On our final day of vacation we checked out of our hotel and headed back over to the mainland. Our destination was the USS Lexington, but along the way we took a scenic drive down Ocean Drive to see some fancy homes. We spotted a really large park as we drove along, so we stopped to let Kate play for a little while. She loves the park, and we don't often get to go right now since it's so hot outside. She identifies parks that she wants to go to by the main color of the equipment. So when she says "I want to go to the blue park" I know which one she means. This particular park was orange, so I'm sure at some point she'll ask to go to the orange park again.
After loading up into the car we headed back across the large bridge over the shipping channel to USS Lexington, an aircraft carrier built during World War 2 that now resides permanently as a museum in Corpus Christi. Nick was most excited about this part of our trip, and since the flight deck is full of airplanes I thought Kate would be very excited as well.
We climbed up the narrow staircase to the flight deck after paying our entrance fee and Nick stood Kate on the deck. We expected her to start running around, since it wasn't crowded at all, and point out planes and colors and ships in the bay. Instead, she stood in place and began to cry...which led to screaming that she "want to go home!". She wasn't moving. Apparently it was quite scary for her (the wind was quite swift) and she refused to move.
I walked away a little, and so Nick decided to do the same expecting her to follow us. She stood there, all the while yelling that she wanted to go home. People were sort of laughing and chuckling at her, so eventually Nick had to go pick her up and bring her to me. I bribed her into walking and holding Mommy's hand and we would go shopping in the gift shop after.
I realized that Kate was not going to enjoy the rest of the ship tour, so she and I went back down to the main deck and let Nick tour the rest of the ship on his own. We bought an icee and sat on the fantail of the ship and spotted jellyfish in the water. Kate played and got pretty comfortable back there, so the scary ship became more like a big playground eventually.
After Nick finished his tour, and we visited the gift shop as promised (where Kate picked out toys and gifts for others but not herself), we headed over to Whataburger. The original Whataburger is located in Corpus Christi and apparently one must stop there when visiting town. It's the only 2 story restaurant in the chain, and while it was pretty cool looking it tasted the same as every other Whataburger. But it was an important stop for Nick, who loves Whataburger and claims it has healing powers. *insert eye roll here*
After that it was time to head north for home. Overall we had a very nice vacation, but I must admit that the beach is highly over-rated. My poor van is left with a fine layer of sand and salt, along with many of our clothes and belongings we took. The wind never stops, and after a while it's just not worth the effort required to sit on the beach for an hour before you get too hot to stay any longer. But I'm thankful for the trip, our first official family vacation alone. I know Kate had a blast and that's really all that matters.
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