Weekend Getaway Down the Coast- A Port Aransas Travel Diary
Hey hey hey, it's yo girl emilia and I am here today with a travel diary on my recent trip over Memorial Day Weekend. My family and I drove down the Texas coast to Port Aransas, which is an island north of Corpus Christi, and rented a beach house for a couple of nights. Combined with slight colds, a day trip to go visit an oil platform, and shopping at the only thrift store on the island, this was a fun getaway for the long weekend.
The drive from Houston is a little over 4 hours, which we started on Friday night after I finished work. While we drove south, thunderstorms loomed on the horizon and filled the night sky with webs of lighting. This sparked a long conversation with my younger siblings of them asking me a variety of
science questions. How does lighting work? Why does light travel faster than sound? How does the Earth's gravity keep the moon? Very wholesome conversation. We drove through some patches of rain, but lighting scattered across the sky the whole entire journey yet never seemed too concerning. The roads were quiet and we arrived at the ferry around 11:30pm. The ferry is actually managed by the Texas Department of Transportation! You drive onto a large, yet not too terribly huge boat, turn off your engine and then enjoy the ride across the water. At first notice, the distance between the island and the mainland is very short and you could definitely build a bridge there. The truth of the matter is that there are actually HUGE cargo ships that travel in between that small waterway, so building a bridge would require a very tall drawbridge to allow the ships to pass.
Hurricane Harvey made landfall near Port Aransas in Rockport, so the island suffered lots of damage. We first arrived on the island when it was quiet at night, but that did not stop us from noticing all of the brand new beach houses and restaurants. Colors of mango, teal, and purple beach houses of different sizes
surprised us as we drove in because when my dad went to Port Aransas when he was in college, there was nothing like that there. Even some of the houses near our AirBnb had signs along the lines "Beachy Vacation Rentals Est, 2018" (Harvey happened in 2017). We arrived around midnight and quickly brought our suitcases and bags inside to get some rest.
The house we rented was cute and the perfect size for a 3 day weekend. When you walked in there was a wide kitchen and living room area, then on the right side was the entrance for 2 rooms. One bedroom was the masters, and the other had a large bunkbed-each with their own lights for reading or hanging out on each bunk. In between the entrances for these two rooms was the bathroom. I slept on the top bunk for the first night because my mom was afraid that my younger siblings might wiggle out and fall off. I also believe it was also to get them to stop arguing on who would get to sleep on the top bunk the first night.
Saturday morning we woke up to some morning showers. May has been incredibly wet in Texas, all around, so we weren't surprised when I saw a thunderstorm passing by us. All was well though, my dad made English Egg McMuffins for breakfast and I got some decent sleep. My mother, who is the best thrift shopper I know and who I've learned all that I know from her, asked me if there was a Goodwill store nearby. Unfortunately, there was not a store on the island, but there was a small resale/thrift store next to a church on the island. We got ready and drove through the morning rain to see what this little place had to offer. When we got there, a talkative old lady was organizing some shirts and was speaking to this other lady about a mutual friend. It was a small shop that contained stuff people in the community have donated to the church nearby for resale. I actually found a couple of fun clothing pieces from there. Some basics like tank tops, a yellow short sleeve collared shirt, and a fun fish shirt I got for free. My mom got some dresses for herself, and we both got some fun jewelry for cheap. Even though I normally wear real jewelry, I got these 2 colorful beaded necklaces to wear around the pool and beach.
While we were sitting and waiting for our order, I noticed another family had these really cute baseball hats. I asked them where they got them because, for some reason, I have been interested in cute hats recently. I have this one brown hat that is from Sundance that I thrifted, but I have been interested in getting some more because they are nice to wear while coaching in the summer, and well, I look good in hats. Because it was still raining when we finished, we went to the beach shop they mentioned right down the road. I ended up getting this turquoise-colored baseball hat that had "Port Aransas" stitched on it with starfish surrounding it. It was funny because there was another beach shop right next to it, so before I bought it I ran over to the other one to see their selection.
