South Padre Island: Land of Hospitality

Our trip to the beach was paradise. The temperature outside never dipped below 80, and never went past 90. And the water? Well, one morning we went for a dip at 7:30 am, and it was still quite warm. Needless to say, before we leave Texas, we'll be returning to South Padre Island.

We went exploring our last night and came across uninhabited beach and sand dunes. So of course we had to get out of the car and explore.

The kids' favorite thing at the beach? The little clams in the sand that would pop out when the tide came in, and then burrowed back in the sand. Dottie would take handfuls of them and smash them back in the sand, yelling, "Hibernate, hibernate!"

So, my son has sleeping problems. Going to a hotel with him is not a fun time. He kicked Joe out of the bed the first night and cried on and off for a few hours, waking up Ruby. So, the second night, we made a bed for him by pushing together an armchair and footstool. And amazingly enough, he slept through the night. So here's the kids, nice and sunburned, on Elliot's "bed."

Now for the title, "Land of Hospitality." People were so nice to us there. The first night, we went out to a seafood restaurant. After the meal, Joe asked if they had a military discount, which many restaurants do. The waitress went to check, came back and said, "My boss saw you holding your baby girl all through dinner, so for you, 15%." Now that was nice. But my next story will blow you away.

We went to an Italian restaurant. My kids were not horrible, but their usual rambunctious selves: Dottie didn't want dressing on her pre-dressed salad, Elliot didn't want to be pushed in at the table, Ruby had her wild yeller on because she was getting hungry and tired, the kids had to go to the bathroom multiple times, and finally, Dottie dumped her cup of water all over the table. Pretty typical dinner at a restaurant for us, honestly. So, after I got done eating, I took Ruby to the car to nurse while Joe finished feeding the kids. He comes out to the car and tells me, "Someone paid our bill!" I was astonished! When Joe went to pay, the waiter informed him that someone covered our meal! And we even ordered dessert, which almost never happens.

So we felt really blessed. That was seriously so generous of someone. I'm hoping it was because they remembered what it was like to have a young family, and not because they felt sorry for us or just wanted us out of the restaurant. Anyway. We're going to pay it forward someday when we're "loaded" enough to pay for a young family's meal.