howdy and welcome back to the Texas
bucket list you know there's nothing
like the beauty of the Texas Gulf Coast
but every once in a while when you hit
the beach you need to find a little bit
of space fortunately over near Port
Aransas we found a little island that's
very tough to get to making it a very
serene stop
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there's nothing like summer down on the
Gulf Coast Port Aransas welcomes Texans
with open arms each and every year
especially after being dealt a heavy hit
by Hurricane harm
businesses are back and the restaurants
and bars of the beautiful Island are
prepared for those long days of Sun but
there's one place that didn't require
any rebuilding because it's been the
same for a few thousand years these
little strips of sand up and down the
Texas coast are new geologically
speaking makes me feel young by
comparison
Rick Pratt has lived in for days since
the mid 70s I came here 40 years ago
therefore I'm not allowed to call myself
an Islander but he has a special place
in his heart for a desolate island known
in these parts as San Jose it's amazing
when you can look up and down the beach
and see 1015 people maybe and that's a
busy day originally called st. Joseph's
Island by Irish immigrants you'll hear
this long piece of serene Texas Beach
referred to by both names the whole time
is called st. Joseph's most of them do
st. Joseph's or just st. Joe it sounds a
little more tropical I like that better
that does take your pick the barrier
island was bought by Sid Richardson in
the 1930s so technically the island
itself is private but the beaches they
belong to Texas in Texas everything up
to mean high tide is public land so
people come to explore the island every
day
and the only way to get here
very right from boarding for people
coming out here to San Jose Island what
are they looking for solitude it's an
abandoned island there's only one house
on the island there's no cars no stores
and no restaurants just a walkway from
the pier leaving you to the 21 miles of
Beach that anybody can traverse but the
best thing to do here is to turn off
your phone or leave it at home now you
are alone on a desert island that's an
experience you can't get anywhere else
usually hundreds of yards separate the
beachgoers brave enough to head to a
place where you literally need to bring
everything you can think of with you but
the peaceful pace of having a beachfront
all to yourself makes it worth my
favorite part of this island st.
Joseph's San Jose is that it is still
pristine ecologically so if we want to
see what our islands should look like
biologically come over here I love it
it's it's fabulous to see someplace that
is truly wild and mating Kamryn Pratt is
Rick's wife and an ecologist this whole
island is full of life
no matter where you look she gets a kick
out of the things on the beach that most
people don't really realize if you look
at this seaweed particularly when it's
fresh you can see it's full of life it's
a whole community of its own this is
called Sargassum weed and it comes from
the Sargasso Sea which is south of the
islands of Bermuda out in the Atlantic
Oh
and it comes all the way from the
Sargasso Sea through the Yucatan straits
into the Gulf of Mexico and eventually
lands on our Beach once you get an
understanding of just how unique this
place is it really sinks in how special
San Jose is to Southeast Texas what's
your favorite part I mean when you come
here what are you normally doing nothing
so if you're looking to soak up the
Texas Sun and see what the surf look
like when LaSalle sailed the Gulf a stop
at San Jose Island is well worth of
stuff on the Texas bucket list the ocean
has such a strong attraction I think to
all of us the fact that these little
islands were alone against the sea and
had to fight to survive gives it a
certain vibrancy that's undeniable you
can feel it when you walk on the beach
when you read the history it's always
right there in front of you these people
had to work hard and be very
self-sufficient to live here and that's
a wonderful
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