Our trip to the coast

We went down to Corpus Christi this past weekend for a short family vacation. We had a great time. We rented a condo on the North beach in Corpus. We had to walk across the parking lot to be right on the beach. The weather was really nice. It wasn't too hot, but it was warm enough that we could swim in the ocean without getting cold. The water temperature was in the mid 80's and felt really good. I got to really break in my new camera. I took my Powershot as well as my Rebel. When we were on the beach, I had my Powershot with me. I didn't want to leave my Rebel sitting in my bag while we were in the water. My Powershot takes great photos still. I took a bunch of pictures at the aquarium and the art museum on Sunday. I used my Rebel then. Here are a few of the pictures I took this weekend. They are in no particular order and definitely not in the order they were taken.
This is a picture I took at the aquarium of the Bull shark that was in the big tank. I took this one with the Rebel. I tried a manual setting without a flash. I didn't want to use a flash and have it reflect off the glass. It turned out a little creepy, but cool.
Here are the dolphins. They were getting ready to do their show, which takes place right above the tank. I loved this shot. It looks really cool. I think I got better photos in the viewing area below the tank than I did during the show. I did get some with the dolpins in the air though.
Here is Jeremy in an observation bubble inside one of the tanks. He said it made him feel like he was in the water without getting wet.

Here is a picture of the Lexington at night. The Lexington has a nickname of the Blue Ghost. I don't know how it got that nickname, but because of that, they shine blue lights on the ship at night. You can see them quite a ways away. It looks neat and this photo doesn't do it justice.
Here is the sunrise from the balcony of our condo. It was very pretty. I wished I would have been down on the beach for those. Stan and I went down to the beach on Monday morning to watch the sunrise together and take pictures, but there was a lot of clouds in the distance and the sunrise was not as spectacular and colorful.
We went out to the National Seashore on Saturday. There was a lot of debris on the beach from Hurricane Ike. They had garbage bags available and everyone picked up trash along the beach until it got too heavy for Stan to carry. A lot of it was wet as it has just poured down rain. You can still see all the rain clouds in the background.
This photo is actually suppose to go the other direction, but Blogger keeps turning it and I can't figure out how to turn it back. I thought the footprints in the sand looked neat. There were no other prints on this area of the beach and it had just rained rather heavy, so Rachael's footprints were the only ones there.


This was actually taken the first day we were there, the first time they got into the water.Here are 2 pictures of my kids being eaten by a giant shark at one of the gift shops on Padre Island. We actually have a picture of Stan's dad that is very similar to this one. It may have even been at the same place, but I have to find it and compare. They really hammed it up for these photos. It was not planned that Jeremy would be playing dead when I took Rachael's picture. I didn't even notice it until we downloaded the camera. It makes Rachael's expression even funnier seeing Jeremy "impalled" on the shark teeth.

The kids already want to know when we are going back. We will probably go down next fall again. Stan is planning on doing the MS bike ride next year. That ended in Corpus on Sunday while we were there. The Cub Scout pack is going to the Lexington to spend the night in January also. I don't know if I will go yet. I have to call them and find out how accessable it is to the mildly disabled and how bad the beds are going to kill my already sensitive back.

We had a lot of fun, no one got hurt (I only got a mild sunburn, but no one else did) and there was very little fighting among the kids. We made some very good memories and I am so glad for that.