Life's a Beach

We decided to take the girls to the coast this weekend. Thankfully, you're never more than a few hours from the beach in Texas. So, on Thursday we piled in the car -- along with the ridiculous amount of stuff you need to take a trip with small children -- and headed for Rockport. Both Derek and I thought this was a 2.5 hour trip. Our GPS quickly told us what morons we are, as we were in for something closer to 3.5 or 4. Yippee.

We got to Rockport around 8:30 p.m. after stopping for a quick dinner. We stayed at the Inn at Fulton Harbor. It's a cute place, but they stuck us on the 2nd floor. Blech. Remember all the "stuff" I mentioned? We now have to schlep it up a flight of stairs. Yea!

Rockport is a typical REALLY small coastal Texas town. A few restaurants, some run-down beachfront housing and locals who know you're "...not from around here."


Rockport in its entirety. No, I'm not kidding.

We went straight to bed Thursday night since we arrived so late, determined to get an early start and head to the beach. The girls didn't disappoint. Addison woke us up around 6:30 to get our day started. We got dressed and decided to head for the beach. After driving around Rockport looking for a good beach, we decided to head to Port Aransas (about 20 minutes and a ferry boat ride away). The girls loved it. Addison immediately put on her cheesiest grin (along with her sunscreen and hat, of course).


"Beach baby, beach baby..."


Both of the girls shortly after we arrived. Ainsley decided she was going to make a project of digging...and digging...and digging...


Addison found this little stuffed beach/soccer ball thing at one of those tacky beach shops we stopped at to buy beach towels before heading to the water. Best 99 cents ever.


Addison in one of her favorite spots...right next to Daddy.



Ainsley was on a mission to find every shell on the beach. I believe she did it.


Addison with Daddy down by the water.


Miss Ainsley down by the water...still looking for shells.


We finally got her to put the bucket down long enough to play with the ball she found at the tacky beach shop.

That evening we headed back to Rockport and our hotel. We had a recommendation from one of my co-workers to eat at a place called the Boiling Pot. You order family style and get a huge pot of potatoes, shrimp, corn and crab. They bring two hammers, and you whack away at it until you unshell and eat everything. Ainsley had fun cracking open the blue crab. We decided she had a little too much fun and decided it was too pulverized to eat.



It's all done in a Louisiana/Cajun spice mix, so it's pretty hot. But, Ainsley still ate every speck of corn on the table. Who knew she had hot sauce running through her veins?

We headed home this morning and made it back before lunch. Both girls were fabulous, and Ainsley is planning to take her shells to Discovery Day (Show and Tell for us old folks) on Monday.