When I was pregnant with Abe Mike and I went on a babymoon to Maui. So, in similar spirit (although certainly not style), we went on another babymoon, this time to the Texas Coast. Yes, we took both the kiddo and dog with us. The main purpose is to celebrate our family as it is before the dynamics are changed with a new addition.

Nature Fest - We left Saturday morning and our first stop was Nature Fest in Bastrop. They put on a great show of different birds, fun animals to pet, and lots of things for kiddos to do. Abe's favorite was making a pet rock, complete with paint, googly eyes and a button nose!

Port Aransas, TX - From Bastrop we headed to PA (i.e. Port Aransas, TX - not to be confused with Port Angeles, WA). We had originally planned a night in Victoria (TX, not British Columbia), but some quick rearranging had us headed straight to PA instead.


The goal was to spend a relaxing week at the beach, playing in the sand, surf, etc. Abe had never really been to the ocean or experienced the coast before, and playing in sand boxes just isn't the same as digging at the beach. We had mostly great weather, with some pretty impressive storms mixed in.

I tried to include some pictures of Garby (a.k.a. my belly); I'm not a big one for posting just belly pictures, but I know some of you out there are curious what I'm looking like these days. Oh, and in case you're wondering, I'm now 6 months pregnant. Only 3 more months to go, and I have a feeling those 3 are going to fly - although at times they seem so far away.

Back to the beach - Abe was a bit unsure of everything from the get-go, but he quickly warmed up to playing in the sand. Going near the water was taboo, but each day we were able to get him closer and closer to it. He actually waded in a time or two, but neither of those for very long. He was more interested in building sand castles, burying things and digging holes with Daddy. We also had fun in the maze Daddy drew in the sand. I was picturing more walks along the beach with Abe, finding sea shells and sand dollars; maybe even digging for a clam or two, but Abe wasn't really interested.

U.S.S. Lexington - We planned two outings to Corpus Christi on mornings where it looked like the weather was going to be less than beach worthy. The first was to the U.S.S. Lexington, a World War II battleship that has been turned into a "museum on the sea." What a great ship to visit! I think we easily could have spent a whole day there if there wasn't a nap to consider for Abe. Climbing up and down and around everything was quite fun; I would have loved to have read more than a two year old allows - that ship holds a lot of history.

Texas State Aquarium - Our second Corpus outing was to the aquarium. For Abe, this whole trip was about dolphins. About a month earlier, Mike had read a book to Abe about dolphins and told him we were going to get to see them soon. Abe has been talking about nothing since. We were very happy to see plenty of them in the wild in the ship channel between Aransas Pass and PA, but this was more enjoyable for Mike and I. Abe prefers seeing them up close and thus loved the underwater tank and the dolphin show at the aquarium.

The dolphin show was one of the best we've seen and puts the Sea World show (at least the dolphin one) to shame. It was fun and educational about how they train the dolphins to do tricks. Mike and I chuckled as we realized it is very similar to training a dog. All in all, D.J., Kia and Shadow (the 3 dolphins) were very impressive!

We had two days when breathing was a bit of a challenge. Evidently it was a result of the red tide. The effect was some coughing and sneezing fits, and poor Dexter got the worst of it. He would sneeze 10 to 15 times in a row, and because he's so short, his sneezes would send his snout into the sand with impressive force. There were a couple of times that he'd run his nose up and down the beach just trying to get the tickle out. This resulted in a swollen and bloody bottom lip and gums for the poor pooch. Luckily, we were all fine in the condo, so Dexter spent the majority of the second day inside for his own safety.

Sea World - We left early Halloween morning to hit Sea World for the day. Shortly after feeding the dolphins, Abe recalled his dolphin stamp from the aquarium and was insistent that "I need a stamp!!" Hence, the air brush tattoo in the picture. I won't comment on the cost of that.

We fit in two shows. First was the Shamu show Believe, through which Abe mainly just kept asking me for "more apple." After Shamu, we hit a Sesame Street show with Count von Count and friends Telly, Abby, Elmo, Bert, Ernie and Zoe. For THIS show, Abe sat mesmerized the whole time. He loved it!

Abe was absolutely distraught that they wouldn't let him go on the Shamu roller coaster. He was just a couple inches too short; we tried and they were checking. I actually wondered how much bribing/pleading it would take for me to convince them to let him go on. He wanted to go so bad, and it broke my heart.

We headed home mid-afternoon, just in time for dinner and trick-or treating. See next blog entry...