when I started this blog five years ago, I was a pet sitter and the name animal-crackers made sense. now I'm a stay-at-home-dad and freelance writer, but rather than confuse everyone by getting a different blog, it's just easier to keep posting things here.

Port Aransas is not a pretty beach. It's not big or exciting or even clean. But it was peaceful.

We stayed at A Laughing Horse Lodge, a hippy kinda joint with circa-1977 cottages about 100 yards from the beach. No phone, no Internet.

Along the beach a knee-high, 10-foot-wide ribbon of dead seaweed covered the sand along the water line. A fair amount of garbage was caught in the brown, smelly mass. Josh and I climbed over it once to dip our feet in the Gulf and figured once was enough. Instead we made sand castles and looked for sea shells.

We also checked out the jetty.




Also, there was a nice playground, and at a nearby pizzaria, a small video arcade.

All in all, we had fun. But I doubt we'll be investing in real estate there any time soon.