February 24, 2014
Today we said 'goodbye' to Jeff and Erica from Calgary. We were overwhelmed by more zero visibility fog so off we went to Rockport, TX. Only to discover, most of the shops are closed on Monday. Gil thought that was perfect shopping, but I plan to go back on a non-Monday to search out more treasures.
Rockport is a fun town on the coast filled with cute shops, lots of artwork and of course, the Poor Man's Country Club, where we once again had the famous BLT and Patty Melt (our third this year!). It was fun to shop the the quaint and unique shops in the historic
district. We bought a few fun things including the painting of the
beach chairs with real lights! We've never seen anything
like this before and will keep the framed artwork in the rig to always
remember our beloved beach on the Gulf Coast.We ventured up to Goose Island State Park, where the campsites are right on the ocean.
We saw the 'big tree' which is really a coastal oak...11 feet across and 1000 years old! Imagine! And we saw a whooper family who reside at the park because the local farmer feeds them from the deer feeder.
Sunday's seem to bring the family together with Xochitl reading her books to me on FaceTime and Maycen chatting about her 'ball' at school and winning the BIG basket from the lucky chair she sat in. We sure miss these kids. That's the hardest part about being so far away. Thank heavens for technology!
The other day, during more of this spa-like intense fog, we went to Corpus Christi to meet the adjuster (finally!!) for the accident. We were at the Cracker Barrel and found the Woodwick Candles on sale. These are my favorite. The only scent on the 50% off table was 'Patchouli'. Interesting that the definition of patchouli is: 1. patchouli. Hippie perfume ... smells like forest, pot and snuggling. This summer smelled like cigarettes and patchouli. So now our rig smells like 'pot'....really? What will the neighbors think? We'll be legal when we hit Washington state, but in Texas?
We also saw the new Kevin Costner movie, "Three Days to Kill". While violent, watching Kevin is not a bad way to spend two hours with the best popcorn ever!
Last night, we had such a fun dinner at the Wild Horses Bar and Saloon with Curt and Jodi and their friends from Roseville, MN. Thanks to Bob and Delynn for treating! I am sure they were sad to be heading back to the deep freeze this morning.
On a beach walk yesterday afternoon, we discovered a fisherman, who was cleaning Atlantic sharks he'd caught on the bay. OK, these things really do look like sharks, so I guess they really are, but apparently they don' t urinate into the sea but back into themselves, so they have to be filleted right away to get rid of the ammonia. Well, while he said they were 'delicious' we'll not ever plan on eating any of those sharks! Probably more information than you really wanted to hear about.
It's starting to feel like when vacation was ending when we were working. We'll soon be leaving this great area, saying goodbye to all our new friends, our beloved beach and all these fabulous restaurants. Many of our new friends will be back next year so it will be more of a 'see ya'll later' than a goodbye.
February 21, 2012
We're pretty sure with the ruthless winter in the North that almost everyone from Minnesota is down here in Texas enjoying the sunny temps and warm beaches of the Gulf. It's hard to believe Minnesota received another 8 - 12 inches of snow as we walked the sandy beach. We met a couple today, who just arrived, and they were from Maple Grove, MN. Like us, they were wondering if they should ever go home. The time is simply going too fast in Texas, but we are excited to see the grands in Washington the end of March. The Texas hospitality is the best...we love it here and feel blessed to have found paradise.
It's been a busy retirement week....yoga on Wednesday with a new friend from the park, who ran a B & B in France. I'm so glad she asked me to go because it was great! We had a trip to Kody's for the all-you-can-eat shrimp (best ever!) for $12.99, another trip to the HEB for a buttermilk pie (so nummy!) and a trip to Cavender's to peruse the boots and claim our free belt buckle. This place is amazing with boots for every age ranging in price from $49 to $4000. No, we didn't buy any new boots.
