Since several of you have been asking me privately about my city and wondering where it is located, I thought I would post a virtual tour of Corpus Christi, Texas on here. I was born here and lived here the first four years of my life (1979 - 1983) and the last fifteen years (since 1992); in between, I was raised in a nearby small farm town of Mathis (1983 - 1987), which is about 35 miles NE of the city, and then grew up in the city of Houston (1987 - 1992). I’ve been a resident of Texas my whole life.

I might add that it was a major transition in my childhood environment in every aspect moving from a small Texas farm town to America’s fourth-largest city, but that’s a whole different story.

We are the 8th largest city in Texas and the 59th largest city in the United States, with a city just under 300,000 and a combined metro population of nearly half-million. In terms of land area, it is the 7th largest in Texas and the 47th largest in the nation -- it has a land area about the same size as that of Denver, CO. Corpus Christi is also a bilingual city with nearly half the city able to speak very fluent Spanish, but also has a considerable Asian population (most of which being Indian and Vietnamese).

Corpus Christi is the second-largest US city located on the Gulf of Mexico, behind only Tampa, FL.

Our climate is semi-tropical, with tropical storms and hurricanes being a major threat during the summer and fall. Snow is virtually unheard of down here. Before our miraculous Christmas 2004 snowfall, the last time it snowed was in 1941 -- almost 64 years before, and before that was 1895; you get the idea...

Our average monthly temperatures in degrees Fahrenheit are as follows:

High/Low
68/48 -- January
71/52 -- February
76/56 -- March
82/63 -- April
86/70 -- May
90/74 -- June
93/75 -- July
94/77 -- August
91/73 -- September
84/64 -- October
77/57 -- November
72/51 -- December

Our International Airport is served by the four airlines:

American Airlines -- (nonstop service) to Dallas/Fort Worth Int'l
Continental Airlines -- to Houston Bush Intercontinental
Northwest Airlines -- to Memphis
Southwest Airlines -- to Dallas Love Field and Houston Hobby Airport

Here is our location:





Relative to our city’s location:
Austin: 170 miles north
Brownsville: 150 miles south
Dallas and Fort Worth: 420 miles north
Houston: 220 miles northeast
Laredo: 140 miles west
McAllen: 160 miles southwest
San Antonio: 140 miles northwest
Victoria: 80 miles north

I have also taken some pictures of the city below to help supplement my e-tour (NOTE: Most of these pics were taken sometime in January and February 2007).




These first two pics were taken in a nearby town 14 miles west of Corpus Christi.

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Here are some pics of our downtown skyline and marina. The 441-ft tall American Bank Tower is the city’s tallest occupied building.

















These next two below are with me in it:

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Pics taken from North Beach:

Below are some shots of the Texas State Aquarium and the USS Lexington (retired WWII aircraft carrier).

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Pics taken from Cole Park and along the Corpus Christi Bay:

Some of these pics are also in and around downtown. The body of water in the background is named Corpus Christi Bay.




A couple of sailboats just off the waterfront




Pelicans resting on the concrete pier





The high bridge connecting downtown/marina to North Beach is named Harbor Bridge, which was built in 1959. A replacement bridge, planned to be built in the future, will be larger, higher, and wider than the current one with the old bridge being torn down after completion of the new one.

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Pics of North Padre Island and Whitecap Beach

Padre Island starts 10 miles southeast of the city. The Gulf of Mexico is in the background on this beach.














This concludes the e-tour. Hope all of you enjoyed the pics.

And here more on my city:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_Christi%2C_Texas

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ThrillNetwork Lead Moderator (Originally known as Hurricane)

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Thanks for the e-tour Jimmy, lots of great information and pictures. As I previously said to you...the American Bank building is nice (although smaller than Kingda Ka as you mentioned, lol), and the USS Lexington is gigantic.

You wrote that tropical storms and hurricanes are a problem during the summer and fall. Have you ever encountered a storm so severe that it forced you to leave Corpus Christi until it subsided? Or do you generally just hold it out at home?

Not a single average low temperature below 65º! I think you might have mentioned this to me before, but have you ever seen snow in person?

Nice pictures too, what kind of camera were you using? Sorry for so many questions.

I should look into doing an e-tour for NYC sometime.

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^ I'll address your questions one by one here:


Yeah, the bank tower is only 441 feet tall, which is 15 feet short of Kingda Ka tower's height. lol


The last such storm to do that was Hurricane Bret in 1999; it actually slammed almost exactly midway between Brownsville and Corpus Christi as a category four storm in Kennedy and Brooks counties, where the average density is less than 0.5 person per square mile -- more than 2,000 square miles of land area with a combined population of less than 900 people. As a result, Bret went down in history as the least destructive and deadly landfalling major hurricane in North American history. Most of the damage was coastal erosion and damaged trees/crops, and not a single person perished from this remarkably powerful hurricane.

Yet despite this, more than 200,000 coastal residents evacuated to safer ground. This was because both Brownsville and Corpus Christi were (at different times) forecasted to become direct targets of Hurricane Bret. I stayed home and rode out what little we got out of this storm.


I still have not seen snow in person.

On Christmas Eve 2004, while my city got hammered with an all-time record 3.8 inches of snow, I was in San Antonio that night, where they got nothing. So I missed my one and only chance in my lifetime to see snow, but for me personally, that is no big deal.

I've lived without snow all my life, I can still live without it. In fact, I'm so glad I'll never have to deal with it ever, knowing all the problems and troubles that comes with dealing it.


It was taken with a HP M425 digital camera with a 5 MP and a 3X optical zoom, which I got last November.


Not at all a problem. If you or anyone else have any more questions, please ask me. I'll always be more than happy to answer them as best as I can.

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That was a very nice etour. Had I seen those picks in mid Feb with the 8 inches of snow we had and if was not going to be 68 degrees tomorrow here. I would have jumped right in the car and started driving. I hate winter. That is a really nice. How far from the shore do you live? Thanks for shareing those pics.

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LOL You've got TWO Omni hotels downtown.

I work next door to an Omni hotel in downtown Charlotte.

I've thought for a while I should go around and take some shots of Charlotte and show it off as well. I might just do that now that it's 70 for the high in March. lol

I am also jealous that Texas has the sense to build an interstate to the coast and yet SC or the Feds don't build one to Myrtle Beach.

As you can see from the map, it would make a lot of sense to just extend I-20 down to the coast. But that would make too much sense.

Attached Thumbnails

 

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Thanks for the responses to all of my questions Jimmy.

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The Omni's are two different hotels -- the Bayfront Hotel (white building) and the Marina Hotel. Back in my college years, I usually like to drive from Texas A&M CC to the Omni Marina's club lounge to study there in a quiet lounge.


I'm about six miles away from the Gulf of Mexico. And glad you liked the tour and pictures.

Edit: When I took the pictures on January 14 and February 12, in case you are wondering, the highs those days were 80 degrees and 69 degrees respectively.

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ThrillNetwork Lead Moderator (Originally known as Hurricane)

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