Texas Highways Magazine June 2016

Those bumper stickers are spot on: Life is better at the beach—as soothing as toes scrunching in South Padre’s white sands, as sweet as Keylime pie in Port Aransas, and as easy as the Gulf breeze in Galveston. And a bonus for beach-goers: Texas has some 367 miles of coastline to explore. So slip on your flip-flops and find your shore with the help of this month’s coastal special issue. In the lineup: Helen Anders and Al Argueta recommend beach stays from funky to sumptuous; E. Dan Klepper cruises King Country along South Texas’ coastal plains; and Erich Schlegel takes to the sea by sailboat. Plus, in this month’s Next Weekend installment, June Naylor shares her restorative exploration of historic Galveston by bicycle, including the Tree Sculpture Tour and a muff…

Love, love, love Texas Highways. Been reading every month for 25 years! MICHAEL HUGGINS, Monroe, Michigan OUR FAVORITE SOCIAL MEDIA OF THE MONTH... My dad had a job sandblasting the star at the top of the San Jacinto Monument when I was a kid. Karen Guillot, Deer Park PoPo’s [April] is awesome. Like eating at Grandma’s table! Jonana Doyle Roberts To Glamp or Not to Glamp? Why didn’t I think of glamping [texashighways.com, April]? Some people love being outdoors but hate sleeping on the hard ground! Genius. JAMYE CLOUGH STEWART, Lubbock My “glamping” is renting a cabin at Garner or Big Bend and bringing my pillow and my portable AC. Hoo-rah!! RUBEN CASSIAN, San Antonio It seems what these people actually want is a hotel. DAVID KILBY, New Mexico Glamping is wrong and should not be done, or change the name to “wussying.” DAVID BELL,…

I’M AN OCCASIONAL WEEKEND PADDLER, launching a canoe or kayak about once a month with my trusty paddling partner and husband John. We’ll go for an hour or so together on Austin’s Lady Bird Lake or the Lower Colorado River. Those gentle paddles are a cakewalk for my über-athletic sweetie, who has conquered multiday saltwater expeditions and marathon day trips covering 30 miles. I’m not anywhere near that type of athlete. But, I got tired of experiencing his adventures via photos and exhilarating tales. That’s how we found ourselves recently at The Fishing Center in Port O’Connor, packing up our beat-up, blue tandem kayak for a two-night camping trip to Matagorda Island. One of five narrow barrier islands along the Texas coast, the 38-mile island is protected as the Matagorda Island National…

ISAT CROSS-LEGGED IN THE SANDY DIRT at the foot of a blueberry bush at a pick-your-own farm called Blueberry Hill Farms in Edom. It was a hot mid-afternoon in June—prime picking time in Texas—but a breeze blew through the long, green rows of bushes. The berry clumps were plentiful down there, and they fell into my bucket by the dozens. Around me, I heard lively exhortations from my children and other families: things like “Don’t eat, Bobby—pick!” and “Whooaa, look at this one! It’s the fattest blueberry ever!” But I was undistracted. Plop, plop, plop—a state of focused attention, just me and the bush, one purple handful of berries at a time. If you really want to fill your bucket, blueberry-picking requires a shift in perspective. When you get down low,…

AS VISITORS APPROACH SPACE Center Houston, the space-themed museum located adjacent to NASA Johnson Space Center, a massive new exhibit looms into view—a replica of a full-size space shuttle mounted atop the original shuttle carrier aircraft. Together, the shuttle and airplane reach a height of nearly 80 feet and span 232 feet in length. This new attraction, called Independence Plaza, is the only one of its kind. While real shuttles can be seen elsewhere, none are attached to an actual shuttle carrier aircraft, and you’re only able to see them from the outside. At Independence Plaza, you can explore the interiors of both vehicles, gaining an up-close perspective offered nowhere else on earth. Video monitors throughout the shuttle carrier feature original NASA footage, TV reports of shuttle launches, and interviews with…

ASLEEK, GRAY BOTTLENOSE dolphin briefly breaks the surface of the water in a smooth, rolling motion. From my perch aboard the Mustang, a 65-foot trimaran, I catch just a glimpse, but before long, the dolphin emerges once again, this time with a second leaping next to it. Captain Tim Sonbert slows to an idle, and as the boat drifts, more dolphins appear. Parents and kids point and squeal with delight, and cameras click away while the dolphins play. Our Dolphin Watch Nature Tour departed from Woody’s Sports Center in Port Aransas beneath a sunny sky, accompanied by the sound of wind through the surrounding palms and Jimmy Buffett songs on the sound system. WOODY’S SPORTS CENTER is at 136 W. Cotter Ave. in Port Aransas. Call 361/749-6969;www.neptunescharters.com. Owner Billy Gaskins brings a long history…