Planning a beach vacation and then it raining!

[violiav]

Grrr.
For the second year in a row we planned a trip to the gulf coat. Get some sun, surf, relax in the sand. But lo, it lookslikes there's now a 50% chance of rain, but only on the days that we're there. It's too damn late to push it back (check in is tomorrow). I paid for the hotel in February and the Moody Gardens tickets a month ago.

Same thing happened last year. We go camping on Padre Island and we wake up in a tropical storm! Uggg. My BF and I are from San Diego, we just wanna swim in ocean water. This inland crap is killing me!

I'm ready to give up on the damn Gulf Coast!

[Andara Bledin]

It sucks when it rains during your vacation.

However, some of my absolute best vacation experiences have all happened with "40% chance of rain" forecasts.

Also, I'm a bit confused. San Diego is a coastal town. Can you not swim in the ocean locally?

[violiav]

I've been landlocked in Central Texas for 7 years, BF for 17.

[Andara Bledin]

Ah... So, you're not currently from San Diego, just originally from.

And, as another ocean swimmer, you have my sympathies. I couldn't live that far from the ocean and be happy.

[HYHYBT]

I've really been enjoying the rain we've been having the last few weeks, mainly for the lower temperatures that come with near-continual cloud cover, but when you're on a beach vacation it really stinks.

[violiav]

Ah... So, you're not currently from San Diego, just originally from.

And, as another ocean swimmer, you have my sympathies. I couldn't live that far from the ocean and be happy.

Yeah, "from" not "in". If we were in, this wouldn't be a major issue, lol.

Now, even though BF got here a decade before me (he's 10 years my senior, and has been in Texas 10 years longer than me, there's also a few other odd coincidences) he's never been to a Texas beach before last year when we went to Padre. We both tripped out at how weird the sand was. It was super fine grain sand, vs the larger grain sand of San Diego beaches. It's just because sand is from the erosion of different types of rocks, but it was still pretty trippy.

Another weird thing I've noticed is that people get pissed off about the seaweed. Like really angry. Growing up in San Diego I remember seaweed all the time. It was just there.

[Andara Bledin]

Yeah. Lots of seaweed on the sou Cali coast. I used to drag streamers of it onto the beach when I was a little kid.

[D_Yeti_Esquire]

Honestly in the Gulf coast I couldn't give a flip about the seaweed. It was the constant Man 'O War sightings that had me a little freaked though. That may have been my trip though. I have a horrible time in the water when I think I'm about to be in excruciating pain.

[Ladeeda]

Rain is a problem... why? You're swimming in the beach. You're already getting wet. Storms just mean better waves and fewer people.

[Nekojin]

Rain is a problem... why? You're swimming in the beach. You're already getting wet. Storms just mean better waves and fewer people.

That was my reasoning at age 5. I had a swimming class scheduled, and it was raining. So I went (couldn't find my babysitter, so I just walked there myself - I knew the way!), and was surprised when the pool was closed. Water in the pool, water in the air - I'm already going to be getting wet, what's the difference?

[violiav]

The weathers actually been just fine. Overcast, but not what the weather report said it'd be.

[Ladeeda]

So fewer people and less sunburn.

I am seeing no downside to this vacation!

[Andara Bledin]

Actually, cloudy tends to lead to more sunburn.

But fewer people and cooler weather.

As I mentioned before, some of my best vacation times were when the forecast said 40% chance of rain.

[linguist]

Actually, cloudy tends to lead to more sunburn.

But fewer people and cooler weather.

As I mentioned before, some of my best vacation times were when the forecast said 40% chance of rain.

Fewer people is not really a given on Galveston Island. It's pretty much always packed from late spring to early fall. Aside from the usual tourists, there are also 2 universities on the island (one of them a medical school that always has students on campus, even during holidays), a decent sized city with all the usual year-round residents plus additional summertime residents who spend summers in their vacation homes on the island, a cruise ship port, an industrial port, and a large hospital that is the primary hospital for most residents of the area, along with several specialty hospitals such as the Shriner's Children's Burn Hospital.

Source: I attend one of the universities (the med school--I'm actually in nursing school) and I'm there almost every day, even weekends and most holidays. Also, pretty much anything within close proximity to Houston is always going to be crowded.

[Andara Bledin]

There are different degrees of "crowded," though.

I pretty much guarantee that crowd activity on a clear day is rather different than crowd activity on a cloudy and potentially rainy one.