A great winter vacation.

If winter traveler can pick the best weather to visit the most southeast island in Texas, to get out of the winter chill, he’s lucky. But if you as a couple are locked into a vacation, South Padre can be a great destination if you plan. Watch the weather and bring a variety of clothes to allow of any change in the weather. Despite being as far south as Texas can be on the gulf, climate still can be chilly the first couple months of the year. The plus is that rates can be reasonable. Snow birds, also called Winter Texans, may find a rate of $99 per night at the Best Western La Copa Inn (www.lacoparesort.com), which is dog friendly. Not only is there a free happy hour from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and a continental breakfast that includes waffels you make yourself and boiled eggs if you get down early, guests have available a laundry, work-out room with modern machines, pool and beach access. There also is free wireless Internet access but get your room on the lower floors so you won't have to go to the lobby to use your laptop.
My husband and I may have been close to the age of those staying at La Copa, but we wanted to be among a mixed age group for cocktails.
We found the weather still under a stream of cold air and clouds with a pretty stiff wind which sent us in seek of a warm place for happy hour. Wanna Wanna ( www.islandinnpadre.com) is an inn with a walk-up bar and grill on the beach, normally open air, has thick clear plastic screens that roll down, repelling the wind and warmed by overhead heaters. Beer is in cans and wine is served in plastic cups. No glass is allowed on the beach.
Parking in South Padre
La Copa Inn issues permits for it’s parking lot. In the street, parking is at a premium but getting around is no hardship. A taxi trip to and from your hotel runs $5 each one-way for two people, good if you plan to have a few adult beverages while watching powerful wave action.
Restaurants
As so typical in Texas, weather changes can be typical so with luck, the clouds will clear and the temperatures warm Lunch is great at Cap’N Roy’s ( www.restauranteur.com/capnroys) on Padre Boulevard, a great sea and Mexican food café famous for it’s Camaronitas Diabolitas which won the 2006 World Shrimp Cook-Off Championship in Port Isabel. It’s a dish of marinated bacon wrapped shrimp with pineapple cream cheese and jalapeno, wrapped, rubbed, smoked and glazed then served with fumi salad and choice of potato. Fumi is s fantastic thinly sliced cabbage slaw, with raman noodles, slivered almonds, black and white sesame seeds in a sweet vinaigrette dressing. Other great dishes are the grilled shrimp tacos, shrimp platter and the fish and shrimp planter.
We spent part of an afternoon collecting shells on the beach north of South Padre.

Fulton Beech
My husband and I have taken up bird watching so the second leg our winter vacation was to see species that don't live in North Texas. On our way to Fulton Beech, we achieved our goal sooner than we expected when at a rest stop, no less, we saw three green jays behaving just like their cousin the blue jay. Typically, the green jay stays south of the Rio Grande. This bird is dazzling with a blue head, green wings and a yellow breast.
We arrived at Fulton Beach Bungalows ( www.fultonbeach.com) which is just across the street from the beach. This is another favorite winter residence for Winter Texans. We stayed in a beautiful bungalow duplex but free standing bungalows. Each one is decorated with antiques. Our side of the duplex had a comfortable queen size bed, sofa, TV, kitchenette. Weather had improved but we still needed a little heat in the room at night.
For great lunch, we ate at Hu-Dat Restaurant (www.hu-dat.com), opened by the parents of former Dallas Cowboy Dat Nguyen. The menu helped us to keep in our goal of eating all seafood on our vacation.
Dinner was at Blackbeard's in Ingleside has an ahi tuna appetizer served rare with char crusted ginger Teriaki, enough for two. There’s no finer taste. After that, anything tastes great, like the broiled seafood which includes broiled shrimp, scallops, fish (mahi mahi) stuffed crab and a stuffed shrimp. Entrees so huge, two people could split one.
Another great place for dinner and breakfast is Alice Faye's just across the road from our bungalow. I love crab cakes and this is the place to have them, serve on a bed of sweet potato fries. You can have just about any traditional breakfast you want.
But the purpose of going to Fulton Beach was to see where the whooping cranes spend winter. At only $35 each, we booked two slots on "the Ultimate Birding & Boating Experience on the Wharf Cat (www.texaswhoopers.com), the only vessel offering tours professionally narrated by ornithologists and master naturalists. We took our bird book and were able to get close looks at species that would flee the human form.
Boy did we hit the birder's jackpot. We saw the common loon, the reddish egret, the white ibis, the roseate spoonbill, the blue-winged teal, the northern pintail, an osprey, a crested caracara, a peregrine falcon, the American avocet the long-billed curlew and the much anticipated whooping crane.
We watched a group of three, probably the parents and a grown chick. At one point another group of three flew over and the groups called to each other. Before we left Fulton Beach, we stopped at Ocean's of Seafood and bought fresh shrimp which kept perfectly in the iced down ice chest for our drive home.
These are two places pretty different but depending on your tastes, there is much to like about each place.