Sleeping on the beach

I decided since I told about a bad camping experience, it was only fair to post something about a good experience.

After the Deliverance experience, we headed out for Port Aransas. We weren't really planning on staying over night, but when we learned that we could camp on the beach for a mere $10, we were sold.

I am so glad we did. We pitched the tent and got all of our blankets and pillows situated, decided on a sleeping arrangement and settled down to sleep. Like always, I couldn't fall asleep in such cramped quarters and we put the tent up at the wrong angle, so we didn't get a very good breeze. So I decided to sit outside and watch the ships go thru the channel.

Truly, I think that night may have been once of the best experiences of my life.

After an hour or so, I started to get a little chilled (imagine that, chilled in south Texas in JUNE) and really, really wanted my comforter. The only problem with that was that instead of buying sleeping blankets that we knew would be too hot, we just brought along all the comforters in the house to pad the bottom of the tent so we'd be more comfy.

Bill was still in the tent asleep. On my blanket. About 3 am, I decided to try to 'sneak' the blanket out from under him. It was no use. I finally had to wake him up. So he grabbed two comforters and we kicked back in our canvas chairs. They are slightly reclined and even had footstools. We slept soundly until the alarm on Bill's crackberry went off just before dawn.

When the alarm went off, we woke the kids so they could see the sun rise over the Gulf. The only disappointing part was that there were clouds on the horizon. It was still beautiful and we got some amazing pictures (like the one on the left) and we decided right then that camping on the beach in Port Aransas was going to be a yearly vacation for us.

If you have never camped on the beach, I *highly* recommend it!