Day 1277

I got up today at 7.  The dog wanted out because she had diarrhea.  Apparently she got Ellen up several times last night.  I couldn't get back to sleep, so I surfed for a little while and then got up.

After the pet stuff and breakfast I did a little surfing while Ellen made camping arrangements.  Then we went to the office and bought discount tickets to the aquarium.  They were $33 apiece.  After that it was off to the aquarium.

The aquarium is an impressive place.  It' 4 stories tall with nice views of the harbor.  It's filled with amazing tanks of exotic sea life.  Some of them are the walk through variety.  It was all reall interesting.

They also had some exhibits of animals from areas around the gulf.  I especially liked the flamingos.  The exhibit allowed you to get within 5 or 6 feet of them.  I spent a lot of time there.  We also got to see some of the shows - dolphins, sting ray feeding, and a animal/raptor show. 

All in all I thought it was worth the money.  Unfortunately the restaurant was closed.  That meant we didn't get to eat until after 2.  We went to Joe's Crab Shack.  It was OK, but I doubt I'll ever go again.

We went home, got Lucy, and drove out to the park at the end of the road on Padre Island.  There's a nice visitor center there as well as beach access.  We took Lucy to the beach.  I took off my shoes and took Lucy (on lead) for a walk in the surf.  It was really cool to walk in a warm ocean.  It's surprising how much power even the smallest waves have.  Lucy wasn't thrilled with walking in the surf.  She kept trying to go walk with Ellen instead.

The visitor's center had a shower station at the end of the beach.  I used it to rinse Lucy and myself off.  We toweled off Lucy and drove back.  We stopped at a pet store on the way and bought her a treat to make up for the surf.

We fed the pets when we got home.  I drained the tanks.  I also texted Lee, but he's working too late to join us for dinner.

We went to the catfish place for dinner.  It was surprisingly busy.  I had the gumbo, which was good but not as good as the place in Austin.  Ellen had the catfish - she wasn't impressed.  We also had a bacon wrapped shrimp appetizer.  It was really good.

It was past Kong time when we got home.  After that it was some surfing and bed.