The Nelson Family: Rockport Beach Vacation 2017

Beach, here we come!

Whose life are we living that we got to take another beach vacation this summer? I guess living in Texas does have some perks! We had so much fun last year in Port Aransas we really wanted to go back. We decided to try somewhere just a little different. Rockport is about 15 minutes north of Port A (but probably an hour shorter drive due to not having to wait for the ferry ride).

Rockport was another quiet beach town where stores open whenever the workers get in and every restaurant has seafood on the menu. We found the most amazing AirB&B to stay at this year. It was an adorable little house owned by an Austin artist and decorated accordingly. Every detail was accounted for; beach-themed art on every wall, jars of sand dollars and shells on every shelf, whale light switches, and the most adorable back yard too. (Oh yeah, and Steve and I were obsessed with the old hardwood floors!) We could walk to shops and the water, and it was SO affordable.

Love this house!

Surfboard table

Stones in the patio

lemon, lime, fig, avocado trees in the yard

Day 1: We headed to the beach on a Sunday morning and arrived in the afternoon after a 4.5 hour drive. Since it wasn't time to check in yet, we went straight the beach and tested the waters! I always expect it to be cold (I guess growing up in the midwest I've learned lake water is never warm) but it was as warm as bath water. Rockport is on the mainland with a long, skinny island a couple miles out from the shore, so the beach is basically a giant sandbar. I don't think I ever got deeper than my waist and we were waaaaay out from the shore.

After checking in to our adorable house we went to The Boiling Pot for dinner. The menu consists of shrimp/crab boil and pb&j or hotdogs for kids. I'm not a huge seafood lover, but it was a fun experience. Everything was yummy and spicy! Ada refused to wear the bib so we delegated her to photog duty.

Shrimp, crab, sausage, corn, and potatoes dumped right on the table!

Our house had two bedrooms so the girls shared a room. For the first (half) night. They woke up at 4am. FOUR. A.M. Our kids may be cute, they may be smart, but good sleepers they are not. Thankfully after a little shuffling (Ada with Mom and Ruby with Dad) we did much better the rest of the time.

Day 2: We basically headed straight to the beach our second day and hung out there for the whole morning until we got hungry for lunch. We did all get stung once by jellyfish that day, but it wasn't bad enough to get anyone out of the water for long.

We do have a little umbrella/tent that we bring, but it was nice to have these along the beach too.

Steve caught a whopper 😉

Biggest shell/hermit crab we found

We went back to the house for lunch and to get out of the sun for a bit. That afternoon we walked over the Rockport Aquarium, which was tiny, but cute. Dinner was a bit of a dud, but at least we had a nice view of the bay while we ate. After watching skiers and jet skis the girls decided they want to tube behind Grandpa's boat this summer!

Lots of birds around the shore

As long as there's hotdogs, nuggets, and mac-n-cheese on the menu the girls are happy!

Day 3: Our third day there was the 4th of July. We did a little souvenir shopping that morning. Ruby and Ada had their hearts set on getting hermit crabs as souvenirs this year. They picked out "Shelly" and "Sunny" and all the necessities! So now they can't complain that we don't have any pets!

We packed our lunch that day and headed to the beach again. Supposedly there was a boat parade, but we didn't really see much. Floating in the waves and playing in the sand kept everyone pretty entertained though. All of the local restaurants were closed for the 4th so we ended up eating at a chain steakhouse for dinner. That night we met up with some friends from our small group who happened to be staying in Rockport the same week! We all stayed up late for the fireworks over the bay.

Day 4: We ate breakfast and then headed down the road right after breakfast to Port Aransas. We decided we wanted to do the dolphin boat ride again and spend a day at the beach there in the "big waves". On the ferry ride over, the girls and I got out of the van and immediately spotted dolphins everywhere. It never gets old! We took the same dolphin tour as last year, but with a bit of a surprise. It was HOT but once we got going there was a nice breeze and plenty of dolphins. After a short ride out, I noticed a pirate-looking boat that was smoking and quickly realized what was happening. When researching last year, some of the website/reviews talked about a pirate boat attack, but it never happened last year so I had forgotten all about it. Once I spotted it, I quickly whispered to Ruby and Ada that they were just pretend pirates for fun. Ada was still pretty scared but he whole ordeal, but Ruby loved every second of it. The boat circled around us several times squirting water, shooting "cannons" of cheeseballs that attracted the seagulls, and one pirate even jumped aboard our ship! The kids were given water guns to fight back. Ruby ended up soaked!

On the ferry

Waiting for the boat ride

It's HOT, let's get this show on the road

Dolphin jumping and pirate ship

Pirates!

Someone got attacked!

After the attack, they threw out a shrimp net and caught a bunch of ocean critters for the water table in the boat. So fun!

Stingray with barbs removed (they grow back)

Puffer fish

Posing with a couple pirates

We had the best food yet for lunch in Port A (Irie Island Cafe, yummy tacos) and then went to the beach. I think the Port A beach is prettier than Rockport and super fun to play in the big waves. We borrowed some boogie boards from our house and Ruby had a blast riding the waves. No jellyfish in Port A, but I did see a sting ray swim right by shore-crazy! We hit up an ice cream shop that we went to last year, and then got back on the ferry and spotted lots more dolphins. We ate at a Mexican place in Rockport for dinner that night which was pretty good for our last dinner.

Day 5: On our last morning of vacation we took some family pictures on the beach and did a little more shopping. Like I mentioned, our house was decorated with a ton of paintings by the owner and we ended up buying one at a local shop for our own house!