March 30, 2015
It's down to our last week and we've started packing, finishing up our Gulf Waters projects and saying goodbye to our old and new friends. It's really a hard week especially because the weather is so FABULOUS! How can we leave? Lots of tugs but family and a new kitchen and 3 new bathrooms are waiting for us at home. We'll head North on Friday.
Last night we had a fun trip down the beach for five miles in a golf card to eat at the Beach House with Seattle friends. We also attended the party of the season hosted by San Antonio row on Saturday. It was a fiesta progressive party. What an event!! Camper one hosted Margaretta's and a photo op, medals to commemorate the party and flower head bands for the ladies. Camper two hosted appetizers and camper three had tacos. Camper four was the finale with dessert! Wow! There must have been 150 people who were entertained by some of park talent, who made up a fun band playing lots of Mexican music.
Gil has finished up the sprinkler system, planted some new sod in bare areas and I got the concrete table painted. We're pretty much done with phase I for this year! Our neighbors across the pond are giving us a lot of grief for being retired and working so hard....they get tired just watching us! For us it really makes us feel great to make these improvements!
Tonight Gil grilled the best burgers and I gave Willie a couple of bites of the third uneaten burger. I ran outside to grab something and came back to an empty platter. Humm, I guess the third burger was for him after all!
Gil has caught a bad cold bug so is sniffling and coughing like crazy:-( Sad to cancel some dinners/lunches, but we need a strong driver for the pull North.
It's bittersweet walking the park as lots of the Winter Texans are packing up their rigs to head back home. I think the dogs are even in a funk!
As we say goodbye to friends, it's hard to say goodbye to the sea, amazing sunrises and sunsets. While the desert in bloom is pretty, we sure won't miss worrying about the rattlesnakes who are just waking up from their winter nap.
We're going to make the most of these last treasured days. We'll sure miss this happy place nestled in a piece of paradise. We feel so lucky to call this home for 3+ months in the winter. Happy Easter to our family and friends. We'll be celebrating 'on the road' this year.
March 25, 2015
The time to head North is quickly approaching and wouldn't you know....after nearly needing to build an ark, the weather has been spectacular with temps in the mid 70's, clear skies and signs of spring everywhere as the desert comes to bloom. It's so bittersweet as we are missing our Minnesota friends and family, but still loving being Winter Texans and life at the beach!
We've eaten out far too much, gained too much weight but enjoyed all the friendships and fun. Our new favorite restaurant is an authentic Mexican restaurant called Acapulco and of course, Virginia's on the Bay. It's pretty fun that these restaurants have glass garage doors facing the harbor that lift open so you feel like you're outside. We've had our gas bonfire going several times with friends going back to their childhood with s'mores.
I've still been walking about 4 miles a day and going to body toning twice a week. The class is dwindling as the snow birds head North. My stepper hits 12,000 steps on a regular basis....now I just have to keep it up! Some of the things we find on the beach are amazing...it's a surprise every day. Today, the Portuguese Men Of War came back. Last year we had a lot of star fish...but this week we found a stingray along with a sweet potato!
Spring break for all it's hoopla, added police staff and preparation by the city was a non-event. It was so sad that the weather dampened so much fun for the Spring Break crowd. The restaurants all jacked up the prices for spring break, which meant the typical burger that was $7.95 now commanded a price of $14.95. We are glad the break has ended and things have returned to normal!
We ordered 5 ton of rock, had it delivered, laid all the fabric and worked like crazy to get it done only to discover we didn't have enough rock! Three more tons were delivered and thanks to our neighbor Glenn from Winnipeg, we 'got her done!' It looks terrific and to say we're glad it's done is putting it mildly. The only project remaining for phase 1 is to paint the cement patio table and benches.
The last three days have been fabulous beach days and several of us gather at the end of the boardwalk, toting our little red wagons and head to the beach for some beers, beach and the sunset. The sunrises haven't been too bad either!