My family and I headed back to our Airbnb so we could have lunch and so my dad could start getting the grill ready for hamburgers for dinner. What was really nice was the complex where our beach house was, they had a pool. I was able to walk down and lie down next to the pool and read. It was really nice to sit in the sun and doze off like a cat asleep next to a sunny window after all of the rain Houston has been getting in the past weeks. The family in the beach house next to us was visiting Port Aransas to celebrate the daughter's 4th birthday and my younger sister ended up playing with her all afternoon. They had a pinata in the shape of the Little Mermaid that my sister and the birthday girl tried hitting, and then I was called in to help break it in at the end. A surprising turn of events if I do say so myself, I ended up saving the 4-year old's birthday party.
The joy of having younger siblings is that they can sometimes bring the common cold home. As I sat by the pool tanning, I could feel my sinuses fill up. Dangit. As the pool got covered by shadows as the sun started to set, I went back into our beach house and I took a shower. Hot showers are honestly the best thing to decongest your sinuses and after being in the sun all day. I do this ~fun~ thing whenever I have a cold where my cough sounds like I am honking like a goose or duck. I don't do this on purpose, it's just how my asthma likes to pop back into my life like HEY! Remember me! I woke up with a bad sore throat and a headache. Being sick isn't the best, but this was like a 48 hour cold and the worst part of it was just wanting to sit in a dark corner due to the horrible sinus headaches I was getting and sore throat.
My dad works in oil and gas, which is no surprise because I live in Houston, and he has been building a specific platform that floats for the past couple of years. It was being built in South Korea and it was recently brought over here to Texas and stationed at the nearby port. We drove through Corpus Christi and made it to this little town where we could see the platforms in the distance. We weren't allowed any further because we had no credentials, but from a pretty decent distance, it was really cool to see it in person. My dad was excited to see his project and we all gave him a hug to share how proud we were of him. It was stationed at that port to get some last finishing touches before it heads off into the Gulf of Mexico. The drive back to the island was long, but the wait for the ferry to cross over was even longer. I borrowed Circe by Madeline Miller from my library and read it on my iPad to pass the time. Should I do a review? Alright, random review of this book I read in like 3 and a half days.
Ahem.
Circe by Madeline Miller Review: 4/5 Stars
I love Greek mythology and this was a last-minute rent from the library I decided on and I didn't realize
that Miller is also the author of Song of Achilles until I was on chapter 2. The book follows the myth of Circe and is told from her perspective, which I found interesting because the only other time I have read about her was in the Odyssey with Odysseus. We follow her whole story and the stories of her siblings, who were actually characters in some of the most famous Greek myths. Her sister was the mother to the Minotaur, her brother controlled the Golden Fleece that Jason took, and her father was Helios. I thought that Miller did a great job with the world-building and connecting the myths from one to another, but I thought that her character writing was a little stale. I wanted more emotion! Make me cry for Circe! I wanted to see her internal thoughts a bit more and how she deals with her trauma. I also thought the ending was a tad rushed, but I am happy with it. I recommend it and who knows when I read Song of Achilles, I don't want to cry just yet.
Alright back to our regularly scheduled program. After visiting my dad's project, we went back to the beach house and spent the day by the pool. I still wasn't feeling too well, so I went back inside and got some work done with stuff I have to do for college. My parents and sister went to the beach and I went crazy over the announcement of the new Divergent series covers for the 10th anniversary. Those books
weren't that good, but their new covers look so cool. As the hours of sunlight left started to decrease, so did the hours of our vacation. I helped pack up and clean up around the house so it would be easier to leave in the morning.
The longest part of our trip heading home was the ferry ride because everyone visiting the island was also trying to get off. It was all alright though, I had about 150+ pages left of my book and I was trying to finish that as we got home. After the ferry, the roads were pretty quiet and we made it home before 4pm. It was a fun trip for the weekend and we were surprised with how much has been built in Port Aransas.
If you have made it this far, thank you so much for reading! I think writing travel diaries are fun to write and I am happy that I was able to write this one after a couple of hectic weeks. I hope you all have a safe, fun, and memorable summer.
love,
yo girl emilia
follow me on Instagram: @yogirlemilia
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