Home Is Where the Navy Sends Us: Corpus Christi, Texas & Surrounding Areas

The trip from Pensacola, FL to Corpus Christi, TX really is not all THAT long in the grand scheme of things but it sure seemed to go on forever. The drive is 733 miles following I-10 and it takes 12 hours.

Along the way we stopped in Mobile, Alabama to see the USS Alabama, the resident Battleship turned museum/tourist attraction. It was pretty awesome to see the ship along with the memorials they have outside of it. We couldn't stay long though because we had our little man, Iccabod, in the truck with us. It was worth the stop though!

Our next stop on our journey to Texas was, of course, New Orleans,

Louisiana. It was the first time there for both of us and I doubt our short little stop did the city any justice but it was very cool to be able to stop, even for just a few short hours, to see what the city has to offer. We stayed long enough to explore a few shops and stop for dinner. For dinner we actually ate at a restaurant called The Gumbo Shop. It was certainly a happening and popular place. It had very unique and interesting decor and the food was great! I believe we had some alligator sausage for an appetizer {delicious} but I can not for the life of me remember what we each had for entrées. After dinner, we browsed a few more random shops and headed back to our car because, again, we had our little man to worry about!

Dinner!

Alligator Sausage

Dinner

My husband, boyfriend at the time, thought that between the two of us we could make the drive in one day and did not want to stop. That did not happen...we were both getting too darn tired. We tried stopping at a rest area and napping for a bit but that did not really help because it was way too hot to sleep without the truck on and the A/C going full blast. It ended up being pointless. So we trudged on and made it a little further and got into Houston, TX. I finally told him we HAD to stop. We were both too tired and, despite only being a few hrs away from Corpus, if we continued one of us might fall asleep at the wheel. He finally agreed and we ended up stopping on the SW side of Houston (probably not the best place in the world). This was after we went through a very long and drawn out search for a hotel that would allow our critter! We certainly were not going to leave the little dude in the truck!! This was not an easy task because apparently almost every single hotel is not pet

Waiting for daddy to come
out of the hotel!

friendly....jerks. The place we found was not the greatest in the world but it would sufficiently serve its purpose, a bed to sleep in. My husband did not sleep much because he was too worried about all the stuff we had in the back of the truck. I swear that man was up every 10 minutes to open the door and check on it. God love him. It did not help matters that Icky felt human-attention deprived and wanted some lovin. In the end, I slept just fine so I ended up finishing up our drive the next day.

We only had a couple of hours left to reach our final destination so we were not too concerned about getting an early start to our day, we opted to sleep in instead. While I drove my husband tried to catch some Zzzs, since his sleep was so lacking through the night, but a Ford Ranger is not made for road-napping...So, again, he did not get much sleep.

We arrived at our apartment complex in the early afternoon. It was The Bay Club and I had found it through an online apartment search. To say the very least, we were underwhelmed. The pictures that The Bay Club us online can be a bit deceiving. The entire complex is older than what the pictures show but for what we were paying it was a pretty great deal! For $650.00 with a military discount ($700.00 after water/trash fees) we got a decent sized 2BR/1BA really close to base (walking distance.) Unfortunately, they did not have the apartment we had originally reserved (on the bay) available and could not tell us why. So we ended up stuck in a building by South Padre Island Drive (SPID) which was very noisy and loud. It was not a pleasant

He claimed his new spot.

experience but I guess we mostly got used to the traffic noises except at night. My husband usually slept with ear plugs in because he could not sleep well with all the noise. Overall, I would say live there if you can get into one of the buildings in the back away from the highway. They do, however, have a pretty steep pet deposit. It was $400.00 with $300.00 of it being non-refundable. This was even for our little cat. Yes, I said 1 little cat that did not even weight a full 12 pounds soaking wet. Kind of crazy in my opinion,

I found an app that adds captions...

especially because they would have wanted another $400.00 if they knew we had later gotten a second cat!! {good thing we never told them!}

If my husband had listened to me after we got there and toured the apartment, we probably would have lived elsewhere, but he was tired and just wanted to lay down, relax, and go to sleep. I could not blame him so we just signed our lease and made the best of it by making the place our own.

We wouldn't have our stuff for a while
so we pretty quickly got a futon!

Whenever your stuff finally
arrives if feels like you
will never get it all unpacked!

