Splash A Little Water On It

Port Aransas is where we chose to spend Spring Break.  Said to be "in many ways one of the most pleasant beach towns on the Texas coast", it lies at the tip of Mustang Island, just off Corpus Christi Bay on the Gulf Coast, about 500 miles South East of Midland.

Spaniards named the bay in 1519 after the Roman Catholic holy day of Corpus Christi, when Alonzo Alvarez de Pineda discovered its calm waters. The town established here in the early 1800s later took the name as well. Construction of the deepwater port between 1933 and 1941, combined with a boom brought on by WWII, caused rapid growth, and the city now has a population of over 300,000.

The second site you are likely to see in Corpus (after the bay) is the 900ft-long aircraft carrier USS Lexington. The ship served in the Pacific during WWII and was finally retired in 1991, but we didn't go onboard since it seemed pretty similar to the USS Midway we visited while in San Diego.

Instead, we popped next door to the Texas State Aquarium, which was kind of a cross between a SeaWorld without any rides and a traditional aquarium, and a good place to learn about marine life along the Gulf Coast.  We got to feed stingrays, touch starfish and view a huge tank replicating the environment around offshore oil rigs.

Trying to reach the stingrays

Lunch

Trying to feed the stingrays - without any success

A miniature seahorse - about the size of a pinky nail

The highlight for the girls was definitely the dolphin show.

That boy can not sit still!

The lowlight for Lightning was also the dolphin show.  Thank you Toots for insisting we sit in the 'splash zone'.  Florida in the heat of summer it was not.

Good times eh?!