We had our last two-step lesson on Tuesday, walked the beach a lot, met more amazing and interesting people from diplomats with the Foreign Service to people from International Falls, who winter here, summer near Rainy Lake and have a dog who looks just like Willie. It was a challenge to walk a couple of days this week because the fog was blinding with zero visibility. It's like a free spa day and super bad hair day all rolled into one!
The highlight of the week was the Whooping Crane boat ride on Thursday. These are pretty amazing birds, the largest of the crane family and the 'whoopers' who are here come from British Columbia. They have a huge wing span and fortunately, we saw about 40 of them along with lots of other birds. The 'whoopers' are nearly extinct (150 - 200 in the U.S. they estimate) and are banded with
tracking devices. We traveled on a loud and old boat, past the Port A
light house to the wildlife refuge. It was a long trip in a very noisy
boat, but we were able to get up close to many pairs, see some brownish one year old's hanging out with their parents and saw a lot of other
unusual birds. We figured this was a once in a lifetime trip --- kinda like going to Graceland, if you know what I mean.
It was interesting
that the couple, from Wisconsin, who taught the whoopers to fly with the ultra-light plane, were on our boat. We've seen the documentary and perhaps you have too! People come from all over the U.S. for this festival. For one day, we
were true 'birders' and I am lovin' my whooping crane new tee-shirt. The booby bird is a rare bird and while we didn't see one, his photo made the front page of the South Jetty Paper to announce the start of the Whooping Crane Festival.
We tried to sit on the beach today for the sunset with Kathleen and Ev but the winds nearly blew us away! Check out the coast guard boat --- they will make sure they never loose power!!!
February 17, 2014
So the last few days we've discovered a few weird things, one being the Texas style snowman on the beach this morning, right after we saw a kid with 'lift tickets' on his parka on the beach (they had just been to Taos, NM to ski). And another is seeing a coupla cute dogs in the trunk of a car behind mesh, while the 'parent's' were fishing. I heard, "Sandy, is that you" only to discover that I worked with her (Kim Holland) at Cargill! What a small world! It's also a little weird that someone in the park walks their Siamese cat on a leash. I mean to tell you it freeks out all the dogs in the RV park! He's bigger than Willie and he usually walks with the family dog.
We went to Virginia's-On-The-Bay for Valentine's Day (on Saturday) with a couple from our park who are from the foothills of the Rockies near Calgary. The best part of RV'ing is the wonderful people you meet. The restaurant sits right on the channel with big garage doors that open when the weather is good. While I ordered the prime rib Po'Boy, I got the shrimp Po'Boy, but that's OK because it's all good food and it's apparently the way it sometimes works on the island. The worst part of RV'ing contines to be the dreaded laundry which I did on Sunday a.m. early.
We are up to walking 5 miles on the beach and Willie is staying with us...the picture below is the afternoon nap he takes after the walk. The amazing thing was the green turtle release at the National Seashore Park on Sunday morning. It's amazing because there are so many people who care so much about the wildlife and protecting this precious environment. Apparently, about 250 turtles had been rescued. They mostly had washed up on the beach when the sea was unseasonably cold in January. We didn't go to the release but the crowds were huge and they had a successful release of all the turtles of all sizes back into the Gulf. Safe journey to the little turtles.
Valentine's Day brought fun Valentine's from the kids, which made us miss them even more. Tonight Xochitl read a book to me, which is so fun to hear her sweet voice. Last night, we went to a photography session from a local photographer from the local paper, The South Jetty. He had some amazing photos from wildlife to kids in kindergarten to the crazy spring break crowd. We are told it gets really crazy when the spring breakers arrive. They will arrive the day we leave. ...people say we're lucky to be leaving! It was great fun to see all the photos and we stopped at our first, WhatAburger for dinner. This is a BIG chain in Texas with a ball field named, WhatAburger field in Corpus Christi. Frankly, I thought the burger was very over-rated!
One of the photos below shows a guy fishing on the beach today with his trailer and this gives a new meaning to 'porta potty' for sure. Other news....The Loft is sending coupons because they miss me because it's been so long since I used my credit card. Maybe it's time to go shopping? NO, it's 75 degrees and the beach is always calling.
