Visiting Corpus Christi during COVID-19

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The author, Nicholas Scoggins, playing with one of the USS Lexington’s 5 inch guns.

Nicholas Scoggins, Staff Reporter

In mid-September, me, my mother and her boyfriend all travelled down to Corpus Christi for the weekend for some ‘R&R’. This was no ordinary trip however for as we all know this is the age of Covid-19, where it seems that we can’t do anything fun anymore. However, we did find some stuff to do in the city.

We arrived in Corpus Thursday evening, we did our school and work on Friday from our hotel room before we went to a local restaurant for dinner called Pep’s Mexican Steakhouse. The food there was absolutely delicious, I got chicken fajitas. The only problem was not the restaurant’s fault, for there was a woman who was laughing super loud and very obnoxious. While there are many places here in Austin that are just as good, I would certainly go back to this location when I am in the Corpus Christie area. After stuffing ourselves with delicious Tex-Mex, we turned into our hotel for the evening.

The next morning, we got breakfast at IHOP before heading off to our first stop, the USS Lexington. While as a military buff I have seen this ship on multiple occasions, they have changed a lot of things for the better. There was a new exhibit on the Republic of Texas Navy which was very cool to see and some of the previous exhibits had been reworked to smoothen the tour experience. I thought it was very interesting because while we hear about the ventures of the Texan Army in history class, we never hear about the Texan Navy in action even though it conducted some very important missions. 

After finishing up at the USS Lexington, we went to another museum called the Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History. Inside was an excellent collection of historical artifacts dating all the way back from Spanish colonial times. Also present was information on the many Civil War battles fought throughout Southern Texas. After getting something to eat by the waterfront (during which, I had a delicious burger with fries), we drove on back to the hotel to rest for the evening. After getting there, I popped open my laptop and indulged in Chips Ahoy, corn chips chips and Oreos for the evening as my dinner (I do not eat healthy on vacations).

The next morning we drove on back to Austin.  After being cooped up inside my house for six months, it felt really good to go outside town.  That being said, it was certainly different from previous trips I have taken to Corpus. Having to wear a mask was very annoying as I just find them uncomfortable to wear for extended periods of time. I can’t complain that the things we wanted to see were open in the first place, many recreational spots still remain shuttered ever since the COVID-19 crisis began in the Spring.  I really enjoyed the trip as we got to see some interesting sites, eat delicious food and unwind after six months of quarantine.