This past weekend, JP and I went on a wonderful anniversary trip to the beach! Now, I know that Texas beaches are far from the best, but after a coupes up, cold winter, I was craving sand between my toes. Luckily, we do live close enough to a beach that is actually pretty nice. A 3 hour drive and we’re in Corpus Christi! I wanted to share with y’all some of the things we did and where we stayed to help anyone out that may want to take a nice weekend getaway!
Hotel:
Before I get started, let’s have a chat about where we stayed! We stayed at the Hampton Inn off Navigation near downtown Corpus. This location worked great for us because we were close to North Beach which is downtown, along we a a few other attractions we wanted to do! There are other hotels closer to Padre Island which is a nice area as well.
The hotel was very clean and our room was just perfect. Plenty of space for me to spread out the multitude of things that I packed for only 2 nights. What can I say, I’d hate to not have something I want!
We love going to Hampton Inns because they’re usually a great deal and they include breakfast! This girl LOVES her breakfast 🙂
Our Weekend:
Friday
We got to Corpus around 3:00pm on Friday. Just in time to check in, put our stuff into our room, change and head to the beach! We stayed at the beach for a few hours soaking up the sun and walking on the beach. The water was chilly, but we still managed to walk through it a bit. Mostly because the soft sand was hard to walk on (we were totally sore the next morning!).
After the beach, we cleaned up and went to a nice dinner at a quaint little Italian restaurant that my sister recommended, Luciano’s. Oh yum, Emily did not steer us wrong! I had the pasta primavera with shrimp. I mean, just look at how tasty!
Obligatory iPhone in the mirror selfie of my handsome man and me!
Saturday
Since I’m practically incapable of sleeping in, we were up and at ’em before 8:00am Saturday morning. We took our time and went down for breakfast before getting ready for the day. First stop, the Texas State Aquarium! If you’ve been around for a while, you know my love of animals. I am a member of the Houston Zoo after all. Which, by the way, got us a 50% discount off of our tickets. SCORE! I loved seeing all the animals and the dolphin show was amazing!
Hey look to the right, it’s Nemo and friends!
After a few hours at the aquarium in awe of dolphins, watching the otters play and petting sting rays, we went on a walk over to North Beach for lunch! The aquarium is actually near several beach/ocean front restaurants, so we were able to keep our car in one place and walk around. Eventually we found a cute beachside restaurant that was mainly outside and looked like it had a pretty lively bar.
Fajitaville had decently priced, yummy Tex Mex and awesome margs! Frozen house marg with no salt. Yes please! I also splurged and had the nachos with chicken black beans and white cheese. They were delish.
When we were finishing up, I got a call from Kathy, one of my friends from high school/college, to come meet up with them in Port Aransas! So we were off. Port A is about 45-60 minutes away from Corpus. We were on the further end of Corpus, but it was an easy drive to meet them at Bernie’s Beach Bar. We enjoyed several (possibly a few too many) drinks and sat out in the sun all afternoon! I had SUCH a blast with them…just ask JP 🙂
Sunday
Our final day in Corpus was spent at the USS Lexington! This huge boat is in the same area as the aquarium (again only 5 minutes from our hotel). The USS Lexington is a retired Navy aircraft carrier that made it through BOTH world wars. It was launched in 1942, decommissioned in 1948, recommissioned in 1955 and officially retired in 1991.
The Japanese nicknamed her “The Blue Ghost” because it was one of the few ships of the blueish-grey coloring and every time they thought they had brought her down, she would always be back and ready for action!
The ship itself is very neat and there are 5 separate self-guided tours you can go through on the boat. We spent a little over 2 hours on the ship and still didn’t see everything. It’s huge!
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| I’ll never turn down a photoshoot |
I loved being up on the deck where we could view various fighter jets, planes and helicopters. We were also able to climb up on the guns and pretend we were shooting them. Kind of awesome. This thing is a little boy’s dreamland!
After several hours of walking around, this girl needed food in her belly, so lunchtime it was. We walked over to a little beachside joint called Pier 99. They had tons of seafood (and non-seafood) options. I splurged again and had the shrimp po boy! It was worth every bite. The entire restaurant is kind of outside, but there are covered areas. It’s right on the water and a very chill place. I wish it hadn’t been so windy on Sunday so I could have enjoyed the atmosphere more!.
After lunch, we were on our way back home! We had two puppies that were probably missing us. Plus it was Easter and I wanted to see my family a bit.
Overall, it was a wonderful trip. We did everything I wanted from the beach to the aquarium, being with friends and the USS Lexington. Most importantly, I got to spend the weekend with my husband and just enjoy all the time with him. It was pretty perfect and only a quick drive down to the coast!
Do y’all do anniversary trips?
We’ve done Washington D.C., New Orleans and our European cruise for our first 3 anniversaries!
