Last Updated on February 8, 2023 by Left Lane
After arriving to our room at the Hilton Garden Inn South Padre Island late into the night of our first stay. We weren’t granted a full view of the beautiful oceanfront until after sunrise. Being the Coffee drinker that I am, the day doesn’t officially start until after Coffee.
First thing on the day’s agenda was to find Coffee & breakfast. After using Yelp to scour food reviews, & restaurants that were currently open the day after Christmas. We decided upon a local restaurant called The Grapevine Cafe & Coffeehouse.
A WALK ON THE BEACH
After breakfast from the Grapevine, which was absolutely delicious. We decided it was time to head to the beach to check out the shores of South Padre Island.
After arriving on the shores finally, we were greeted by some of the local beach sand castle artwork. On the island there’s a game for tourists, & locals to play. In which you can find the sand art designed at different locations around the island.
We enjoyed walking the beach, & watching the local seabirds wait patiently to steal the fish from the fishermen as they reeled in their catches, it was quite entertaining. Although the fishermen weren’t finding it as funny as everyone else on the beach :-).
With miles of shoreline to walk, & restaurants scattered all along the coast. It’s easy to just enjoy your time on the shores & find a place to relax wherever your leisurely stroll may take you.
As we continued our exploration of the coastline, we came across a garden where the palms looked slightly different then the others. After a close investigation, it turned out we had located a Banana tree garden on South Padre Island.
DINNER FOR THE DAY
After spending the day exploring the island from the shoreline. We were ready to figure out what we were going to do for dinner for the evening. After looking through all the local restaurants on the map, we decided on a place called The Lookout Bar & Refuge.
After eating so much food in one day. We decided to end the day with a sunset walk on the beach. We had to go home soon, before we had to be rolled home. Because South Padre Island has feed us well.
The sunset walk along the beach was peaceful, with tiny little crabs scurrying along the beach. Their little legs carrying them along in a blur of movement.
Every once in awhile there was the occasional mystery crunch underfoot, & you just had to be optimistic & hope it was one of the many seashells scattered along the shore. This was an ideal day of relaxation.
ADVENTURES OF DAY 4
After discovering The Grapevine Restaurant. We decided it was the best place to get breakfast & Coffee again on day 4. Because just in case I haven’t mentioned it, the day doesn’t start before Coffee 🤣.
THE TURTLE GAME
There was a local gift store on the island called Turtle Island Beachwear. It’s a really new business, only being open for three months currently. My partner, with Turtles being her favorite animal. Just had to stop by this store, due to the 33 foot tall, & 20 foot wide Turtle named Tank on the front of the store.
Tank had a information plaque mounted on the wall beside him with a QR Code on the plaque.
After scanning the QR code it took you to a website which gave you more information about Tank, & led to the discovery of the Sea Turtle Art Trail. Once my partner found out there was an entire trail of Sea Turtle art. There was no stopping her from seeing them all. To see photos her visiting every Sea Turtle on the Island Click Here
BICYCLES FOR 2, A TURTLE HUNT
I had noticed that South Padre Island had a bicycle rental store, or two. They also had bicycle lanes on both sides of the road. Making it convenient to get around the island by bicycle. I personally wanted to bike the Island of South Padre to explore the local businesses.
With my partner wanting to explore the Sea Turtle Art Trail. We decided that the best way to do so, would be to rent bicycles & hit the Turtle Art Trail. We called multiple stores to ask about renting a bicycle, being told they were sold out by each store. We then decided to hit the streets & drive store to store until we found a bike, 5 bicycle stores later. We had bicycles, & were ready to hit the Turtle Trail.
Neither one of us had looked at a map of how far apart all of the Turtle Art Sculptures were. We didn’t know how long this bike ride was going to be. In my mind we were going to ride 5 maybe 6 miles on the bicycles. Being as they strategically placed the Turtles at locations stretching from one city limit, to the other city limit. Boy was I wrong, we were in for a ride!
The city limit of South Padre Island is just about 6 miles long, & less then a 1/2 mile wide. Which ended up taking us on an 11 plus mile bicycle ride across the island.
Not even a few blocks into our journey, I noticed my partner was struggling more with her bicycle then I was. I asked her did she want to swap bikes & she said yes. She had picked the green bike because it was her favorite color.
After swapping bikes, it turns out the green bike had been left out in one to many rainstorms, or taken on one to many dips into the saltwater. It’s pedal & chain drive system were extremely rusted, & made pedaling a laborious task. The fact that the back wheel was slightly warped, didn’t help much either. The bike was so bad, it required standing up to pedal on flat ground as if you were continuously climbing a hill.
After toughing it out until we made it back to the bike rental shop. The shop was an entire 3 miles away, which this rusty warped bicycle transformed from a leisurely ride, into an uphill climb the whole way. I quickly exchanged her rusty bike for a better bike & we were back out on the Turtle Trail.
LUNCH BREAK
After pedaling to the other side of the Island on our turtle hunt. We we were ready for a break & some lunch. Looking at the local businesses as we passed I noticed a Mexican Restaurant that caught my eye. It was called El Chilango Taqueria.
Don’t know if we were just extra hungry due to the bicycle ride or what, but this was some really good food. After lunch we got back on our bicycles, & were back on the Turtle Trail.
Riding completely across the city of South Padre Island, brought us to the South Padre Island Convention Center for the last Turtle of the trail for us.
We toured the island, ate good, exercised, & created an adventure out of every memory along the way. After an 11 mile bicycle trip we were more then ready to kick back & relax the rest of the night away.
The Roving Gypsy®
Thanks for reading. If you want to hear more about our Holiday Road trip, & see where we end up. Like, share, comment & let me know… To Be Continued…
