#Summer202 - Sea Turtles and Padre Island Evenings

This morning was a special event.  About 7 times a year Kemp's Ridley Sea turtle hatchlings are released, and it just so happened that one was while we were here!  So we were up at 4:45 am for the 40 minute drive to the Malaquite Visitors Center.

Dozens of park volunteers and rangers were on hand to facilitate the release and hundreds of spectators cheered them on.  Really cool!

After that, we took the new Sea Eagle out for a paddle in the Bird Basin section of the park.  Very shallow but neat to see the park from a new perspective. 

On the way back to camp we stopped at a souvenir shop and we spent way too much money.  Then a nap!

Sadie is all about shrimp, so we bought a little over a pound of Gulf shrimp at HEB and I cooked it tonight.  So good!  Then off to Padre Island for one last time at the beach.

About midday a grassfire broke out on the lsland.  We could see the smoke from the KOA, but it did not seem to affect the road in, so about 5 pm we drove passed Malaquite this time, parked on the beach and enjoyed a nice stroll.  Fergus joined us.  To wrap it up we sampled the Champaign the staff at the KOA left is for our anniversary!  So nice.

Tomorrow we are off for Galveston for our next leg of our 2022 beach hop!