Port Aransas, Texas

On the road for a bit, it was time to find a place to stop for lunch.  We’re in a part of Texas that has plenty of fast food chains, but not many local eateries that are anything to write home about.  Trip Advisor, Yelp, Urbanspoon, and Foursquare are all good to help steer one in the right direction.  Heck, I’ve found some great recommendations with the right kind of search on Pinterest.  Point is, the internet makes finding even the most obscure, out of the way place a possibility.

Many places we eat at that I write about are found using the various methods above, especially when we’re covering hundreds of miles at a time.  What I really love is to get the locals’ suggestions, but that’s not always possible.

Our stop on the way to Port Aransas was a delightful surprise.  Van’s Burgers and Soda Bar didn’t look like much from the outside (they often don’t), was in a neighborhood that didn’t look like a likely spot, and yet when we drove up there were plenty of vehicles parked outside, including large electric company trucks, and construction company trucks.  That’s always a good sign when there isn’t any obvious repairs being done to the building.

The food was great, the interior was really cool, it felt like someone’s backyard had gone industrial chic, and photos of the local sports teams and players adorned the walls.  Great stop prior to the refinery and chain restaurant-laden of Northern Corpus Christi.

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived at Port Aransas in between cloud bursts, so it was nice to set up camp before the next rain shower hit.  We’ve stayed at this little coastal town before, and just knew we’d be back.  Port A, as it’s known, has a few touristy shops where t-shirts are 2 for $10, plastic beach toys abound, and shells of all shapes and sizes are sold.  What’s really nice is driving right on the beach.  Very few places in Southern California allow it.

We stayed at our usual place, Pioneer RV Park, and lo and behold, the gray skies and rain continued.  Dagnabbit!  We’re going to see sunshine one of these days.  Of course, we still had a good time no matter the weather.

 

 

Gift shops compete HARD

 

 

The town may be small, but there’s plenty of places to get fresh seafood.  We stopped in at a place that gets a bad rap for it’s nighttime crowd, but we found it to be really nice at lunch time.  We were happy to have a table overlooking the water, and a roof over our heads to shelter us from the drizzle.  Say what you want about Virginia’s On the Bay, but our lunch was really nice.

 

 

Seriously, these birds are laughing at us.

 

Captain Gene.  I miss you so much, Dad.

 

 

Went for a stroll on the beach.  These slugs were all over the place!

 

 

 

All the brightly colored homes reminded us of the Caribbean.  There were so many more, but this seems to be the only photograph I took.

Texas isn’t like Southern California, where all the schools stagger their breaks over a few weeks.  Oh no, Texans are robust folks.  They can take the slam of rowdy college kids all in one week’s time.  The cashiers at every market and shop have a schedule of schools out each week taped to their station, and this year March 10th – March 19th is when 90% of the rebel-rousers are showing up.  Port A has a little over 3,300 residents, but swells to over 10,000 people over spring break. As much as we’d love to laugh at these supposedly grown young adults make fools of themselves, we’re hightailing it out of here before they show up.  See ya next time, Port Aransas!