In mid-July, our family took a brief trip to Corpus Christi, TX. One of our kids' favorite parts of any vacation is staying in a hotel-- mostly so they can jump on the beds, watch cable cartoons, and swim in the pool. We utilized the pool well, swimming in it each day of our visit.
One of the biggest tourist attractions in Corpus, other than visiting the beach, is touring the USS Lexington, a WWII aircraft carrier.
We spent several hours at this unique museum. There are 5 self-guided tours within the ship which visitors can follow to explore and learn about various parts of the warship.
Getting to all the various decks required a lot of climbing. Jaden and Cody loved this!
We first visited the flight deck where we saw vintage aircraft, anti-aircraft guns, and landing control stations along this 910-foot runway. Amazing!
The other self-guided tours included walks through the forecastle (an area which houses the anchoring equipment and showcases a special Pearl Harbor exhibit), the gallery deck (where we saw the captain's cabin and the Combat Information Center), the lower decks (including the crew's living quarters, the dental clinic, the engine room, and the sick bay), and the hangar deck (where maintainence, refueling, and rearming of the aircraft took place). It was quite a remarkable and amazingly large ship!
Unfortunately, shortly after returning to our hotel that evening, Adley came down with a tummy bug. We are learning that it is VERY difficult for our family to take a vacation and keep everyone healthy! The next morning, Jason stayed back with Adley in the hotel while I took the boys to the beach.
The boys and I discovered that the coast was lined with rocks and many, many seashells. The boys spent some time picking out some favorite seashells to give to Adley. They built forts in the sand and played in the water, too. The downer sides of our morning were when Cody cut his foot on a seashell and when Jaden got stung by a jellyfish!! The boys continued to play for a while after their injuries, but both were a little more hesitant about getting back into the water again. They both decided they liked our Galveston beaches much better! Nevertheless, the three of us enjoyed the sunny weather, the chance to cool off in the water, and the beautiful God-given scenery.
The rest of the afternoon included some time to clean off in the hotel pool, a few more hotel cartoons, and a tasty order-in dinner. That evening, the boys and I went out on the town for one more adventure. I had used a Groupon to purchase a city scavenger hunt through a company called Let's Roam. The scavenger hunt was an hour-long walking tour through downtown Corpus. The clues led us to various landmarks where we had to answer questions about the artwork or buildings in each location. It was fun seeing some hidden gems in the city that we wouldn't have otherwise found. The scavenger hunt was a bit long for walking in the heat, but thankfully the boys didn't complain. Answering the questions was very do-able, even for the boys, so they seemed to enjoy entering each correct answer into Mommy's phone. Here are a few of the (10 total) sites we found on the scavenger hunt.
Our last scavenger hunt find-- the Watergarden-- called for a concluding victory jump. Hooray! We decided to celebrate with a Marble Slab ice cream treat on the way back to the hotel.
With Adley's unfortunate sickness, our family Corpus trip didn't turn out exactly as we had planned. But, our family was still able to meet with a new young pastor and his family that Jason has been mentoring this past year. We attended their church, which was just 30 minutes from Corpus, and went out to dinner with this family. Overall, we appreciated exploring a new city and having a brief change of pace during this extra-long summer.
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