Louie’s Backyard at South Padre Island is a popular place for people to stop for a meal or a drink. Being from a landlocked province in Saskatchewan, Canada, … for us, the biggest attraction is being able to enjoy a meal near the water.

Louie’s is an all- round fun and kitschy experience. There’s even a Ferris Wheel out front that operates year round.

The tent to the right of the Ferris wheel houses the Sandcastle Village

The support beams for the second floor at Louie’s are painted like Tiki Totems to add to the overall island vibe. I made this little collage of some of them vs posting individual photos.

The food is always good, the servers friendly, and the food arrives quickly after you order. We’ve found at many places, if you order liquor before your meal, the food takes forever (in hopes that you drink more, we’ve heard). This is not the case at Louie’s.

I enjoyed a frozen margarita and hubs had a cerveza (when in Rome)
Hubs has a good appetite but we laughed out loud when we saw the size of his sandwich! He took half of it home.
I ordered the tacos. The waitress warned me that the green sauce was hot. I appreciated that. She wasn’t wrong! I used only the teeniest bit on each taco and holy cow!

On our way to and from South Padre Island, we pass through the town of San Benito, TX – the hometown of Freddy Fender. Ive snapped many photos of their water tower on the way by. This was the first one I was happy with. It had a blue cast to it, but I was able to correct that by editing the white balance. I’ve also learned how to fix tall towers or buildings that appear to be leaning in a photo. The perspective can be fixed in both the iPhone native photos app or by using a third party app such as Snapseed.

I edited the perspective on this one by using both the native photos app and Snapseed

All in all, we had a wonderful day trip to South Padre Island in mid-December. Im looking forward to our three night/four day stay there at the end of January.

“While the island is still home to spring breakers for just over a month, the area has seen a rebirth of sorts as a popular family vacation destination. That’s because South Padre, or SPI, delivers with wide sandy beaches, sparkling blue water and a mixture of fun activities for kids of all ages.”

South Padre Island Travel Guide