For the long Fourth of July weekend, we invaded Beeville- all 6 of us!!! We had a wonderful weekend full of food, family, friends, and fireworks. Sierra got to participate in all but the last- she was safely snoozing back at GrandPapa and Mamaw's house while the parentals snuck over to Granddaddy's for the annual explosive fun. Well, Chrissy is still too chicken to actually light any of these things, so Travis, Rosalie, and Stacey did the dangerous work, while Chrissy took pictures.Since we missed the hatchling turtle release in S. Padre, we were keeping our fingers crossed for a release to happen at the National Seashore that weekend. Monday was our lucky day, so we dragged ourselves out of bed and hit the road at 4:30 am! Sierra was still in her jammies- lucky girl! We drove straight to Corpus Christi, crossed the causeway, and headed down the island to the park. Then, 10 miles from the beach (and 10 min from the release time), we were stopped at a police barricade. The road, the only one down the island, was closed due to a large brush fire (presumably a result of the fireworks the night before). The officer told us it would be hours and the only other way down the island was along the beach. Since we'd already driven 1.5 hours, we figured it was worth a shot- we had a Subaru, right? Well, we made it about half a mile down the very narrow strip of beach (and around one very stuck minivan) before we decided to give it up. So, we parked the Subie on the beach to just relax and enjoy the sunrise.
The afore mentioned Subie. (Subaru IS love, if anyone was wondering.) :)
Mmmmm... sand. I remember this stuff!
While Travis had the camera out, several groups of brown pelicans (juveniles, I think) flew overhead, cruising in the coast winds. Awesome. :D (Hopefully they're staying away from the rest of the Gulf Coast.)
While Papa was taking pictures, Mama was teaching Sierra a lesson about cleaning up.
***Soapbox: If everyone would just pick up 3 pieces of trash every time they went to the beach, can you imagine how clean it would be? We picked up 2 drink bottles and a lightbulb.***
After our nice 30 minute beach trip, we headed back out to the main road towards Beeville. We thought, "oh heck, let's see if the road is open". The turtles would be gone, but we could at least go visit the park. The barricade was gone!! (Lots of grumbling about the uninformed cop.) We drove into the park, practically ran to the beach, and found the release was still happening! The last 30 or so (of 107) hatchlings were still making their way to the water- yay!
Very cool experience. I definitely recommend attending a release if you can- check out their website and plan your visit!
In other news, Sierra has started crawling, cruising and standing up! I'll post videos soon!
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