Astral Nomads

One man, one woman, one rabbit......traveling with the stars.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Back to the Beach! South Padre Island

About as far south as we could get and still be in the United States, the Astrals have landed in South Padre Island, Texas. It's about as sweet a place as we've been and seems to be a favorite for Americans escaping the cold of the states around the Great Lakes. I wouldn't say it's tropically warm here today but, after the last few days, we'll take the 6o's with a smile and are looking forward to a gradual warming trend over the next few days. Our hotel is right on the beach and you know that makes the Astrals happy.

Wendy started the day with a waffle as big as Texas.

Where there are palm trees, there is also joy.

Our private boardwalk to the beach is more like
a cattle chute. Hey, easy with the prod there partner!

Ah yes, paradise. Time to walk off the waffles.

Monkey paw, who's got the monkey paw?

Our hotel in reflection. Great composition Astral Wendy!

After breakfast and a walk on the beach, we drove north for a
bit on Texas 100. The road ends about 7 miles up from our hotel
and then it's just dunes all the way to Corpus Christi. We'll explore
this area on our bikes later in the week.

As we were driving north we passed this big set of kites floating
in the sky on the bay-side of the island. Turned out to be a synchronized
kite flying festival and exhibition. I never knew such a thing existed but
it was both joyful and a little silly, which made it even more joyful.
Teams were flying choreographed kite maneuvers to both patriotic
and classical music. Apparently this is a serious and organized hobby.
Who knew?

The place was jammed with spectators who apparently enjoy
sitting around all day watching people fly kites. We only stayed
for about an hour but now I'm wondering if there were razor-blade
enabled kite death matches scheduled for the afternoon. 

The synchronized flying was actually pretty cool to see.

Oh noble van, this is indeed a brave new world.

The bay here is pretty wide.


For lunch, we stopped at the Psychedeli, a way groovy and laid back
joint started by a couple of Wisconsin hippies after their VW microbus
adventures. Hmmm....They make their own bread here and the sandwiches
were top-notch and the decor made me feel right at home. Peace, man.

I had a Pastrami Rueben that I'd put up against any sandwich, anywhere,
anytime. 

5 comments:

  1. Love that Texas waffle! Never heard of synchronized kite flying before -- gosh, that must be hard to do!

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  2. I never did before either Debra, but it's grown men dancing colorful kites in plane formations and circles set to music. Very touching.

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  3. I saw synchronized kite flying once--the town I live in has a kite festival every year--and it was lovely, I enjoyed it very much.

    Looks beautiful there. Sure beats a cold, dreary Ohio morning!

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  4. awesome jimi simpson mural. he has always been my favorite character.

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  5. @Colin: yeah, place was way cool. Man.

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