Padre Island - World's Longest Barrier Island

Padre Island is the world's longest barrier island and the second largest island by area in the contiguous U.S. after Long Island. It's named after Padre Jose' Nicolas Balli (c. 1770-1829) who served as collector of finances for all the churches in the Rio Grande Valley.

We just called it "the beach". We started going to the beach when I was 3 - when we moved to Corpus Christi. Ironically, once we actually moved close to the beach when I was 10, there weren't many family trips out there.

Mary - Age 5 - 1952

 The Day Family
Camping on the beach for a week
1952 (Mary in the chair)

Mary - Age 45 - 1995
A day at the beach.
About this time, I was teaching beach in the summers
(Padre Island Ecology)