Texas Adventures

I’ve been trying to stick with publishing my posts on Fridays but last week I skipped out on account of family vacation…

I’m a huge fan of the beach and the rest of my family could do without, but since I subbed a lot the past school year I decided I’d put my earnings toward a family vacation to South Padre Island in Texas, like it or not.

First off I looked into us flying but since Texas is a huge state and there’s so much to do I didn’t want to fly and miss out on some points of interest that are on the way to South Padre. Therefore, we collectively decided to drive—about a 17 hour drive from where we live in Nebraska. Gulp.

On Father’s Day (early morning) we finished packing our bags and food (and way too many pillows and blankets) into the back of our SUV and by 5:30 A.M. we were on the road.

OUR ITINERARY—

Sunday: Drove to Waco, TX (about an 11 hour drive). Stayed the night in a hotel.

Monday: Hit up Magnolia Market around 9 A.M. Stayed a few hours. This was a reasonable amount of time to spend there. Note: The earlier you go the less packed….

Afternoon—drove the few hours to San Antonio, arrived around 3 P.M. Checked into the Drury Inn and Suites, right along the river walk. Walked the river walk, would’ve eaten at one the charming restaurants but there was a boat parade happening that evening so everything was shutting down at five this way seating could be put up for locals and visitors to watch the parade. This was totally fine though because our hotel we stayed at serves a nice complimentary meal each evening so we headed back and enjoyed chicken Alfredo and lots of other goodies and sat at a window in the dining area where we had a good view of the river walk with the boat parade taking place. Amazing!! Loved it!!

Our hotel, Drury Inn and Suites-San Antonio
Riverwalk San Antonio, TX
Boat parade

That night…I stayed up through most of the hours taking care of Warren who was sick with some sort of flu bug and praying the rest of us wouldn’t get it! This wasn’t part of the itinerary! The poor guy started getting sick on Sunday when we were driving down to Texas and I thought it was just carsickness but it messed with him the first three days of our trip, we managed to get through though!

Tuesday: 9 A.M. Walked to the Alamo in San Antonio (a fort used in the 1800s during the Texan/Mexican battle). Spent about an hour there. Free entry if you’re touring it on your own.

Headed the few hours to Corpus Christi. Arrived in the afternoon and went straight to Whitecap Beach after checking into our hotel.

That evening we ate at a Cracker Barrel (which was the only time we ate out, our food costs for the entire week was under $200 for everything. We relied on a cooler filled with sandwich making supplies, gogurt, string cheese, apples, grapes etc and then I’d utilize the mini fridge/freezer at the hotels to keep our food fresh and cold and I’d refreeze ice packs, worked like a gem). After supper we took the kids to play miniature gulf at Treasure Island Golf & Games. My husband “putt” the rest of us to shame!

Wednesday: In the morning we headed to the USS Lexington (WWII aircraft carrier museum). Spent a few hours there, pretty interesting piece of history to tour.

Afterwards we drove the three hours down to South Padre Island where we finally put in some rest and relaxation time for the remainder of our trip. After checking into our condo we hit up the grocery store for meal essentials to cover the next few days. The beach was about a five minute walk from our condo so we made our way down there that evening.

Thursday: Drove the island’s main road to check out the place and found a beach where we could drive the car and park right next to the water! The best!!!! Bucket list check off right there! The kids collected tons of shells!!

Friday: Walked down to the beach to watch the sunrise. Visited Sea Turtle Inc. (an organization which rehabilitates & releases sea turtles and provides permanent residency for sea turtles that may need it). Super sweet place!

That afternoon my oldest daughter and I took up the chance to do a little shopping…and we definitely found and bought SOMETHING(S)…eekk…which I will share about in my next post because this one’s already way too long…

Saturday: Dear old (and very long) Saturday…our day began shortly after 4 A.M. My husband was pumped and ready to hit the road home-bound! The original plan was to drive a long but comfortable amount and then stay the night somewhere toward the northern part of Texas and finish the drive up on Sunday morning…but Saturday came and our homebody selves were all ready to be back home. So we drove, and drove, and drove some more and my champion husband safely pulled our little SUV filled with precious cargo into our driveway shortly after midnight.

Vacation time is good. Texas was a blast. But you know the old-age saying, ‘home is truly where the heart is.’

Home Sweet Home. Such is true with life, as Christians we enjoy the adventure of our earthly life but bank on the beauty and reality of a ‘Heavenly’ Home one day…

Sweet weekend blessings everyone!!❤️

Author: alimw2013

About For His Purpose~ My name is Alicia and I'm a thirty-something year old who loves Jesus. Only through God’s amazing grace and mercy I have been redeemed from past regret and shame. Reading His word has allowed me to look past Satan’s forceful lies, to see myself for who Christ says I am in Him. Through writing I have learned why I made the choices I made in my younger years and I now have a better understanding of why I desire to love God like crazy these days. Despite my daily failures, God remains faithful always. I am reassured of His unconditional love for me by every ink-drop spilled out on paper, each committed prayer as I cry out to Him, and deep understanding reflected through reading His word as truth. Yes keeping a blog will make me vulnerable to others’ opinions- there will be some who don’t understand, some who may criticize or judge, but on the other hand if just one piece expressed through my writing grabs someone’s attention and directs them to God, then pouring out my heart in a blog for the world to read is worth it. I choose to glorify Him alone through words streaming across a glowing screen. And it wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t reveal the fact that I’m incredibly quirky; I’m my loving husband’s best friend, my vivacious kids’ craziest cheerleader and spiritual trainer (3 John 1:4). I love anything farmhouse and rustic style. I think cupping a warm coffee mug in the palm of my hands is more satisfying than the contents within. I share a common obsession with my husband for the mountains, but I would (without a doubt) settle for waves crashing against my legs at the Atlantic Ocean just as well, and I almost always have a Yorkie curled up on my lap while writing. *All photos are photographed by forhispurpose.blog and therefore may not be stored or photocopied in any manner.

