south padre island

we spent our saturday on south padre island - kicking off summer with our first beach day of the year, the maiden voyage for my lilly pulitzer beach blanket (meep!!), and moose's first trip to spi. she did pretty well all things considered. as we were walking down to the beach there was a portion of sand that was extremely hot, so she jumped off the path and wouldn't move until j carried her down to cooler turf. total princess move.

as for the island, i still can't get over everything you're allowed to do on that beach! bring your dog, drive your car onto the sand, have a bonfire, etc. i was also kind of astonished that we managed to roll up after noon, park and enjoy the sparsely populated beach on a gorgeous saturday. um, where is everyone?! it's a huge departure from growing up in florida when my mom used to have to bribe my brother and i out of bed with mcdonald's sausage biscuits, and we would roll into the car half asleep and be on the road no later than 8:30am to get a spot on the beach. not that i'm complaining. tourism on south padre is clearly more seasonal than clearwater.

i'm thinking our next trip we might need to stay the weekend!