Beaching it

Last weekend I was hoping to try my hand at sea kayaking.

When most people think of kayaks, that's what comes to mind: Inuits or Pacific Islanders paddling from island to island. But what we think of around here is river kayaking (related to, but, not contiguous with—at least in my experience—whitewater kayaking).

We had a chance to experience the other kind in a safe, scenic environment, but the weather didn't cooperate. The forecast called for windy weather, but we didn't realize exactly what this meant right on the coast. What it means is, it's fairly hard to stand up, not to mention cook dinner on the beach! Not the kind of headwind you'd want to be paddling into.

So we defaulted to plan B, which consisted of sitting around and shooting the breeze (couldn't resist! note the windbreak some of our friends constructed)...

...eating and drinking...kind of a lot...(made possible by the windbreak)...

...and generally enjoying the salt sea air (even though it was moving at a pretty high velocity).

The place was Padre Island National Seashore (again, the less popular and famous, but much closer and less developed, north part of the island). Our attempted kayaking destination was the islands in Bird Island Basin, on the Laguna Madre (sheltered) side of the island. And even though we couldn't go out ourselves, we saw plenty of fellow-creatures in the water:

the Basin's shallow, protected waters are good fishing grounds for everyone
(but note the chop!)

apparently Laguna Madre is a world-class windsurfing location;
I saw cars from Colorado, New Mexico, and even Massachusetts!

There was interesting micro-scenery, too, if you took time to look down...and we had plenty of time!

And the sunset, over the King Ranch across the bay, was worth the trip...

Henry photographing the photographers

The wind didn't die down, as we'd hoped, with dusk, and some of our party bailed and headed for a motel in town. Another couple braved the elements in their tent....

...but we were glad we'd brought the van, and opted to sleep in there. It was a little cozy, but our tenting friends had a lot of trouble sleeping with the wind noise, and we were better off in that respect...

---

The next morning we opted to take a look at the other side of the island. While the Laguna side is better and safer for kayaking, the Gulf side has a nicer beach for strolling.

Even though, as we discovered, (and as I showed you on Wednesday) a good-sized chunk of the beach is taken over by enormous amounts of seaweed...

This was really interesting stuff. I'd never seen so much all in one place...here are a couple of closeups:

According to the informative displays in the visitor center here at Malaquite Beach, Padre Island is in just the perfect place to catch a lion's share of the Gulf's seaweed (and also its trash, unfortunately).

But the area looked pretty clean to us...your tax dollars at work, presumably. Here's a look at the impressive dunes near the visitor center...

...and the attractive center itself...

So although our best-laid plans were thrown a spanner, we still had a very nice weekend at the beach. Maybe next time the winds will be more cooperative and we'll get to try kayaking on salt water.