If you have ever been in Corpus Christi for any extended period of time that was NOT Spring Break, you probably know that there is not a whole heck of a lot to do there. They have the usual shopping and movie theaters and parks but not much else. The mall is decent but a girl can only go shopping at the same place so many times before there is nothing new or affordable that you need. I cannot believe I just said that...As I will list later, there
were a few things to do, but, again, you can only do certain things so many times before you do not want to pay money to see something you have already seen or before you can not or do not want to do it again. Our go-to thing was always going to the movie theater because at least it was always different. Any other time, we would escape Corpus whenever we could.

Oso Bay by Our Apartment

NAS Corpus Christi leaves a few things to be desired in addition to the city itself. Overall, it looks to be a very old base that could do with some updates such as painting the buildings and things like that. Along with that, it is all a relatively small base. Granted, the only other base I had ever seen at this point was Pensacola so you can imagine me comparing the two. Really, base has the essentials and not much else. The commissary and the NEX are also very small. I only went in the commissary twice and never really did any grocery shopping there so I cannot really tell too much about it. The NEX, however, was ok and we went there a few times. To be honest, we are very glad that we have a VERY good chance of never being put back in Corpus Christi. We would certainly never CHOOSE to be there so hopefully it will not happen.

Downtown Corpus Christi

Things to do in Corpus Christi:

1. The USS Lexington

The Lex is definitely something to see while in Corpus Christi. It is a huge aircraft carrier that has been made into a public attraction. On the deck they have a variety of different aircraft for your viewing pleasure. You can also go throughout the ship and explore the different rooms and areas. I would recommend going on a cooler day because the ship heats up quite a bit on a hot summer day.

2. Texas State Aquarium

The Texas State Aquarium is certainly woth the admission fee. It is probably one of the best aquariums I have ever been to. They not only have a variety of aquatic life to see but they also keep a multitude of amphibians and reptiles as well. On the outside, they have the dolphins which do various shows a day, an alligator, a few different birds of prey,some of which perform in the birds of prey show, and sting rays which you can touch and feed at certain times of the day. It is quite a fun experience! One other thing they have, specifically geared toward children, is the HEB Splash Zone. It is essentially a mini water park.

3. South Texas Botanical Gardens

The botanical gardens are something to definitely visit if you enjoy gardens. It was very beautiful and in addition to the flowers and plants they also have exotic birds and reptiles along with a butterfly garden. The birds and the butterflies were probably my favorite. I would recommend going on a day in the spring which is cooler and not as humid because the humidity can make it just unbearable to walk around. The gardens are certainly worth the $7 for adults and the $6 for active duty.

4. Paintball

Unfortunately, we did not discover this little gem until mere weeks before we were moving away. It certainly would have been nice to know about before hand because it would have added one more thing for us to do on our very short list of things. It was very fun. They had multiple areas to play on with different types of games to choose from as well. We did a wide variety of different areas and games. It was also, in my own opinion, reasonably priced for the amount of fun we had. Again, certainly something to check out if you are looking for something to do.

5. Movie theaters

As said previously, our go-to thing for something to do was to just head to the movie theater. There were 3 different ones in Corpus Christi which we would regularly hit up. The one we most commonly went to was Century 16 Corpus Christi. It was the closest to our apartment and the nicest of the 3. Large, clean theaters and a great concession stand made this one a favorite. The second one we liked to go to was the dollar theater at Sunrise Mall. Now, the mall itself has pretty much shut down with only a very few remaining shops still open. However, the theater is relatively nice and very clean for being what it is. We were pleasantly surprised the first time we went there and continued to go there because of that. It was a nice change of pace to only pay $1 per person to see a movie! The third theater we went to a few times, was the Starplex Cinemas. This one was not as nice as Century 16 but slightly cheaper which made it worth it to drive the few extra miles.

6. Bob Hall Pier

This pier is nice to visit just to walk out on it. You can fish there as well. They do have a $2 per person fee to walk out on the pier which, unless you plan to spend a while out there, might not be worth it. You also have to pay per pole if you would like to fish.

7. Hike/Walk along Holly Rd. in Flour Bluff and Around Oso Bay

This one, my husband kind of discovered. He was always looking for new places to run and he found this great route which goes across the Oso Bay by way of an old and abandoned railroad bridge. The loop we did went from our apartment, down Flour Bluff Dr., down Holly Dr, across the old railroad bridge, down to Paul Jones Ave., and then back along SPID. It was a total of 5 miles and a pretty great walk/hike.