Last Friday, we went to the RV show at the Fairgrounds in Robston. We saw lots of beautiful rigs, with lots of fancy things, like a bump-out in the bathroom with two double sinks and lots of high price tags. When we got home, we said, 'we love our rig and it has everything we need'. It's a good feeling and definitely less expensive! LOL!
We were getting supper ready tonight and after a gorgeous day, Gil thought someone was BBQ'ing because he could hardly see across the pond....but no, it was a major fog event coming in from the sea. The weather changes so quickly here. This week we have the Whooping Crane Festival and more dance lessons tomorrow night!
Thanks for traveling with us. We're so sorry if you're having more miserable weather! Our dry skin is moist with the Gulf humidity and we love it! We are so grateful to be here and hope our good weather holds. YAY for the USA in the Olympics! We love watching them!
February 14, 2014
It's our second Valentine's Day in Texas. I promised Gil his present would be my agreeing to go to the RV show in Robstown tomorrow. This is a big gift considering that it's been rainy and cold for 10 days and today and for the days ahead it's going to be in the 70's and 80's! Oh well, we're just looking. Isn't that how we got our last dog? Stay tuned.
Tuesday was our first studio dance lesson, which proved to be challenging because in the North you do the two-step with 'slow, slow, quick, quick' and in Texas it's 'quick, quick, slow slow'. Fortunately, we learned some really good things and didn't fall all over each other.
One day, we headed down to Rockport for lunch at the Poor Man's Country Club. This place is a bar right on the bay, which has the absolute best BLT I've ever had...I've become totally addicted to this BLT! The beer of choice is the Texas Lone Star with the armadillo on the can. We've yet to see a real one....armadillo that is.
We also went to the Rockport Science Museum on the bay the same day. I mentioned this place last year. It's free and they have 'science on a sphere' (SOS). It's pretty amazing and one of 30 in the U.S. Photos from satellites in space are projected to 4 cameras surrounding the white sphere. Nothing is enhanced and the sphere weighs about 50 pounds, is made of carbon fiber and hangs from the ceiling. The topic this week was planets of the solar system. Pretty fascinating --- and did you know poor Pluto is no longer a planet? Many of us were led to believe Pluto was one of the planets when we were in school. Now he's been voted off the island!
We meandered over to Flour Bluff where we found the craziest paint schemes for houses. Carefully look at the photos, and note that the adjacent house next door has two colors of paint. The side closest to the first house is painted the color of the first house. It's totally wacky and most colorful.
Honestly, it's been a little hard for me to blog this year because while we are having a fabulous time, the surprise of new things has somewhat vanished. We feel like we're pretty familiar with life around Port Aransas and Corpus Christi so I guess it's a good news- bad news conundrum. It will still be a fun memory for us to read when we are in our rocking chairs and too old to walk the beach. Did I mention
that we had last years blog printed into a book and plan to do the same
this year. It's a great keepsake for treasured travel memories.
I'm not sure how old that would be since today we met a delightful couple in their late 80's who were walking the beach and traveling as companions. They'd each lost their spouses about 20 years ago, were best friends as couples for 55+ years. They raised their kids together and vacationed on a lake near Brandson, MO.in the summers. They are having a ball as travel companions and enjoying walking the beach. She cooks one night and he cooks the next. Way too cute....amazing stories from the beach with some of the nicest people we've ever met.
This week we also watched a little dog named Camero for our friends' daughter. They went to San Antonio to meet their kids and grands arriving from Minnesota.
Also, on our pond, there are several duck decoys (we don't know why there are decoys). In the photo below, one is a decoy but one little duck is so in love with the decoy, it hangs out by it all day long. Maybe it's missing his mom or thinks it's the love of his life.
