When I feel the waves rush over my feet, pulling water across the beach as I sink deeper into the heavy sand, and allow myself to get lost in the seemingly endless expanse of the ocean, I feel closer to God. It renews me spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically. Now, I know that God is with me wherever I am. But I unfortunately allow myself to be swallowed by my schedule, by the city (however small it may be), and by the day to day stuff. <-- I need to work on not letting that happen so often.

We took advantage of a four-day weekend to drive to South Padre Island and relax together (including our three dogs). We drove the Jeep onto the sand and found an isolated stretch of beach, popped the trunk open, and set up a tent. Actually, Alan did all of the tent work. I ran around in the water with Chipmunk and Ophelia (Shooter, meanwhile, would have none of this water stuff and lounged in the Jeep most of the time). We enjoyed the water, napped in the tent, I read "The Locust Effect," and we ate elote (it's one of my favorite things ever).

It rained off and on--huge drops that pelted the water (and me) so that it seemed that the rain was coming from both above and below me--but the weather was sunny most of our trip. The clouds were large and puffy. Gazing at the sky, I briefly lamented over the fact that we no longer refer to the skies as "the heavens," and Isaiah 6:3 popped into my head. The New Living Translation says:

They were calling out to each other, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Heaven's Armies! The whole earth is filled with his glory!"

How incredible is it to stop and ponder God's majesty--the way the waves will never stop, the circle of life in the scuttling crabs and the empty seashells that were once home to little animals. I tend to forget to look for God's invisible qualities in the every day; surrounding myself with nature helps to remind me how creative and amazing and worthy of praise God is.

For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. -Romans 1:20 (NLT)

We also took the dogs for long walks and I attempted my own version of in vivo flooding by standing in shallow water at night, because the waves would temporarily beach little fish and they would flounder on the sand and work their way back into the water. Naturally, I thought it would be an excellent idea to stand where the fish would touch me and flop over my feet.

It was not an excellent idea. And I still have my fish phobia. Because honestly, how is anyone supposed to confidently enter the water when doing so throws you somewhere in the middle of the food chain? Obviously, I wouldn't go into water deeper than my ribcage. Alan, meanwhile, went all Jacques Cousteau and found some interesting marine life.

We also combed the beach for shells. Alan found a conch shell for me and I found a sand dollar for him. One of our traditions is to give each other gifts that we find as opposed to buy. Which works out really well because we spend most of our money on food, anyway.

We purchased some ceviche from the Shrimp Haus to eat in our condo on the first night and ate at the Sea Ranch Restaurant-Bar another evening. I realized that my favorite dinners tend to be the ones that we take out and eat wherever we are--on a trip to Galveston, we bought our dinner at Joe's Crab Shack but drove to the waterside to eat in the Jeep and watch the waves. We also tried Burgerfi, which has great veggie burgers and "urban fries"--fries with parmesan cheese, herbs, and garlic aoili. We made a Burgerfi stop on our way home and got comfy with the Jeep as our table--I've also realized that I really enjoy settling in to the Jeep on long road trips.

It's a relief to know that there are a few beaches within a day's drive of home, if ever we want to take a last minute trip. We also came home with some jugs of ocean water, which we simmered until we were left with some delicious sea salt. We made (if you "make" sea salt) a plain variety, as well as a roasted garlic and a rosemary garlic sea salt, so now we have constant (delicious) reminders of our first trip to South Padre Island.

fredericksburg tx

We celebrated the extended Labor Day weekend with a trip to Fredericksburg. Fredericksburg seems like it's in the middle of nowhere (especially when it's the closest town with an emergency vet and you're passing upward of 30 deer along the road in the middle of the night), but it's an adorable town (or maybe a city?). The main street (and some of the side streets) are mostly filled with boutiques and restaurants. Fredericksburg thrives on tourism, so there are lots of bed and breakfasts, too (we stayed at Terah's Garden). The city is also dog-friendly and it's apparently the only city in the state where it's perfectly legal to walk around with an open alcoholic beverage.

Fredericksburg is located along the wine trail in Hill Country, so we stopped by William Chris Vineyards on the way. Not only was it my first wine tasting, but it was our first as a couple.

Afterward, we grabbed lunch at Mahaley's Cafe. They serve a pretty good veggie croissant and have a nice selection of pastries. We relaxed at the b&b for a while before heading out to visit a second winery. We checked out Messina Hof, which has a nice selection.

We ate dinner at the b&b to save money and spent the evening chatting and watching the news.

We spent the following day shopping. There are a lot of home decor shops. There is also a lot of money needed to buy things in those shops. For the most part, we browsed, but we did pick up some treats at Dogologie (of all of the stores in Fredericksburg, Dogologie was the store I wanted to visit the most). We also checked out Der Kuchen Laden (it was really weird to see so much German in the middle of Texas ... it was like being back in Pennsylvania ... except people wore cowboy boots and Stetsons). Der Kuchen Laden is located in an old hospital along with Rathskeller, which is where we ate lunch.

I thought the photos and ads were misleading--I expected something semi-upscale, but it looked more like a family restaurant. The staff was friendly, however; when a toddler in our party decided to check out the fish in the nearby koi pond up close and personal, they gave us some towels to dry her off and didn't complain about the wet chair.

In all, our trip was exhausting but fun. I definitely think an extra day would have helped--we didn't even have a chance to check out the National Museum of the Pacific War, but I've decided to save that for if/when my parents visit.