The town of Rockport is a picturesque seaside community famous as an artist colony and one of America’s largest birding areas. Nearby islands serve as the nesting and breeding grounds for thousands of migratory birds. The Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, 36 miles to the north, is a wintering ground of the near-extinct whooping crane. Just three miles north of Rockport is the elaborate Fulton Mansion State Historic Structure that features gas lights, central air conditioning, forced-air heating, and hot and cold running water — conveniences totally unheard of when it was built in 1876. To the south of the resort is Port Aransas, a quaint fishing village on the northern tip of Mustang Island. The waters of the Gulf of Mexico to the east, and Corpus Christi Bay to the west, provide excellent mackerel, croaker, and flounder fishing. When you see the two-mile seawall in the heart of the business district, the white-sand beaches nearby, and sailboats and deep-sea fishing in the bay, it’s easy to figure out why beautiful Corpus Christi has been called the “Sparkling City by the Sea.”