Welcoming Sentiments

Holiday break has a way of sneaking up on me. For years, we headed to Michigan to ski, but lodging has gotten so expensive that we stopped going. The problem? I never quite replaced that trip with anything else.

So this year, in a bit of a last-minute scramble, I started searching for somewhere warmer. That’s how we landed on Texas. As I kept researching, I noticed how dog-friendly everything seemed—and since we were thinking about bringing our golf clubs anyway, it quickly turned into a full-on road trip.

Twenty hours in the car, ten days total, two days driving down and three days coming back… let the adventure begin!

Texarkana: First Stop

Our first night was in Texarkana—and our first time staying in a hotel with a dog. It turns out, it’s not hard at all to find pet-friendly options. We stayed at the Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott, which was clean, comfortable, and easy.

Dinner that night was at Redbone Magic Brewing Company a great dog-friendly spot. They brought out a water bowl for Boomer right away and made a big deal about welcoming him. The food was good, and the large outdoor patio would be a great time in warmer weather.

Mustang Beach

Our first day in Texas was one of the nicest. We took Boomer for a walk on the beach. Watching Boomer experience the ocean for the first time was worth the trip alone. He ran straight into the water, got surprised by the waves for a few seconds, and then fully committed. Thank goodness our complex had a hose attached to the outside shower/fish cleaning area to help get sand out of his fur.

Corpus Christi

We had a mix of weather—some beautiful days and some very cold, windy ones.

On the nice days, we got out to golf. JP is getting to the point where if he stays focused for a full round, he might start beating me… which I’m not fully ready for.

When the weather didn’t cooperate, we found some great indoor options.

USS Lexington

The USS Lexington was very enjoyable. We did the self guided tour and move pretty quickly through things like this. Every once in a while something will catch someones attention and will stop and actually read more but even with our quicker pace it still took us a few hours to get through.

It was very interesting to see the areas where there is a dentist office, operating rooms, post office and more. You don’t think of the needs they will have being on a ship for so long.

It was so windy and cold we did not spend a lot of time on the flight deck. There are several different planes that you can look at. We found the one from Top Gun and headed back inside.

The Texas State Aquarium

Right next door to the USS Lexington is the Texas State Aquarium, which made for an easy next stop after lunch at Pier 99. Some of their exhibits were very unique. The dolphins, otters and stingrays are actually outside.

It’s also fun when the exhibits have little places to crawl into and pop up in. The shark exhibit was very neat too, it has a big tunnel to walk through so they are swimming on top of you.

Port Aransas

Port Aransas has a lot of fun places too, several of which are dog friendly. We took an afternoon and explored the little beach town with Boomer. The BierHaus was one of our favorite places. You could stay on the fun swings all day!

Another spot we visited a couple of times was the Barefoot Beans coffee shop. It’s in a small plaza with a few shops, a restaurant and has a relaxed grassy lounge area with a couple of lawn games and chairs.

Downtown Corpus Christi

We took some time too on a nicer day with Boomer to walk around Corpus Christi. The waterfront is always a nice treat to walk along. It was pretty quiet for a city. One place that kept popping up in my research was Nueces Brewing Company. That was our lunch destination. Again, another place that brings out the water bowl and it happy to see your pup! The food and drinks were good too. This would be another fun patio on a nice day.

Where We Ate

Once again I am so far behind on my post I don’t remember our exact itinerary but here are a few other places worth mentioning. We didn’t have anything bad while we were here. Most of these we were able to have a great water view too!

• Captains Diner
• Snoopy’s Pier
• FINS Grill & Icehouse – we went here based on the recommendation of the captain of the fishing charter Joe did. They will cook the fresh fish you caught. There’s a catch with that though that we didn’t know until it was too late and we were sitting there, make sure there are no bones in the fish. They took our fish but brought it back because there were too many bones left in it. We had to order off of the menu and took our fish home and froze it.
• Trout Street Bar & Grill
• Landry’s Seafood House

The Trip Home

We have some pretty awesome friends that let us stop in and stay for a visit on our way home. We appreciated this especially since we had Boomer with us!

The first stop was Waco, TX. This was the first day of our trip where it was actually nice enough to swim! Thanks for letting Joseph and Boomer enjoy your pool 😉 We headed into Waco for a trip to The Silos. It was worth the visit to see but a little underwhelming. We walked across the suspension bridge that crosses the Brazos river and went to Lovers Leap to see pretty views of the river.

The last leg took us to O’Fallon, IL for a chill night to just hang out. It is always nice to visit and catch up with them!