xmas day 2024

We meant to leave our house in McAllen at 6AM to get to South Padre Island by 730 at the latest (sunrise.) We overslept by like an hour and didn’t end up leaving until closer to 7AM. This turned out to be a blessing as we were passing Mercedes at around 7:30 and it allowed us to witness an incredible scene. I pulled over at Mile 2 E Rd & Mile 6Rd N. in Mercedes and took the photos above. We spent about half an hour in here, took some really nice photos that I’m happy with.

We got to South Padre Island closer to 9AM. We go to a section of SPI that Claudia and her family go to, which is generally empty and removed from the main part of the island. I don’t think the temperature cracked 81/82 plus it was partly cloudy so the weather was super nice. The above photo is what I generally live for.

Our friends Josh & Gloria were in S.P.I as well - we missed Gloria but met up with Josh briefly at Clayton’s, which is a staple bar for generic college frat boy spring break turn up. Josh just got this bike apparently and asked me to take a few photos. There were people here, the bar was open, but overall very relaxed and manageable (no dumb ass frat / sorority b.s.) I even jumped in the water briefly.

View from Clayton’s

We had enough energy to stop at the Lighthouse on the way out of S.P.I which we hadn’t done before. Overall, a well spent day.