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!!!
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