It just comes to an end...

At the other side of Oso Bay!
Not much left...

The whole "bridge" was too cool!
Awesome pictures!

What happens when hubs gets
the camera

8. Padre Island National Seashore
The National Seashore was my favorite part of South Texas. You could not only go to the beach, but the beaches there are actually considered highways so you can drive on them!! Best thing ever! If you have a 4-wheel drive vehicle, you can drive as far as 60 miles down the island and once you get to about 20 miles, you start to find a TON of sea glass and some pretty cool shells too. The best place I found for shells was probably closer to 30 miles down but you could find little patches of sea glass all the way down and we certainly picked up our fair share of it! Occasionally we would find a few very random things that we thought we interesting that others might consider trash. Unfortunately, the currents in the ocean make it so that tons of trash ends up on the beaches but, like I said, some of it can be pretty cool. This would be my number one recommendation for something to do while in South Texas. Not to mention, military personnel can get a free national parks pass and (I think) one dependent can put their name on the back as well to also get in for free! Petty sweet deal!!

He is so sweet =)

He studied and I took pictures.

The birds loved us!

I asked him to do this just to
get this picture...he truly loves me!

I love this picture!!

Great little german bakery!

Padre Island National Seashore

The entry gate gives
you the beach conditions
every day!

Barnacles

Baby crabs run all over at night!

9. Lake Corpus Christi
We only made it up to Lake Corpus Christi once but it was worth the drive! We passed it every time we drove up to San Antonio but did not make it there until months after we had been in Corpus. We went into a park up at the lake and got to explore a pretty neat building. It was kind of off season when we went so there were not very many people. It looked like mostly there was camping and swimming but not much else. It was the perfect outdoorsy type place for us and if picnics are your thing it would be a great place to visit for that as well!

Places to Eat:

1. On the Border--Pretty decent mexican food chain, but it is just that, a chain.

2. Pier 99--AMAZING little hole in the wall right outside the USS Lex. They have really great fried oysters and amazing hush puppies!

3. AKA Sushi--Very reasonably priced sushi and one of the best places I have ever had sushi.

4. Water Street Oyster Bar--Some of the best sushi I have ever had but VERY pricey place. Probably best for special occasions...

Places to Shop:

1. Padre Staples Mall--Decent sized mall with all of your typical mall stores.

2. Cavenders Boot City--Excellent place to buy some cowboy boots. Very friendly staff and very helpful as well.

Grocery Shopping:

1. HEB--Probably my favorite grocery store ever....Little more can be said other than it is awesome.

Veterinarian:

1. Padre Animal Hospital--The nicest and most friendly staff I have ever met. They charge very reasonable prices and give excellent care to your animals. My kitties went for, not only routine shots, but also a couple of time when they were not feeling well.

For When you want to escape from Corpus Christi:

Port Aransas

1. Port Aransas Park--Peninsula of rocks.

2. Pelicans Landing--Really great seafood and worth trying at least once! My husband, who is not a big seafood or fish fan, even liked it! Also, the best crab cakes I have ever had!!

3. Free Car Ferry to Aransas Pass--Totally worth the cost (haha): FREE!!
4. Aransas National Wildlife Refuge--This place was awesome! I only wish we would have found it sooner! Also, it's a national park which means military can get in with the free National Park Pass!!

San Antonio

1. River Walk

2. Rainforest Cafe
A very cool experience if you have never eaten here before. However, it is very over priced and honestly only worth doing once in your lifetime.....They do have the restaurant decorated in a very awesome way though!

3. The Alamo

You cannot take photos inside of the Alamo so I do not have any pictures of the inside but I do have some good ones from the outside!

4. Tower of the Americas

5. Rivercenter Mall

Other Places Worth Seeing:

1. New Braunfels, TX-- Eat at the Gristmill (If it is NOT a holiday weekend!)
I don't have many photos from our stop in New Braunfels but I do have some pics of our hotel (which, of course, I forget the name of!)

2. Boerne, TX -- Stay at Ye Kendall Inn (They have an AMAZING military discount!)
Again, not a ton of pictures of the town itself, or the county fair we went to, but some pictures of our AWESOME cabin, yes, I said CABIN! And it was under $100 with a military discount)