It may shock some of you to know that I have never seen the ocean. Any ocean. It’s true. I grew up in Arkansas. The biggest body of water I’ve ever seen is a lake. I’ve never been to a body of water where I couldn’t see the other side.
Well, never fear. My husband decided to rectify that mistake. This last weekend, we went to Matagorda, Tx and I got to see the ocean for the first time.
I’ve got to admit, it was interesting. For one things, the houses were weird–every single one of them one stilts. Now, I understand why they were built like that. These houses are built twelve inches from the Colorado River and the Gulf of Mexico–the stilts would prevent the houses from floating away in the first big rain. Still, the houses don’t look very sturdy sitting up on top of their poles. They look like they’d fall over in the first puff of wind.
Houses aside, the day was beautiful for going to the beach. Blue skies, puffy cotton clouds–not to mention that breeze that comes off the ocean. I have to admit, having that breeze on a hot summer day was nice. Also nice–finally finding a way to shut my husband up.
Don’t get me wrong. I love my husband, but his brain doesn’t stop. Most of the time I don’t mind this at all. After all, this means he’s always making me laugh. (His 1st, 2nd, and third impulse is to take the current situation or the last thing said and turn it into a pun. Number 4 and 5 is who knows what.) Sometimes, though, that never-stopping brain gets tiresome. Thankfully, his brain shuts down at the ocean. So guess what this means? More trips to the beach.
We didn’t go swimming in the ocean. The beach at Matagorda isn’t the prettiest one. It’s full of trash and silt and driftwood.  Besides, this was the ocean and we weren’t that far away from the Colorado River. Ever heard of rip tides? I had, but after my husband told me more about them I lost any impulse to ever go swimming in the ocean.
But walking the beach was nice. As was gathering pockets full of sea shells. And you can’t beat the views. I counted twelve to eighteen oil rigs just off the coast (it was hard to tell what was an oil rig and what was a boat).
One thing you can’t find anywhere but at the coast? The freshest shrimp and crayfish anywhere. Once we got tired of walking up and down the beach, we went to our favorite seafood restaurant, Pinchers, and stuffed ourselves with shrimp, crayfish, corn on the cob, sausage and potatoes.
So, was driving eight hours in one day just for Pinchers and a two hour walk on the beach? (Oh, and Michael’s spectacular sunburn.) Yes, and we’ll be going back next year.
Living with the Pun Master 