My spontaneous weekend trip to Padre Island was thrown together in the three days before it happened but it made my life list pretty happy. About three hours and 45 minutes away from Austin, it’s a great place for a weekend trip.
Camp on the beach.
For a $10 entrance fee (pass good for seven days), you can enter the Padre Island National Seashore and venture down to camp right on the beach. From where we camped, the bathrooms and showers were about 20 minutes away. The water felt great and the beach where we were was fairly quiet. Just get ready to get sand in all your belongings. Don’t forget to bring a canopy since there’s no shade on the beach.
Go surfing.
A few days before the trip, I booked private lessons with Padre Island Surf Camp. The 90-minute lesson was a good amount of time to learn how to surf and get some waves in. It was also affordable – $50 and it included board and surf shirt rental and a free souvenir shirt.
Watch baby sea turtles get released back in the wild.
After the endangered baby sea turtles hatch in the incubator, park rangers and volunteers release them on the beach and we watched as they safely crawled their way to the ocean, guarded from seagulls by nets and flags held by volunteers. One cool fact: when these baby sea turtles are ready to lay eggs, they will instinctively come back to the beach they are hatched to do it. You can read all about these endangered sea turtles here.
I had some quick thoughts during my trip:
1. The bright moon, the rumbling waves and insect sounds as the only noises that could be heard, and a sky full of stars. Our universe is big, mysterious and beautiful. It’s nice to get away from civilization and revel in it.
2. I think there’s magic in a long walk on the beach as the sun sets. It reminded me about the joy in a life filled with taking adventures, trying new things and seeing new places. It’s so enlightening and exciting. I think a life of adventure is absolutely necessary in life. And yes, I totally like long walks on the beach now.
3. As we were walking back after the surf lesson, I asked our instructor (who was probably younger than me) if she had ever been to Austin. She paused, chuckled and said, “yep, I lived there for two months. I was staying with my cousin but I started feeling too land-locked and just had to leave.”
Just had to leave. That is so powerful and romantic to me. The decision, the need, the life was so clear and obvious that she was drawn to it, she couldn’t live without it, and she knew there was no other option than to answer the call. I hope I always have passions and people that I feel that way about. And what if we lived life like that? With undeniable passion, drive and confidence. It would change how we do things and how we love people.
What have you accomplished from your life list lately?
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