Relaxing (or at least trying to) in Port A.

portaransas

This past weekend all Brielle wanted for her birthday was “to go to the ocean”. Well, we made that happened and my parents booked a trip for all of us to go to Port Aransas from Fri-Sun.

I am going to break down the hotel we stayed at, the restaurants we ate at, and some of the best and worst of times during our weekend visit!

On Friday afternoon, after waiting in the LONG ferry line and finally crossing over to enter Port Aransas, we went straight to our hotel (Beach Gate Condos), and started to unload/unpack all of our cars and talk about dinner plans!

Friday night restaurant: We ate at San Juan Restaurant and it was delicious authentic mexican food! I had the most amazing chalupas I have had in a while. Everyone seemed to enjoy it very well, and it had a lot of options for the kids to choose from. Down side was that it was VERY noisy and did not have a lot of room in between the tables for high chairs.

Adventure #1 Paradise Pond behind the restaurant–so pretty, could definitely take some pictures of the scenery there! It was so beautiful! Down side: The mosquitoes were CRAZY bad and we all got a few not so pleasant bites!

Hotel Swimming- It was so nice to have heated pool and a cold pool, especially since our kids tend to freeze pretty easily! We chose to spend most of our time in the heated pool, but of course there is a down side to everything.. and it was definitely the fact that I kept getting other peoples hair ALL over my arms. So gross!

Saturday Morning Breakfast: We ate at the Island Cafe which had AMAZING food and were HUGE portions! 1 pancake could fill you up! When the waitress warns you “you should probably get 1 of anything, because the portion sizes are huge” you should take their advice. I had pancake, and oatmeal and it was so delicious! Down side: When you order oatmeal, the toppings (brown sugar, raisins, milk) come in VERY tiny cups, and you should ask for a few of each if you wanted it to be a decent portion!

Adventure #2 Beach– we spent the entire afternoon out at the ocean with winds approximately 55mph, so that was an adventure in and of itself, but so so fun! The kids laughed, played, and built awesome sand castles (that got swept away), but it was just the perfect relaxation time!

Dinner Saturday night: Seafood and Spaghetti Works had over an hour wait (and no room to wait inside the restaurant) but the food+ the salad bar was SO delicious and worth the wait! Shane got this Double meat, bacon, avocado cheeseburger and finished it ALL! It was crazy good though, so I am not surprised!

Adventure #3 Birding Center–Which was VERY stinky (right next to a water treatment facility) and the smell didn’t leave until about half way on the bridge to the birding center! My parents took us there to go see some alligators, but there were NONE in sight. So shocked and surprised! Downside: There is NO shade and it was very hot out. They did have a viewing deck/observation deck but the stairs were VERY steep and I was kind of scared to have all of my kids go up and down them.

Sunday Morning breakfast: Drive through Restaurant San Juan(same as the first one) on the way out and had the most amazing breakfast tacos!! We would highly recommend them!

Overall, it was a GREAT weekend, with lots of new and fun memories made! We will definitely know better with what to do next time we go though!