Texas Vacation, Part 3

Are you starting to worry that each day is going to get its own post?  I promise that's not the case!

Day 3:
Thursday we took our time getting around and then headed to the Iwo Jima Monument at the Marine Military Academy.  I had seen the monument in Washington on my senior high school trip, but they have the original full sized plaster model right there in Harlingen.  I think I was even more moved by the model as now, as an adult, the meaning and sacrifice behind that moment really mean something to me.  We spent some time walking around taking in all the details, wondered along the pathway reading various dedications, and then headed into the gift shop and museum, which I could have spent hours in.  Unfortunately, the kids were itching to get back outside!  They have a full parade field in front of the monument, where the MMA holds graduation and other important ceremonies and it really brought back the memories of my basic training graduation and marching on the field in front of Brad and Tonia!

Once again, our afternoon was filled with some pool time and a Jam session at the park community room.  The kids danced away and the adults enjoyed the music.  

Day 4:  

Friday was our first trip to South Padre Island.  We headed over and got signed up for a 3 pm dolphin cruise and then went to eat some lunch.  Despite its name, Mom insisted we try Dirty Al's and it was absolutely amazing.  Brad, Sophia, and I got shrimp, while my mom opted for fish and Collin bucked the crowd and had a hot dog.  It was all super tasty.  Fresh shrimp is so much better than the frozen stuff I buy here in Iowa!  After lunch Brad took the kids out to feed some leftover fries to the seagulls.  Sophia loved it, but Collin wasn't impressed with the swarm of birds trying to eat out of Brad's hands.

Sophia insisted on posing like the mermaid....oh boy!

Mmmm, orange Mexican soda

After we were all good and full we headed to the local sea turtle rescue and were amazed at the tanks of rescued turtles.  Both kids were very interested and Sophia made us go around twice to read each and every name and story.  It was really neat to see the story behind why the turtle was there and which ones would be released back into the wild.  I'm usually not one for souvenirs, but we absolutely hit up the gift shop.  Sophia picked an adorable bobble head turtle and Collin picked a stuffed animal sea turtle.

From there we headed to the beach!  It was a bit cool and windy, but we still enjoyed ourselves.  I still can't get over just how soft the sand was....seriously, it was like silk!  Sophia absolutely loved it and stood in the water with Brad just letting the waves rush up to them.  Collin liked it at first, but as soon as the first water hit him he was done.  He would get brave and go walking up to the water, but as soon as he heard a wave coming he would run as fast as he could to get out of the way.  Unfortunately, one wave did catch him and knock him over.  Good thing he is too young to remember his first traumatic visit to the ocean!

The kids could not collect enough shells

Hanging out waiting for a wave

Collin safely back in the car after a change of clothes

Finally, because our day wasn't quite busy enough, we headed back for our two hour dolphin cruise!  We went on the Sea Life Safari Cruise through Osprey and were thrilled with the crew and our experience.  After a brief safety lecture we were off.  We all absolutely loved being on the water and were excited to get underway.  Sophia was given a checklist of what she might see on the cruise and told that if she filled it out she'd get something at the end.  First, the crew tossed out a net to see what kind of sea life they could catch. We saw several different kinds of fish and a small crab.  It was really interesting   So interesting, in fact, that I forgot to take pictures!  After we all had a chance to take a look and find out about the fish the captain picked up speed to see if we could find some dolphins.  And boy did we!!  The first group we saw kept their distance, but were still amazing.  However, once we turned around we had two that decided to ride the wake right at the front of the boat.  It was the neatest thing I have ever seen!  After a good long stretch of watching them jump in the water we found another HUGE group and watched them all play.  It was just fabulous and if you've never done something like this I'd highly recommend it.

The two dolphins swimming with us

Feeding the fish to the birds when we got back