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CORPUS CHRISTI GOES AFTER TOURISM TEXAS-STYLE — BIG

This city, long considered the nicest, and most boring, in Texas, and its neighboring Mustang and North Padre Islands, suddenly are in a boom that may combine them into the leading resort area on the Gulf Coast.

New hotels, resorts and restaurants are sprouting almost overnight, and if all the announced developments on Mustang Island alone materialize, within a decade this area will be the Lone Star equivalent of Miami Beach.

It couldn`t happen to a nicer place. Corpus Christi Bay is sparkling; the breezes keep the summer tolerable and sailboats flying; winter sunshine is a sure bet; and the area is one of the least polluted in America.

No longer do downtown sidewalks roll up when the sun goes down. The keystone of Corpus Christi`s renaissance are two lively hotels. The 18-story Marriott, 350 classy rooms on Shoreline Drive, is regularly filled to capacity with honeymooners, families, businessmen attending small conferences and weekend refugees from Dallas and Houston. The Marriott swings with three restaurants and a lively nightclub, and its indoor-outdoor pool and sundeck are great.

Two blocks away, the new and deluxe Hershey Corpus Christi Hotel added further to the Shoreline Drive scene when it opened in February. Competing for the same guests as the Marriott, the Hershey has a concierge floor with deluxe suites and private lounge amid its 474 rooms and 24 suites, and a complete health club with the works–racquetball courts, whirlpool and so on. Something special: Guests are given a Hershey bar when checking in and Hershey Kisses on their pillows at night.

Given the instant and continuing popularity of both the Hershey and the Marriott, there obviously is a strong market in Corpus Christi for top-quality hotels. For the visitor, it may come down not to which has the fanciest rooms or lowest rates, but which has an available room at all. Both hotels offer special packages for families and honeymooners.

If both are full, the bayfront also has a nice Holiday Inn, a high-rise Sheraton and La Quinta one block inland, and numerous motels. For information, contact the Corpus Christi Area Convention and Tourist Bureau, P.O. Box 2664- CT, Corpus Christi, Tex. 78403 (512-882-5603).

Wherever you stay, plan on at least three days to sample all the new restaurants. The hottest spot in town is the Water Street Oyster Bar, a high- tech, low-key restaurant in what once was a transmission shop two blocks from the bayfront. Popular with everyone from families to singles, the WSOB specializes in fresh fish with Cajun flavor and is a leading contender in the ”Who has the best blackened redfish?” sweepstakes. A two-stoy mural titled ”Venus on the Halfshell” adds a semi-Botticelli touch, and the breezy outdoor patio is a winner. The same management has opened a Cal-Mex restaurant, Otra Vez, next door, and small boutiques are popping up around the patio plaza.

Another newcomer, the Lighthouse, is a bit of Sausalito on the bay, stretching over the second floor of the marina office overlooking the yacht harbor. The food is tasty, the drinks are tall, and, when the weather is nice, tables on the outside balcony are absolutely the best place to end the day. Sailboats skim by in the channel below, their masts almost close enough to touch. There`s another oyster bar here, plus a blackboard, listing fresh fish specials for the day.

A turn-of-the-century riverboat known as the Wayward Lady now dominates the city`s shoreline at the end of the L-Head Marina. Although the jury is still out on the quality of the Lady`s cuisine, the floating restaurant adds a touch of the south where the city needs it most.

Two notable new eateries, slightly beyond the bayfront tourist district, are worth searching out. The Baja Coast on South Staples Street has swiftly earned the undisputed crown as the best seafood restaurant in town, noted for mesquite-grilled fish plus foods from the Baja region of Mexico. For more elegant or continental dining, try the British Sideboard in Lindale Plaza. Their gourmet shop packs an outstanding picnic basket to go, which is nice to know if you are headed for a day of sailing or a special trip to the beach.

The renaissance also has reached the waterfront. One side of the People`s Street T-Head dock is lined with party boats for bay fishing and sightseeing

–the Flagship swings with live Dixieland music on summer weekend evenings

–and the other side is home from May through October to concessionaries renting jet-skis, windsurfers, paddle boats, aqua-trikes and small catamarans and Sunfish. Rates are affordable, and the protected water recreation basin alongside the pier has no boat traffic.