Last night we went to a free concert in the clubhouse at the RV park. A guy named Bo Rivers was playing his guitar and wow...he could sound just like Willy Nelson and then switch to Roy Orbison and bellowed out, Pretty Woman, like you've never heard! We liked him so much, we've decided to celebrate Valentine's Day dinner on Saturday night at Virginia's on the Bay where he will once again perform.
It was so fun to receive our mail and magazines this week (thanks Kim!) and found a Valentine puzzle from Xochitl along with some fun little Valentine's. You can tell love is in the air on the island....especially since the rain, cold and wind have disappeared. The moon is full, the air warm and the breezes gentle....perfect. So we send our love to each of you from Texas. We wish you a love-filled day filled with lots of chocolate and warm temperatures!
February 9, 2014
Today, we've been in Port A for a month. While the temps have been averaging 30 degrees below normal, we still love the warmth of new friends, walks on the beach and life in Port Aransas. Fortunately, we look forward to another month with hopefully warmer temperatures. On a rainy day this week, we drove down to Brownsville, about 3 hours to the South. It's a border town where South Padre Island is located. It was fun to explore some new areas and while we didn't get to the flea market, we did drive on the island where the road is really narrow. There are signs that read 'drifting sand' and snow plows keep the road clear from all the sand. The fence separating the US and Mexico is below along with the customs checkpoint where armed guards with dogs simply asked, "are you U.S. citizens?". On the way back, we passed the famous King Ranch and ended with a great dinner at the Texas Roadhouse, which is always nummy.
Dr. Pepper is becoming a new favorite drink ---- just like a true Texan where it's the soda of choice. We've been watching TED talks in the morning to keep our mind challenged and we've seen more movies than we did in the whole last year! The Monuments Men was great! Crazy to go to the show at 11:15 a.m. --- popcorn for lunch always seems to work.
Corpus Christi is the 10th fastest growing economy in the US and it's fun to see all the new construction and building going on, people employed and the signs of a strong economy. Unfortunately, it's ranked 3rd in the country for the most diabetes - lots of overweight people as well. Probably because of all the good restaurants and eating here.
So my heart is still beating at a fast rate from the concert last night. We went with some new friends from Winnipeg to the American Bank Center in downtown Corpus Christi. On the way to the concert, as the traffic slowed for the parking area, the taxi behind us with three passengers, did not see we were slowing and swerved quickly to avoid a more severe impact. He clipped our right rear bumper and fortunately, no one was hurt.
I was worried we were going to be late for the concert as critical information was exchanged for the insurance claim. But we made it! We had fabulous seats and he exceeded our expectations and delivered a tremendous performance. I fell in love all over again....be still my heart! He will always be one of our very favorite country performers.
I stole the sand man from the park website because I wanted to show what Texas snow men look like. Also, the turtle photo shows the type of turtles coming to the beach due to the cold water temperatures. They have a very organized group of volunteers that you call to rescue these endangered turtles.
Gil has recovered from his cold so we're been walking again and are excited for a week filled with more practice two-step dancing, a real lesson and shrimp at Kody's with our favorite Imperial beer from Costa Rica.
February 5, 2014
Today my mom is 91 years young! I've talked to her a coupla times today - once to attempt to sing Happy Birthday to her and once to hear her cry tears of joy as she shared all the 'attention' she wasn't used to getting. She's received lots of cards, new pants, a clock, flowers, pictures and calls. She is feeling very blessed right now and fortunately, has made the decision to stay at her apartment and get the house and stuff ready for an estate sale. I sure hope I not only live to 91 but look this good! Happy birthday to the best mom ever.
So the weather hasn't been too great, but nothing in comparison to the North. Lots of wind and cloudiness coupled with cool temps. When I was complaining about the high winds when walking the beach today, daughter Kim, said, "enjoy the fresh, non-freeze-your snot-in-your-nose air!" You see, it's really all relative. I thought it was gale-force at 40 mph, but again it's all relative.
