Quintana Beach Texas

While we were at Padre National Seashore, someone told us about a small county park up the coast a little ways. It sounded intriguing so we headed that way. Turned out to be a fascinating week. The park was beautiful, as long as you faced the beach. If you turned around, the view included the largest chemical plant in the country and a huge LNG exporting pier. We could occasionally hear the engines of a ship at the LNG dock, but otherwise we really didn’t notice the plant while we were there.

We asked a few locals for some recommendations about places to go and things to see. They turned out to be good recommendations. Dinner and a show, Texas style (BBQ & Nunsense), several wildlife refuges, a fish hatchery and a planetarium. The show at the planetarium was all about Betelgeuse, a star in Orion that has dimmed considerably over the last year. There is some speculation that it might be about to go super nova, which would really mess up Orion since Betelgeuse is one of his shoulders. We’ve since read that it seems to be getting a bit brighter over the last couple weeks, so no one really knows what’s about to happen. Well, God knows. But He won’t let us know til it happens.

Brians BBQ. Great place for brisket and pulled pork and some local Texas atmosphere.

A funny, off-Broadway play with a small cast.

A lot of our stops this season seemed to involve beaches. Hmm – maybe says something about us?

Local wildlife, mostly rattlesnakes. Signs were everywhere and almost everyone told us they were serious. The weather was cool enough so none came out – thankfully!

Flowers blooming. Spring!

Our campsite with an LNG ship loading up in the background. We were told that the dock was originally built to import LNG. But, thanks to fracking, the dock was converted to export it instead.

More warnings. Locals told us the snakes don’t like mowed grass or gravel trails. So we stayed out of high grass!

Bird watching platform

Intracoastal Waterway along the Texas Gulf coast.

Thankfully it was too cool to test the truth of the sign!

The beaches along the Gulf coast have been some of the flattest we’ve ever seen. There’s not much tide, but the little bit there is covers the entire beach up to the dunes. Camping on the beach is also allowed, although the high tide marks made us wary.

Storms are coming!!

One day we drove up the barrier island to Galveston State Park. The weather was iffy, but held until we had a chance to see the park. Bad weather moving in is always dramatic and beautiful.