South Padre Island, TX

I've gotta be honest. Ever since I switched over to the iPhone, I've taken nothing but crappy photos because I'm too lazy to bring another camera along with me. When we travel, I have a serious distaste toward lugging around anything but a hand clutch for a purse. I refuse to carry anything over the shoulder unless it's a full-on backpack. Hence the iPhone and not the camera. Perhaps if I had a certain little guy to take photos of (Andrew), I'd give more of a crap. But I don't. And my photos have taken a serious dive.

I am promising to learn how to use our fancy camera. So what if it's been 13 months since we purchased the dang thing and I've literally held it in my hands about 3 times. Return on investment at this point is definitely in the negatives.

Anyway, enough about that. I was just providing a disclaimer as to why our photos from our trip suck so incredibly bad. That, and it was a distraction/avoidance trip to get us through the holidays more than anything, to be honest. Much like everysingletrip we've taken this year, especially our cruise to the Bahamas. Bittersweet for sure. But thankful we even have the funds to take trips, I know. That is not lost to us.

Without further adieu...

A stone's throw from Mexico.

We visited a Birding Center and there were actually, surprisingly, quite a few birds to be seen. Not really into birds all that much, but when the weather is Scheiße, you must find things to do. Hence the birds.

Some nice lady gave us a scavenger hunt sheet and we probably managed to check off about 8 of the 20 birds. Not bad.

Notice the jackets we're wearing in nearly every photo. As we landed in Harlingen, the flight attendant commented about us being allowed to grab our luggage and coats. Then she made a remark about not knowing why we'd need coats because we did just land in Harlingen, TX. She really should've checked the weather report that had 50's and raining about 75% of our trip. We found this sandcastle in front of Clayton's Bar & Grill. I can just picture the spring breakers sitting on that deck... and yet thankful that I'm no longer one of them.

You don't suppose the Hilton could've sprung for a capital letter for the ol' "T" in Texas, eh? Guess not.

Our very last day and just hours before we found ourselves back on a plane. The first time it jumped over 60 degrees.

We spent lots of our time indoors at this lovely joint.

Dinner at a Mexican joint.

Dinner on Christmas night at Padreritaville. Those would be chocolate nachos. That's right. Cinnamon chips topped with drizzled chocolate, shaved chocolate pieces, and whipped cream. So good.

The weather was attempting to warm up and the husband was being brave. Over on Port Isabel just wandering around shrimping boats and various randomness.

We seem to find these often! Our last getaway from the world trip to the Bahamas in February landed us on a beach where we saw Portuguese Man-of-War for the first time. We had lots of beach walks on our trip totaling probably around 12ish miles. That's always a bit therapeutic since I'm often reminded by my husband that before the Germany>Chicago move, I'd never lived more than 5 miles from a beach in my life.

We also ran into jellyfish all over the beach. Foot = size reference.

Quick story about our luck with rental cars. First car was a little red rollerskate. We drove away with a rattling rear-view mirror. As soon as Ray attempted to adjust said mirror, it broke off in his hand. We drove 30-some miles back to tell them and the lady was rude... but gave us another vehicle. We get 10 miles away from the rental car place and the maintenance light flashes on. Are. you. kidding. me. HERTZ is not a favorite. Thankfully, their lovely supervisor was there when we finally returned the second car on Tuesday and assumed we just had bad luck. You said it lady. You said it. We rented a Jeep SUV once in Colorado about 2 years ago and the dang thing wouldn't even make it up the mountain. We were going 20mph at full speed. To say our luck sucks with rentals is totally underestimated. Hah.

To wrap up, we had a fine time getting out of dodge, but obviously we'd have given anything to have a normal, bubbly Christmas like we anticipated just over a year ago. Stockings, excited-about-life toddler, Christmas lights, etc. etc. It was only fitting that it rained a good portion of our time there. We always enjoy the chance to get away together, but not as much when it feels like we're running away from the life that should've been. It's so hard to break free of that possibility of life being so much fuller... so much richer. Here's to hoping 2012 doesn't suck as bad as the end of 2010 and all of 2011-- aside from Flip's existence.

No New Year's resolutions or whatnot. Just glad the year from hell is finally over.