46 thoughts on “Texas Adventures”

  1. What a lovely trip. Thanks for taking us on this journey with you. I enjoyed the pictures. I am so glad you and your family had a nice time away. I do know what you mean about wanting to get home. That is how we are when our vacations end. And the ride home always seems longer than the ride there.

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  2. My my, I looked at the photos and could feel such excitement in your words that I almost thought I was the one out there.😊. Fabulous!!
    Thank you for sharing your vacay with us.
    ________________________________

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    1. Awe that’s really sweet of you!! That’s what I was hoping this post would provide..thanks so much for reading and sharing your kind thoughts!😊

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  3. What a fun time!! I loved reading this. I’m so happy that all of you could get away and see and do SO much. Wow! That beach looked totally amazing. I may pick your brain someday because I REALLY want to go to a beach for a real beach trip. Glad you’re safely home sweet home.

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    1. Thank you Patty, it was a great time!Yea definitely let me know any questions/ideas you may have because I do have some extra thoughts on beach preferences!🙂❤️Have a Happy Fourth of July!!!🇺🇸

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    1. Thanks Mandy!! Ya I think my kids are spent on putt putt😂 they didn’t do so hot! Nate and I would definitely play around of putt putt with ya though if we lived closer!😉

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      2. 😂😂😂😂😂I almost commented in my post about my husband’s lack of pic smiles…seriously drives me crazy!!!! Love him but the expressionless face in pictures is quite a pet peeve of mine!!!😅

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      4. Yessssa exactly!!!!! I’m grinning big right now because I do the exact same and the only reason my Nate got away without a smile in these pics was because it was so crazy bright I couldn’t see his facial expressions!!😂😂😂

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  7. AH, that brings back many memories. When our three kids were little and into teen years we usually drove from northern Mn to a southern beach somewhere midwinter. Straight through was normal as was a cooler full of sandwich food. Good times and well worth the sacrifice to do it.

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      1. We would leave after supper and drive through the night while the kids slept. then drive al day after a good breakfast somewhere. It seemed to work. We had a station wagon or a van depending on the year.

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  8. So that’s why you guys didn’t drop by while going through Dallas. Lol. Thank you for visiting my Texas. That drive from Corpus to S. Padre is so sleepy. Not much to see in that flat-land grassy drive. Now, out in west Texas, you get the brush country with hills, mountains, the beautiful Big Bend area is to die for. It sounds like you guys did it well. You visited a couple of my favorite places…San Antonio & S. Padre. Love it! God’s grip – Alan

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    1. ❤️It was a good trip, too much to see and do though! It would’ve been neat to meet up for sure!!
      I’ve heard west Texas is really pretty… I just might have to plan a visit again sometime!

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  10. It looks like you guys all had a wonderful time! That’s so cool that you got to go to Magnolia Market. You guys are braver than I am driving all that way. I would need another vacation just to recover from driving. 😂 I can’t wait to see what you bought!

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    1. We had a great time but yes the drive was exhausting and I knew it would be especially on the way home so my husband purposefully took an extra day off work for a recovery day but boy I think he’s still trying to recuperate!!
      Can’t wait to share Friday’s post for my Texas purchase😅, I really should start writing about it now so I don’t procrastinate….

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  11. As a Texan I loved your perfect description of driving forever and STILL being in Texas! We are a few hours from Waco but still haven’t visited Magnolia-ville. 😱 Now I’m hooked on Home Town with Ben and Erin Napier in Laurel MS a and want to go visit there, and the town they helped do some upgrades in called Wetumpka, AL. Truly, there are so many great places to visit in the good ole USA! Thanks for taking us with you and I can’t wait to hear about your purchases!

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    1. LOL 😅my purchases, yikes!! I’ll spill the beans this Friday in my post!

      Yes I love the show Home Town!!! They have wonderful ideas and such a southern sweet charm to them!!
      I didn’t realize you live in Texas! And you’re so right, there are so many great places to visit right in the USA, I’d love to hit up the north eastern states at some point!!!
      Thanks for reading Cecilia, I hope you are well!❤️

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      1. I can’t wait to hear all about it this Friday! I am so glad your family took time to be together and make those memories.

        I am finally off my backside and climbing my way out of ‘the valley’ but never lost sight of the LORD right beside me (my last post https://thywordmythoughts.com/2021/06/22/covid-and-cancer/ ). Still struggling with writing, but we’ve found a rhythm with the cancer treatment, which helps a lot! That sounds odd to say but the unknown is the worst!

        Until Friday!!!

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      2. Oh my!! I will go and read it now, I check on your blog periodically to see if you’ve posted anything new and then I must have missed this one. 🙏❤️

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  14. I have family who live in Austin, Texas–have visited MANY times and taken in a few of the sites you enjoyed: Magnolia Market, River Walk, the Alamo. Fun to know you’ve now been there too! Another connection: For thirteen years we lived in Juno Beach, FL where another sea turtle museum was established back in the 1990s (I think). It looked very much like the one you visited in TX. That pic of your three kiddos asleep in the backseat is adorable–like a little pile of puppies!!

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