As we drove across the bridge to get on the island I wasn't quite sure what to expect. It was January and we planned to spent a week here. We ended up staying three as we were enjoying ourselves and waiting/hoping to catch a Space X launch.
We were still self isolating, due to the pandemic, so we avoided doing things inside or with other people. That means we probably missed some cool things, but here are my top 5 favorite things that we experienced:
1. The birds! More than 300 species of migratory birds stop here each year and it's pretty incredible.
Gallery of a beautiful White Ibis
2. The warm January temps! There were some windy days but overall it was pretty great.
3. Walking barefoot in the sand and biking/driving on the miles of beach with the waves crashing.
4. The incredible variety of places to go see wildlife! Whether it's just walking on the beach, the SPI, the Laguna Madre Nature Trail, Laguna Atascosa or taking a drive. Everywhere you look there's something!
Gallery of Pics
5. SpaceX - pretty amazing opportunity to see the rockets they are working on (in the South Texas Launch Site at Boca Chica Village) and perhaps catch a test launch. When we first arrived they had one rocket (SN9) on the launchpad so our initial pictures show that. Then they moved SN10 out on the second launchpad! It was about a 40 minute drive from Isla Blanca Park.
Gallery of Pics
Driving past the launch pad area looking out the window.....
Things that were OK.....
1. We ended up moving the RV twice, to different parts in Isla Blanca Park, since we kept extending our stay. It's truly a mish mash of RV's parked EVERY which way and on top of each other! HA. Here was our third spot before the other 4 RV's all arrived on every side of us! At times you had to ask others to move their cars so you could get out! That's how close you are to each other. The location to the beach is super nice though (you can walk right out to the beach) and the viewing for rocket launches is fantastic.....so those are a plus. If you want to be right on the island this may be your best bet but just know you won't be coming here for a beautiful RV park. You'll be coming for the close proximity to the ocean.
2. Dining out. We weren't looking for dine in options, and granted it was during the pandemic, but we were surprised that the take-out/patio options weren't that great. Most of the food was OK....just not great or real flavorful. That worked out for us ok since we had planned on mostly cooking in the RV, but when we did try to venture out somewhere it was kind of disappointing.
3. Emptying out the urine container in the composting toilet! OK TMI...this was our first stretch with the composting toilet and we realized that wow you have to empty this "pee growler "every couple of days! That meant taking the toilet apart in order to remove it and that was a pain and kinda gross. The rest of the composting toilet worked great so Jordan came up with a plan, made some runs to the hardware store and did some woodworking/plumbing. He tapped into the tank directly so now no more urine container! I love having a personal MacGyver.
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