Yesterday, some kids were flying a kite when a large pelican got caught in the kite string! Suddenly the kite came crashing to the beach and so did the pelican. Gil ran over and the 'dad' was hesitant to grab the bird, but between the two of them, they untangled the string and the pelican was freed....whew. Lots of cheering on that event! The bird flew and sat on the sea about 100 feet from shore. We're pretty sure it was traumatized, but about 30 minutes later, off he flew and we cheered again. Such magnificent birds.
Willie has met so many new dog buddies. Quincy from Montana is the big black puppy everyone in the park loves! Willie has quickly learned being a beach puppy is very tiring! Sometimes he naps in the wagon!
Tomorrow the Shrimp Pimp is bringing us 5# of jumbo shrimp. Excited to have some to take home. Fortunately, the freezer is getting more manageable so we should have room for it!
March 15, 2015
It's hard to think we'll be heading back home in about 3 weeks. We have so much to finish up here! We're working on the yard, getting a load of rock and Gil's busy fixing, replacing and adjusting the sprinkler system. Today, I proceeded to pull a weed (for about 2 hours mind you) that I thought was 'creeping Charlie'.
To my chagrin, my neighbor came over and told me that what I was pulling was the grass...known here as Bermuda grass. Really? That totally bummed me out! I guess we'll be buying more grass seed soon!
We noticed on the way back from Houston that the Texas Blue Bonnets are starting to bloom along the road sides. They are beautiful and the state flower.
We looked a some RV's again at a huge dealership in Houston. We didn't find anything of interest and once again decided our rig works well and it's paid for! Not a bad thing!
A rather interesting event took place on Saturday morning. Big Foot is a monstrous oil rig owned by Chevron. It left Korea in December 2013 and arrived in Ingleside, TX in March. For the last 12 months, work was being done so it can retrieve more oil in the Gulf of Mexico. She will be positioned at a well 225 feet south of New Orleans in 5200 ft of water.
It's apparently the world's largest rig and was built by Daewoo. Because Ingleside sits across the channel from us, we could see her lights across the bay where the work was being done.
Well the big deal for Port A was that she had to pass through the jetty after leaving the channel at Ingleside to head out to the Gulf of Mexico. She came through with numerous boats around 5 a.m.on Saturday. While we missed it, many of our friends went down to the jetty to see it. She was lit-up like a giant Christmas tree and only had a foot or so on each side of the rock jetty to spare. Pretty amazing!
The other news at the beach is it's spring break. A little town of 3000 people has suddenly turned into a town of 60,000 crazies. They are all over the beach and enjoying the fun of spring break. For us 'locals' and old poops, we don't venture out unless it's really early in the morning when they are still sleeping off their hangovers. No one goes to the restaurants because the normal hamburger that's $6.95 is now $14.95!!! Yikes, we're staying in for a while!!
Thanks for traveling with us!
March 8 - 14, 2015
Such fun times! Granddaughter, Lindsay, 20, flew into Houston so we drove up to get her. It's about 4 hours from the beach. We had a hotel on the South side of Houston and decided we'd do the NASA space center on Monday because it was pouring in Houston AND the beach. She had a Texas shaped waffle for breakfast so became a true Texan:=)
It was very interesting to see the Houston Space Center which none of us had ever seen. Space exploration and walks on the moon were such a big part of our lives that it was like a big trip down memory lane. We got to see the new Mission Control which will be used for the new space shuttle that will go to Mars. We learned a lot about the ISS (international space station) and what it's like living there. Can you imagine the astronauts work out 2 hours a day because the blood runs to their heads causing the 'pumpkin head' look. It's due to the lack of of gravity which forces all the blood from their legs and lower extremities up to their heads. The entire visit was very informative with lots to see and do. We saw the memorials to the space disasters, Challenger and Columbia. Seeing the Johnson Space Center is definitely a must-do at least once.
We drove back to Port A on Wednesday and got a few peeks at the sun, a walk on the beach and a happy hour with friends. While we were 'home, we went to the Padre Island Seashore National Park and did some beach store shopping in Port A. Lindsay was looking for a specific type of rubber key chain to commemorate here trip to Port Aransas and we hardly could find any rubber ones. After about 8 stores she finally found a hibiscus one that said, "Port Aransas, Texas"! She said when she was departing at the Houston Airport Shops, she said they had tons of rubber ones!
