The coast is a human patchwork, too. Native Texans who played as children in the knee-deep coastal marshes now work alongside Vietnamese Americans and Mexican Americans to bring in the shrimp harvest. Or towers with half-million dollar condos. See, you can't generalize. Every beach has its own personality.
Every discovery leads to more puzzlements.
That's part of the fun. Galveston is 208 miles by auto, with Port Aransas, in mid-coast, about the same. South Padre Island is 330 miles from Austin. Except for Interstate 37 to Corpus Christi, most routes to the coast from Austin are not access-controlled highways. So the going can be slower than on a freeway, especially for travelers with a weakness for roadside barbecue stands.