We landed at Malaquite Campground on North Padre Island National Seashore for a 3 night stay. It was an interesting campground in that it was a first come first serve campground basically in a large parking lot with side to side spaces, no privacy! It’s not what we usually like but we did want to stay right on the beach. The pickings were slim, in fact we got the last available spot the day we rolled in. It was inhabited by an interesting mix of quirky characters, a variety of camping units, and a few do it yourself bus makeovers. And surprisingly there were a lot of Canadians down to seemingly enjoy the warmer weather on the Texas Gulf Coast. You could tell them by their shorts, tank-tops, and flipflops, (some even barefoot) while we were dressed in down jackets, sock-caps, and gloves. It was chilly but to them I guess it was warm compared to the Canadian Northwoods.
It was here that Tom & David made their day trip to the Lexington. The other 2 days we took long walks on the beach searching for treasures. It was not a shore full of shells so it was challenging to find things but we did find driftwood, a lot of broken pieces of sand dollars, and colorful bits of shells. With perseverance we all managed to find whole sand dollars.
The shore birds, as always, entertained us with their antics, and we had an unlikely visitor from the dunes. A coyote ventured out to check on us, rather it probably had its eye on Lucy!
It was an enjoyable time on the beach. The waves are always mesmerizing, the sunrises and sunsets beautiful, and we all had a good time walking the beach.
