Once we arrived only 2 and a 1/2 hours later, James was ready to hit the beach. Since it was getting on dinner time we decided we would just head down for a few minutes, go grab dinner and then head back down after dinner. Here are some photos from our first evening there:
The first night there was pretty pleasant, but I did realize we needed reinforcements (even for only one child). Luckily my parents were going to be joining us the next day. We have taken James on several beach vacations, but we usually go with multiple families that have children close to James' age. What I realized on this trip was that James needs the interaction with other little ones to make the trip truly enjoyable for himself (and for us). It may just be the age he's at (almost 3), but he was incredibly difficult on this trip. He rarely listened to what we were telling him and chose to do the complete opposite. I've heard of terrible twos and threes, but I feel like he can be beyond "terrible". At this point in the trip, we had resigned ourselves to the fact that this just wasn't going to be the relaxing trip we were hoping for, but we had to make the best of it.
Day 2, we were up early (not necessarily by choice, but because we have a child that NEVER sleeps in) and I was able to shoot some pictures of the sunrise...
I was too lazy to walk all the way down to the beach, but still got a pretty good shot :-)
I managed to get a cool shot of a flock of pelicans flying above me
We then headed back down to the beach for some playtime. James loved playing in the sand, which I'm thrilled about since, like his mother, he can be a little OCD about being dirty.
Daddy and James worked very hard on their extra-large castle.
James loved looking out over the ocean with his binoculars
After lunch and a much needed nap, my parents arrived, so we headed back to the beach for some more playtime. James' demeanor almost changed immediately once Papa and Gigi showed up. Must be something about grandparents, but they can always get James to listen better than we can. The first day or two we were unsuccessful in getting James into the water, but leave it to my father to get him to do anything.
He had an absolute blast in the waves, especially with Papa. I love to watch the bond between them develop further and further.
The next day we headed into town for the necessary tourist shopping and ofcourse we had to take the obligatory "inside the sharks mouth" and large wooden cutout photos
The rest of the trip just consisted of more beach time and relaxation. We also stopped by the Texas State Aquarium on the way home. Here are some more photos from the remainder of the trip and the aquarium.
So that was our 2001 beach trip to Port A. Unfortunately it was not nearly as relaxing as we had hoped. But I guess that is just something we will need to get used to for probably the next 15 years or so (atleast on "family" trips). We are heading up to the Outerbanks of North Carolina next month with 5 other couples and their children. I am hopeful that with multiple other children for James to play with, he will be more manageable. Only time will tell. Luckily, I can look back at these pictures years from now and remember the good times, not the bad. I have also learned that I need to take things in stride and just go with the flow. It turns out I'm learning and growing just as much as James is...imagine that :-)
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