South Padre and Cheese!

After a late night at the airport, we all slept in a bit this morning. After brunch we headed to South Padre Island for a walk on the beach. The weather promised to be mostly sunny and mid-70s, just right for beach walking. When we got close to the island, we made a potty stop at a fast food place.

That's when we realized that, yikes! it was cold and extremely windy! The sky was heavily overcast, and the waves had a leaden color. Suddenly the day didn't seem quite so promising for beach walking. By the time we got to the island, things were looking a bit better.

We stopped at the Sea Turtle Rescue Center and walked around viewing the rescued critters. Some of the most recent arrivals were suffering from being "cold stunned" when the temperature of the water in the bay suddenly dropped during the recent cold snap.

We drove to Beach Access #3 and headed across the sand dunes to the Gulf side. Although the sun was shining, the wind was still quite strong, and the multitude of grains of sand swept across the pavement. Shawn wanted to dip her toes in the water. She and Anara pulled off their shoes and socks. I huddled against the wind with my jacket pulled over my shirt. I wanted to walk on the beach, but it just didn't seem to be a "walk on the beach" kind of day.

We went across to the bay access near the birding center and watched the parasailers there.

After a bit we headed north to the end of the highway. Much of the roadway was covered by drifting sand. The dunes were being shaped and reshaped by the blowing wind.

Finally we headed back toward home, but we were all getting hungry. Chris checked out several places on Yelp, and we ended up going to Costa Messa in McAllen. Google maps sent us to their old closed location, so we decided to try another restaurant. On our way north on 10th Street, Chris spotted Costa Messa--their new location.

We had more cheese than I usually see in a month! First Chris and Shawn ordered a queso appetizer that came on a square metal serving plate perched on a charcoal heater. Usually the melted cheese would come with jalapenos, tomatoes, and onions, but Chris asked for those items on the side so that Anara could enjoy the cheese. It was melted and gooey and bubbling warm, and all of us dug in. It came with flour tortillas. We scooped up the stretchy cheese and spread it on the tortillas.

The food was good, and the company was great, of course. We all left the restaurant satisfied and zoning into food comas. Good thing Ken was driving home! We were all tired after an interesting day.