Nothing says Freebird like the ocean

One of my favorite things in nature is a rocky, craggy seashore kind of like the one pictured here.

I love walking along the rocks especially as the tide is going out looking for whatever the sea has left behind. Starfish, seahorses, shells and all sorts of things are often floating among the rocks.

Unfortunately, there is sometimes trash left behind as well.

There's something about the ocean that arouses my curiosity. It's deep and mysterious, and almost unending. There's no telling what is lurking in the deep, blue water.

I love listening to the waves crash into the shore, seeing the white splash and feeling the mist.

I also love watching the ships come and go. Anything from a small, private boat, to a yacht or a shrimping boat, I love to watch them struggle against the ocean.

I grew up not too far from the sea. Granted, it was South Padre Island and there were no rocky, craggy shores. But, there were sandy beaches and those were fine, too.

In my childhood, there was almost nothing on South Padre other than campgrounds. Now, it looks like Miami Beach or some other beach resort.

We had many a campout on the beach.

One of my favorite beach campouts was with my Sunday School class. All the boys went with our teacher and the poor man tried sleeping in the back of his station wagon.

The boys and myself stayed up the entire night. That was my first experience staying up all night long.

We did pretty much everything we could think of that and got yelled at a couple of times by our teacher for moving his car or making too much noise. It was a blast.

The only constant was the unending waves crashing onto the beach.

I did go to sleep in the car on the way home and slept most of the morning at home. But, it was well worth it.

There were other great camping memories, but I don't have all night. :)

Another fond recollection of South Padre was the time in 2005 that my California Girl and I stayed at the Radisson. It was in December and there was a rare cold front. The night air was cool, but we left the sliding door open all night and slept to the sound of the waves.

Of course, my Cali Girl doesn't like Texas and thinks Texas beaches are subpar. But, we made do.

We luckily ran across a school, or pod, of dolphins and the Cali Girl just went wild watching them.

Very good seafood, too, on the island and I love seafood.

There's just something about the sea that makes me feel free.