The Saga of July4th Weekend - Day3 : South Padre Islands

We had arrived at this place on the previous night. For a change we had done our homework. We knew exactly what we needed to do in that place... (surprising? well yes.. sometimes god bestows us with good sense also!)

Here's the list of things that we planned to do.

• Loaf around in the beach
• Para Sailing
• Horse Riding
• Visit the Butterfly Garden
• Take an educational tour of Sea Turtles
• Take a cruise ride for some whale watching (This was only if time permits, anyway we had seen enough whales in San Antonio..;-) )

So, good list huh? I am improving... not bad! **:D**

First we went for Para Sailing, thought it would get too hot later to go up there, better to finish it before it gets too sunny. But then, since it's the star attraction there, we couldn't get any slot before 4 in the afternoon...

Beach: So, we went to the beach to give ourselves a good tan (not that we are very-fair or anything... but come on... brown complexion can also get a tan.. only, we will look "black" later on..;-) that's all na...). Played endlessly in the water.. where is all this enegery on a monday morning in office?**thinks**. The water was not very wild.. but I was really terrified to venture too deep into the water.. why? I don't want to drown and die in a foreign land!!!!! So, after 4 hours of beach fun.. we went searching for a bathroom... Now here's the most surprising part.. In this advanced land.. I expected to find a bathroom somewhere close to the beach! What do people expect? Go back home with all the sand on your body and not to mention hair? My hair was a mess to say the least with all that salt water and sand in it ...***yukkk***. But then we didn't find any! nopes! none! How were we supposed to get back now? After searching around the place for quite some time... finally found a place.. and guess where is this? In the middle of the road!!! What was that? I mean do they expect us to take bath in the middle of the road (yes! It was an "open" bath!) So ditched the idea.. just washed the hair... to make it a bit more bearable... Changed clothes in the rest room and rushed to grab something to eat before we could go for para sailing.

Lunch: Managed to get only french fries! Yes! That's the price you have to pay for being a vegetarian and not have enough time to hunt for a place which serves some ghaas phoos!

Forget it.. Lets move on to Para Sailing!

Para Sailing: That was a wonderful/fantastic/beautiful/whatever experience to say the least. It's an amazing feeling when you are up in the air and see the whole of an Island in just once view! When the cool breeze dances on your face! When you can actually see a lot of colors in the sea apart from the usual blue that we see from the shore! When you actually feel that you are so small in this world! When you feel that time should just pause at that moment and you can enjoy it forever! I missed a heartbeat or two when there were some strong winds which kind of swayed my parachute quite a bit ! oooooh I felt chilly *smiles~*. All in all a wonderful feeling worth every cent of the 45 dollars I coughed up ;-))

Horse Riding: It was evening by then, and we went for Horse Riding on the beach side. I expected that for an amateur like me, somebody would hold the horse by it's mouth and take me along for a ride.. Or even better some handsome hunk would sit behind me and ride me along....****mmmm drifts away in dreams*** (No please.. No.. P don't read this....pretty please..) But No! That was not how it was! They gave a horse all to myself! I know! I live in Texas but there's still a real long way to go for me to become a cow girl!!! Anyway they gave me a 2 mins "training" on how to maneaver the horse and lo! I was all alone with my Dixie! It was a bumpy ride but felt really nice and adventourous :) After one hour of galloping (ok I know I am exaggerating! I never galloped! I just "rode" on the horse for 1 full hour).

Butterfly Garden: We then thought we will visit the Butterfly Garden... Found out later though that it was closed at this time of the year! Come on! The call centre female had said it would be open! I am sure she was not even sure what I was asking about till then!!!!

Sea Turtle: Garden ditched, we moved on towards the Sea Turtle Centre.. We had the address and all and everything (remember our homework?) so went straight to that so called place and guess what it turned out to be? A house! A normal residential house with a family in it! All they had to attract the attention of Yahoo Vacation guys was that they had these huge sculptures of turtle all around their house.. and some paintings as well :))) So, they told us that they are not conducting any "educational-programs" but were just preparing dinner for the evening! And we were not the first ones who had ended up in their house thinking that it was some site for some turtle watching..;-)

After such an eventful day, we went to have dinner in a sea side retuarant. My is the sea beautiful at night... worlds fail to describe it!

I know my own soul, how feeble and puny it is: I know the
magnitude of this ministry, and the great difficulty of the work; for more
stormy billows vex the soul of the priest than the gales which disturb the sea -
John Chrysostom

After some really nice vegetarian pasta and some yummy salads we were all set to head back to the hotel... I opted for a nice stroll on the sea shore alone while the others listened to some music being played in the restuarant.....