With Raine out of school so early in May, we decided it would be the perfect time to take a vacation. Sunday afternoon, May 18, we drove down to San Marcos where we spent the night before continuing our drive to South Padre Island on Monday. The total drive time was 8.5 hours but with all the stops we made along the way it took us most of Monday to get there.

Tuesday, we spent the day at the beach, swimming in the ocean waves, boogie boarding, building sand castles, sand-skating (that’s what Raine called it when the tide sucked all the sand out from under your feet as the water receded) and sea-shell hunting. The water was warm — perfect for enjoying those nice gulf-coast waves!

See! I really was there too!

It took a while, but we finally finished our sandcastle:

Just teasing! There were sand sculptures like this all over the island. This one was the largest and was located in front of the tourism office.

Carter really wanted to stop at this gift shop so he could stand in the mouth of the shark.

On the island, we stayed in a nice condo about a half-block from the beach. We loved it! For less than the price of a hotel room we had a full kitchen, two bedrooms, two full bathrooms, washer and dryer, pool, and a closet full of beach toys. (For future reference, this is the link to it.)