Padre Island National Seashore

   Just off the Gulf coast from Corpus Christi, TX is a more than 60-mile-long barrier island, one of many that protect the mainland from the direct onslaught of wind-driven storm surges. At the end of the causeway from Corpus Christi you can turn left for the resort community with all the usual shops, vacation, homes, and high-rise condos with stunning views. Very nice.
   We don't go there. Shirley and I turn right and head for the Malaquite Campground in the Padre Island National Seashore right on the Gulf. There are 42 sites for RVs and 25 for tents. There are no hookups for water, electricity, or sewer but the fee is only $8--or $4 with your National Park Service geezer pass. What you get for that munificent sum is a level place to park and access to rest rooms, a dump station, and lovely cold showers. If even $4 seems like too much--or the campground is full--there is the option to camp for free right on the beach. A mile or so of the beach is hard-packed sand that can support even huge Class A RVs.Just be careful about getting stuck in soft sand outside the designated safe zone.  South of milepost 5, four-wheel-drive is required. 
   Right after Christmas, we are eager to get someplace warm and pleasant as quickly as possible. Sometimes this means South Florida, sometimes Arizona, sometimes both. (And, yes, we know that is downright sinful.) The route we take is determined by the weather along the way. If the forecast is for mild weather on the Gulf, we might head due south to Pensacola, FL for a few days in Gulf Islands National Seashore before continuing to the Everglades. Or we might turn towards Padre Island in Texas on our way to southern Arizona. Either way we get some warm and delightful time at the beach on our way to someplace even warmer and more delightful. 
   Padre Island, like all national parks, has a serious business in addition to recreation--which, for some of us, is a pretty serious business in itself. About 60% of the nests of the endangered Kemp's Ridley sea turtle in the US are found there. Rangers and trained volunteers remove turtle eggs from the nests for artificial incubation because predators like raccoons and people might dig them up. Young turtles are protected until they are old enough to be released into the surf.
    In 2017 and '18, we arrived immediately after cold fronts had passed through. Stunned and vulnerable sea turtles were rescued by those rangers and volunteers. When the turtles had sufficiently recovered, a couple hundred were released. Shirley and I were fortunate to be on hand both times. Turtles ranging from about 5 lbs to 200 lbs. were shown to visitors as they were carried to the water.

At Malaquite Campground, the beach is right out our back door.

Even when the campground is full, you can usually find some solitude on the beach.

For that matter, you can camp right on the hard-packed sand.

During the 2019 government shutdown that closed the campground, we were joined by a dozen other rigs.

Families enjoy playing in the sand as they do on beaches everywhere. 

Twice now we have been at Padre Island when they were releasing sea turtles that had been rescued after cold temperatures shocked their systems.

Don't mess with the Portugese man of war. Its tentacles can sting even after it is dead and washed up on the beach.

Leaf cutter ants carrying greenery back to their nest.

The ants are farmers. They don't eat the leaves, they use them to grow fungus underground.

Little ghost crabs, virtually the color of the sand, scurry back to their burrows when you approach.

Caracara or Mexican eagle