven!

Then onto San Antonio. I really enjoyed San Antonio -- the Alamo and the Missions, the River Walk, La Villita, King William Historic District... I could have spent the whole week in this city, and hope to return again soon.

Whilst in La Villita I met a very interesting lady whose mother happened to be from Blackpool -- my home town. Small world isn't it. Anyway, she recommended that instead of South Padre Island, Joe and I might want to check out Port Aransas.

And so we did. Port Aransas was a great recommendation. We took the ferry over and enjoyed a couple of days on the coast. We got to laze around the pool, go for walks on the beach and enjoy fresh seafood... It was a lot of fun.

We did have an 'incident' in Port Aransas: The locals use the beachfront as a road and think nothing about taking their cars on there. At first we weren't convinced about the whole driving on the beach thing. But figured that since the locals were doing it, it must be ok. (Note that the locals typically had 4 wheel drive vehicles; we did not!) Needless to say we got stuck... at 8pm at night with the tide coming in. Yikes. Thanks to some friendly locals, we were pulled out 3 hours later! (Geeky side note -- I'd read that the name Texas comes from an Indian name 'Tejas' which means those who are friends. And that the state motto is friendship. I can't gush enough about how true this was on our trip -- we were welcomed everywhere we went).

While in Port Aransas we took a day trip to Corpus Christi to see the USS Lexington. It was particularly interesting for me to be able to walk around the ship -- when I was little my Dad was in the Royal Marines and was often 'on board ship' for months at a time. It was fascinating to see what life might have been like for him on a military ship. And again Joe was in heaven -- he looked like a giddy little boy the entire time we toured around the ship.

After Port Aransas it was the home stretch. We headed across Texas to El Paso. Miles and miles and miles of driving... and land as far as the eye could see. There was a striking sunset that evening. Just stunning. But El Paso -- whew! Driving through there was like being on the Dodgems at the fairground. You've got tonnes of cars weaving in and out between each other against a backdrop of many many lighted signs. My head was spinning by the time we got into Las Cruces, New Mexico.

From Las Cruces we headed to Alamagordo, New Mexico, to go see the White Sands National Monument. This was pretty impressive to see and I can only imagine how picturesque the sunset walks are.

I'm really glad we fit this into the trip. Next time I need to come armed with a 'board' so that I can go sand 'surfing'!
And that was the last stop before the long drive back to Colorado. It was a great trip and I expect more roadtrips in the near future.