So the last few days have been interesting and we've done some new things. The RV park held a style show with beachy, vacation/resort wear modeled by some of the ladies at the park. Wine and snacks were served ---wine at 1 in the afternoon! We sandwiched about 50 people into a small room and had lots of fun. Jodi and I headed out to Corpus for a TJ Maxx fix after the show and of course, a quick stop at Ross For Less - my favorite.
There is a big cray fish shortage going on, with special concerns due to Mardi Gras just around the corner. They say it's due to the cool weather (can't call it cold!).
To my chagrin, dance lessons didn't work out as Gil got a nasty, nose-running cold. I did laundry and came home and booked tickets to see Alan Jackson at the Corpus Christi American Bank Center on Saturday night. We're going to dinner first with new friends from Winnipeg and then the show! I can't wait....he is our favorite. We'll catch dance lessons next Tuesday.
I've finally used my oven for the first time, baking banana bread and grilled veggies right now. It really works great!
Since we've been cooped up for a couple days with Gil's cold, we headed out to the DQ last night....the peanut buster parfait is the best! I've been doing pretty good walking despite the wind and cold. I figured I really couldn't afford to skip a day after the trip to the DQ!
The photos below show some of our park, the sunset and my favorite beach dog. The weather changes quickly...one way on the beach it was stormy and on the way back, sunny with beautiful cloud formations. Tomorrow, we hope to head down to Brownsville for a look-see at South Padre Island.
February 2, 2014
Walking 12 miles on the beach this week, helped us prepare for two-steppin' at Ropers. We put on our boots, hats and headed out with Curt, Jodi, Kathleen and Ev on Friday night. We started with a lesson in both line dancing and the country waltz. OK, we quickly realized we need more lessons! Our goal is to dance at Whiskey River!
We're pretty sure some of these Texan's learned to two-step at the same time they learned to walk. So we've signed up for a studio lesson on Tuesday. Great fun, super music and a fun night at Ropers followed by a hearty breakfast at the San Juan the next morning. Can you believe, two pancakes, two eggs and two bacon for $3.29. Never mind the bacon was way too crisp! And never mind that my Reba cowgirl boots are considered 'vintage' in the local shops. Maybe we need to head to Cavender's Boots for an update!
We continue to be amazed at the treasures on the beach. Sandcastle school was a hit with the kids, the sea onion...well we aren't sure about that. It actually looks like the sea onion I found on Google, but then again, it could be an onion that fell overboard from a ship. The wooly bear caterpillar? He's way too far from home and missing his Minnesota stripe AND he kept crawling towards the surf instead of away.
We went to Port A and sat on the jetty for a while yesterday. The fisherman are abundant, the pelican's friendly and the bottle-nosed dolphins playful. We watched one guy reel in his line like he had a lunker...we were all holding our breath only to find he'd snagged the line of the guy down the jetty. The pelican's walk the jetty like they own it and constantly supervise the fishermen as they wait for a small tasty tidbit of something fishy.
Willie had his bath yesterday and his safe-haven is in his beddie under the table. He's such a great camper and a favorite in the park. Everyone knows Willie.
A couple of good news, bad news thoughts to share:
Bad news:
A new front has come through bringing 40+ mph winds from the North and temps dipping to the 30's
It's 100% humidity, with light rain and a totally bad hair day
Nothing EVER dries....
Sometimes the beach walk is so foggy, you can't see in front of you
The cable went out during the first quarter of the Super Bowl!@!$@!#@
Our family is pretty sick of hearing from us and how great the weather is in Texas
It's time to do the dreaded laundry AGAIN!
Good news:
We need to remember to eat less so we'll still fit in the shower
There are more ways to fix shrimp than we ever imagined
The ishy weather doesn't last very long and soon it will be in the sunny 70's again
When you walk the beach, you can get an even tan on both sides of your body
The beach is forever and ever
The sound of the surf is our new favorite song
We are into country dancing!
We are officially winter Texan's
My mom turns 91 this week
My good friend, Kathy, retired after 38 years with Cargill
Way more good news things than bad news! Ya'all...thanks for traveling with us!
