Let me put it this way. Your summer wardrobe? It never gets put away. Because the bitter cold only lasts for very short periods. Your time in Air Force Boot was a fluke. Real Texas Winter can be brutal, at times, but more often than not you can count on drop-dead gorgeous sunny days with highs in the upper sixties in the following week.
As for Padre Island... You do realize that it is the longest barrier island in the world, right? It's a little over 100 miles long. And because of the Gulf-Coast Current, the water temperature rarely drops below eighty-degrees. You can camp out on the beach and go wading in the winter time. I've done it and enjoyed it tremendously. Oh, and the fishing there is all but legendary. And this is just Padre Island (which, I might add, is also mostly a National Park). The entire Texas Coastline is lined with them, and some of them sport some pretty nice resorts. Nothing quite as renowned as Sandals or any of the other Bahamas Resorts, but still very nice.
So-Cal? Compete? Maybe for waves, but that's about it.
As for Padre Island... You do realize that it is the longest barrier island in the world, right? It's a little over 100 miles long. And because of the Gulf-Coast Current, the water temperature rarely drops below eighty-degrees. You can camp out on the beach and go wading in the winter time. I've done it and enjoyed it tremendously. Oh, and the fishing there is all but legendary. And this is just Padre Island (which, I might add, is also mostly a National Park). The entire Texas Coastline is lined with them, and some of them sport some pretty nice resorts. Nothing quite as renowned as Sandals or any of the other Bahamas Resorts, but still very nice.
So-Cal? Compete? Maybe for waves, but that's about it.