Even if you’ve never been to Texas, you know it’s big. We left Carlsbad at around 7am and drove and drove and drove, stopping only for gas. We made a brief stop in the late afternoon in Johnson County to walk around the Lyndon B Johnson sites. About 10 hours of driving.
We learned this hanging moss stuff growing on all the trees in the vicinity is called Ball Moss. It’s neat. The trees are pretty amazing too. 
We practically flew through Austin, stopping only to see my cousin and his family, spend a very sweaty miserable night in a Walmart parking lot, see my friend Elizabeth, and off we dashed to San Antonio.
San Antonio was a special request by our daughter. We’ve been there before and she liked the river walk so much that we included it in our itinerary. It was hot hot hot. But really lovely.
We spent the rest of our time San Antonio visiting forts, hanging out at our RV park in the pool, and fishing in the catch and release pond.
This morning we took it easy. The kids hung out poolside while I worked and then we made the trek down to South Padre Island. We are all super excited to be at the ocean again after much too long. Stay tuned for more beach adventures in the coming days!
The Arnold Experience 
Did you swim in the ocean?!??!??!
If by swim you mean stand in the water up to my knees and get pushed around by the waves for a few minutes before going to my lounge chair to read, then yes.
The kids were properly in the water for hours though 😀 Update coming soon!