Although things are relatively quiet in the winter, recreation then runs to bay and gulf fishing, and pedal surreys can be rented on weekends across from the Marriott for a slow cruise along the two-mile seawall. The route stretches from the city`s modern Bayfront Plaza convention and museum complex to the Holiday Inn and passes McGee Beach. The bay waters are shallow and calm here, ideal for families with young children. Although temperatures have been known to dip below freezing in January, it was 80 degrees in Corpus Christi last Christmas Eve.

For more challenging swimming, head north of town via the Harbor Bridge to Corpus Christi Beach (also called North Beach in CC-speak). Summers through September you can rent jet-skis and catamarans here, with or without instruction.

Beachcombing also takes you to North Padre and Mustang Islands. Both are barrier strips of sand that separate the Gulf from the Laguna Madre and absorb the brunt of the bad weather. Soon they may be absorbing crowds.

North Padre begins with extensive commercial development, then reverts to nature at the beginning of Padre Island National Seashore, 80 miles of open beach that is considered the finest stretch of natural beach in the country. The first 8.5 miles of road are paved, and another 5 miles of beach can be driven with care in a standard car. Beyond that point, four-wheel-drive is mandatory for exploring the 55 miles to the Mansfield Cut.

Didn`t bring your Bronco? No problem. Four-wheel-drive vehicles can be rented locally. Inquire at the national seashore office.

Shelling can be exceptional along the wilder stretches of the national seashore, the result of two gulf currents that meet and deposit shells in abundance.

The road from North Padre crosses an inlet to Mustang Island, a beautiful legacy from centuries of storms that is changing by the day. What was 18 miles of undeveloped sand threaded by a single road now sports more than a dozen condo and resort developments. Some are newly opened, others remain promoters` dreams, their signs and portable sales offices interrupting the natural beauty of the landscape.

For now, you can either settle in at the tiny fishing village of Port Aransas on the northern end of the island, or you can rent a pillow with condo attached at the very nice, very pricey La Concha Beach Club and Resort. Less flossy and expensive options include the Sandpiper and Seagull Condos, the Sundial Beach Club and Resort, Mustang Towers and the Casa del Cortes. All are listed with the Port Aransas Chamber of Commerce.

Signs of progress also are slicking up Port Aransas, a ramshackle fishing community at the northern point of Mustang Island. Best described as a ”state of mind,” this had always been a slow-down, jumping-off spot where progress was a sometime thing. Alas, it has been discovered, and the isolation is no more.

For a touch of historic color, stop in at the Tarpon Inn, a relic of a hotel once favored by Franklin Roosevelt. The lobby walls are covered in tarpon scales autographed by successful fishermen, and while the rooms can only be described as ”basic,” the restaurant and bar out back are among the best in town.

Port Aransas does sport an excellent Fisherman`s Wharf, where bay and gulf fishing trips can be arranged. The winter months bring fishermen decked out in hip boots, the better to catch the flounder running off the rocks that line the ship channel.

A small, free car ferry connects Port Aransas with the mainland, but before heading back to the bright lights of Corpus Christi, stop at the neighboring towns of Rockport and Fulton Beach. Both are meccas for snowbirds, folks fleeing the tougher winters further north.

So far, progress here has been limited to a fix-up of the old Fulton Mansion and a new art museum, each worth a stop. A growing number of artists are settling here–one of every 200 people at last count–but so far these communities have avoided a contrived artsy look. They remain what they always have been, friendly places where fishing, loafing, beaching and birding are the prime occupations.

With the development heating up around Corpus Christi Bay, Rockport and Fulton Beach may be the last bastions of cheap peace on what otherwise is no longer the most laid-back portion of the Texas coast.

FOR DETAILS

Corpus Christi is served by American, Continental, Southwest and United Airlines.

For information on the greater Corpus Christi area, contact the Corpus Christi Convention and Tourist Bureau, P.O. Box 2664-CT, Corpus Christi, Tex. 78403 (512-882-5603).

Other sources: the Rockport Chamber of Commerce, P. O. Box 1055, Rockport, Tex. 78382 (512-729-6445); the Aransas Pass Chamber of Commerce, 452 Cleveland, Aransas Pass, Tex. 78336 (512-758-2750); and the Port Aransas Chamber of Commerce, Box 356, Port Aransas, Tex. 78373 (800-221-9198).