If you have vacationed on South Padre Island, you might have thought about what it would be like to live here. My wife and I first had those thoughts back in 1998, but didn’t move to the island until 2008, ten years later. In those ten years we moved Belize, Central America, then to Florida, spent a year in Atlanta, then back to Florida. We then lived in Playa del Carmen, Mexico for almost a year and a half and loved it. However, family considerations compelled us to move back to the United States. So why South Padre Island?
There’s lots of reason to live here, but I’ll share some of the reasons we chose South Padre. We were looking for someplace warm. I have an aversion to long pants and my wife doesn’t like cold weather. A winter in Atlanta, which is relatively mild when compared to much of the United States, taught us the cold weather was not our cup of tea. So we concluded that our choices were South Florida, Southern California, or South Texas. We briefly considered Las Vegas, Phoenix, and the Gulf C0ast, but quickly dismissed those options for a variety of reasons including cost of living, freeze potential, and hurricane vulnerability. In the end, we narrowed our choices to Corpus Christi and South Padre Island. I had lived in Corpus Christi years ago for a year while in the Navy and it didn’t seem like a tourist town. I like tourist towns because of the availability of dining, entertainment, and recreation. In the end we chose South Padre Island. We’re happy we did.
The Playabum is a full time resident of South Padre Island. He is semi-retired sharing his time with his wife of 26 years and his interest in photography, videography, creating websites, and photography. He is a graduate of the University of Colorado and a retired Naval Aviator.