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Winter trip 2026 - Day 11: Corpus Christi & Padre Island II

It's pretty awesome waking up already on the beach. This is an area we will come back to some day. 
We got an early start and headed north into Corpus Christi. Our first stop for the day was the USS Lexington, a former aircraft carrier turned museum. We've did a similar museum a few years ago (USS Alabama in Mobile) so I had an idea of what to expect. We started with the lower levels, 4 levels down some pretty steep stairs. This boat was active into the 90s so they had more modern props set up than I expected (Men's Health magazines in the dentist waiting room, Rice Krispie treats in the captains personal kitchen).  
Joe liked the model room of lots of boats, I got a kick out of the bathroom 
This boat was huge, so big that they had entire rooms devoted to the history of other boats. If you were really into this type of stuff you could spend days here watching all the movies and reading all the things. We were out in just under 3 hours.
After the boat it was lunch time, we had a nice lunch at a cafe. After that we drove along the coast, heading back south since we decided we wanted to spend another night at the beach. 

Along the way we stopped for mini-golf. I won by 5 strokes, Joe said his club head was bent.
Back at Padre, we made a new friend and hunted sea beans.
These are the best ones, called hamburger beans 
Barely anyone out driving the beach today, Monday. 

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