We planned to have a bonfire one night with s'mores and hot dogs with our neighbors. It rained so hard we had to move the picnic inside....that of course, meant microwaved hot dogs and marshmallows roasted over the gas burners on the range!! It all worked!
On Thursday we headed back to Houston for the rodeo. Going to a rodeo was a first for Lindsay and I. Donned in my jeans, cowgirl boots, jean jacket I felt totally local. Let me say, this is some rodeo! It's huge, with enough great-looking cowboys to last me a life time. Tons of shopping, animals, pig races, Mutton-Bustin' (my all time favorite!) and a full-fledged rodeo with chuck wagon racing and Brahma bull riding. What a great event.
The rodeo was followed by a Zac Brown Band Concert until 11:00 p.m. All of this for $18 a ticket! Of course, it was still raining and we exited the concert at a totally different place than where we entered. And while we'd taken a photo of "yellow 38" when we parked, we spent a good 45 minutes in the rain trying to find our car!!! Good grief it was horrible, made no sense and the numbers had no order and not one of the 'parking people' could help or had any idea where 38 was located! We finally found it only to meet up with a serious traffic jam that lasted another hour! An ordeal not to be repeated for sure.
On Friday, we went to the Kemah Boardwalk for lunch. This is a charming area with an amusement park, shops, restaurants, a big boardwalk which is located on Galveston Bay. It was great fun and while we didn't get any sun, we didn't get any rain either.
How odd that it started raining the day Lindsay arrived and stopped the minute we put her on the plane at 6 a.m. on Saturday! The other odd thing, is that Minnesota had a super warm stretch of weather at the same time and it was warmer AND sunnier in Minnesota than 1800 miles south here in Texas!
We feel so lucky she came to visit us. We worried we would be too boring, but she seemed to welcome the departure from school, working and studying. It was such a special time and we had a chance to really get to know her better, hear about her school, ideas and future plans without all the interruptions that come with family events and holidays!
March 8, 2015
It's here...the BIG spring break 2015! Lots of crazy preparations by this funky beach town as the police gear up for some wild and crazy kids. Really? It's been so cold, rainy and windy, we think all the spring break kids stayed North where it's way warmer! Actually wondering why we aren't further north for the warmer temps!
Granddaughter Lindsay comes tomorrow night and we're driving to Houston to pick her up, spend the night and then head back to the beach...hopefully for some sun and warmth.
Friday, we decided to head to Rockport-Fulton to attend OysterFest. While we don't eat oysters, it's a food, music and craft event to fund raise for the local fire department. Well, it's not a repeat....but we have to do everything at least once. After all, it's the oyster capital of the world! Lots of great music, weird crafts that I have no idea who would ever buy and over priced food, but we did it!
We've been touring campers in the park and at RV showrooms so we can narrow-down our choices for the next rig. It's probably in our future sooner rather than later. Of course for us it means we have to buy a truck too so maybe it will be later rather than sooner.
Today we discovered two water leaks in our rig....major ugh! The plumbing in these campers is plastic so very prone to pin hole leaks. Gil fortunately fixed the leak by the water pump, but the one under the sink in the bathroom will require a service call when we get back from Houston.
Tonight we went to dinner with our Brainerd friends, Jodi and Curt. Moby Dicks is a favorite and we haven't been there yet this year. It's pretty amazing that we have been here three years and still haven't been to so many of the local restaurants! Just too much good food and livin' here in Port A.
My new mantra is below in a sign I bought. Today was kite day on the beach...we didn't go fly our kite but actually have one with us! Also, a new crop of baby turtles were released at the national seashore. There is never a dull moment despite the ishy weather.
I know it's a little sappy, but it's so hard to say goodbye to these Gulf Waters friends. Even though they'll probably be back next year, some won't. Life's change, destinations change, but for a moment in time, in all our lives, we all shared some great times as a family. This is a very special place and we feel so lucky to be owners here and a part of this magic. C'mon SUN!!!
