b'Coastal Bend Tour GuideKnowing Your Way Around the Coastal BendCorpus Christi, with a population of about 300,000, is the metropolitan center of the Coastal Bend, and is home to the fifth-busiest port in the U.S., a prosperous and growing petrochemical industry, Naval Air Station C.C. and the C.C. Army Depot, and the ever-expand-ing Texas A&M University C.C.Downtown Corpus Christi is located in the northeast end of the city along Cor-pus Christi Bay and is where youll find numerous hotels, the seawall, the Ameri-can Bank Center arena and convention center, and the citys museums including Science and History, Asian Cultures and the Art Museum of South Texas.The Harbor Bridge extends over the Port of Corpus Christi to North Beach and on to Portland and the North Bay Area. North Beach is where you find the U.S.S. Lexington (aircraft carrier) Museum and the Texas State Aquarium, along with a full-service hotel and nu-merous motels and condominiums, plus a mile-long stretch of pedestrian friendly beach on Corpus Christi Bay.On the South Side of Corpus Christi be sure to visit the South Texas Botanical Gardens & Nature Center on S. Staples St. past Yorktown Blvd. The South Padre Island Drive (SPID) freeway takes you to North Padre Island (The Island) and to our Gulf of Mexico beaches. The Laguna Madre is the long, large body of water that runs between Padre Island and the mainland, Flour Bluff. Baffin Bay is lo-cated farther south along Laguna Madre and is accessible by land at Riviera Beach, a few miles south of Kingsville.Padre Isles, on North Padre Island, is the largest waterfront community outside the state of Florida, and The Island of-fers miles of beautiful beaches, restau- leads northward to Port Aransas (Port A), a fast growingThe Coastal Bend is just 2 1/2 hours south of San Antonio and rants, shopping, and the Padre Islandfishing village that attracts affluent vacationers and secondeast of Laredo, 3 1/2 hours south of Austin and Houston, and National Seashore. Packery Channelhome owners, sportfishing and nature enthusiasts, golfers andabout a day south of DFW by car.separates North Padre and Mustangbeachgoers from across Texas and the US.Islands and provides direct boatingFree online versions of The Coastal Bend Magazine access to the Gulf of Mexico. MustangAransas Pass and Conn Brown Harbor are north of Port A,& Texas Coastal Bend Tour Guide are posted at: Island is home to numerous beachfrontacross the ship channel via a 24-hour vehicle ferry, and is home condominiums and private homes, andto a revitalized downtown area and excellent marina facilities.TheCoastalBend.com84 THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINEQ2.2020 TheCoastalBend.com'