Lunch on Corpus Christi Bay

Day before yesterday we went for lunch on Corpus Christi Bay. We had some delicious fresh seafood. Afterward, we walked along the park at the Marina. Naturally there is lots of waterfowl. I had to catch this picture of the gull before Doug got Homer out of the car because as soon as Homer got out all the gulls took off.

There were two Pelicans who kept flying and then diving into the water and they would surface with their catch and swallow it floating on the water. Then repeat the whole process all over again.

The ocean tanker is an interesting story. When we crossed the ferry out at Port Aransas, our ferry had to manuever around this tanker which was just coming in the shipping channel. While we drove around the bay and ate lunch, it crossed the bay and waited for its tug escort to go up the shipping channel. This photo shows it under way again heading for the shipping channel. All the ports have shipping channels - long finger-like channels which allow the port to have more docks. The Brownsville, TX shipping channel down at the tip of Texas is 25 miles long stretching inland. See the next entry for some aerial photos showing what I mean.

Port Aransas Bird Sanctuary

Hi folks! Today was a cool day. It only got up to 60 degrees and was cloudy and damp - So what did we decide to do this afternoon? We went to the bird sanctuary! Here are some photos of those neat water creatures! The first guy is a beautiful Little Blue Heron. He is the smaller cousin of the Great Blue Heron in the next to last photo. The second and third photos are of two different kinds of pelicans. The final photo is three of the car ferries passing each other going across the shipping channel.

Tomorrow we are going to be back in the 70's with sunshine. It will feel good again after two days in low 60's! We have decided this place is too humid for us. Oh, those aching bones!
Blessings on you day today!

Doug's new stomping ground

Doug has a new stomping ground - the USS Lexington. Today was his day of orientation and next week he will start his volunteer work on board. When he was a kid he built a super size model of the USS Lexington. When we visited this area 3 years ago, we went to tour the Lexington and I was surprised that Doug knew all the details of the Lex even though he had not served on her.

So when we decided to come back to this area, we checked the webpage ( http://www.usslexington.com ) and found they use a tremendous amount of volunteers to staff the floating museum (It is not just an empty ship - Each area is devoted to different battles of several wars since the Lex fought multiple wars. Stay tuned... We'll tell you more as we learn it!

A day at Padre Island National Seashore

Yesterday we drove down Mustang Island and on down North Padre Island. I thought you might enjoy some Texas warmth sent your way. Not bragging, just thought I might cheer up your cold winter day for you! These photos are from the Padre Island National Seashore taken late yesterday afternoon on our jaunt. The National Seashore area is about 15 miles south of where we are staying in Port Aransas. Just like all of Padre Island, the beach is quite desolate. You can drive on the beach for miles and miles. In fact, beaches in Texas are considered roads. Only place you can't drive is on the swimming beaches. In the fourth photo, we are heading back to the Lexus. We had fun digging (Homer) and playing in the sand. In most places here you can drive on the beach. If fact, from the Visitor's Center south the only "road" is the beach for 50 miles going south (It is recommended for only 4-wheel drives on that section). Here on the north beach the sand is just hard packed and flat.







As we were driving, one of the dry campers was walking his dogs, three German Shepherds. Those dogs knew that Homer was in our vehicle as they caught his scent with their noses in the air.

We discovered a small campground (no services except toilets) on the bay side of the island where you could park right at the water-edge at high tide. All the motorhomes parked there had their generators running or had solar panels on the roof. They were all wind surfers. The one photo shows a few of the motorhomes lined up along the water's edge. Another photo shows the last wind surfer on the Laguna Madre - the water between the barrier islands and the actual coast. It is an intercoastal water way that stretches the length of Texas' coast line. Here in the Laguna Madre is a favorite spot for wind surfers. This was the last guy out today as the sun was setting he was heading in toward us to quit. There are also photos of wildlife we saw: a group of white pelicans, a Great Blue Heron looking for dinner, and a deer.


The last photo is of a beautiful sunset over the Laguna Madre. The tide is out or the water would be up to our feet.

Travel to Port Aransas, TX

On Monday, January 12th, we pulled up the jacks and secured all the stuff in preparation for our 3 hour drive from San Antonio to Port Aransas on the barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico by Corpus Christi. It was almost as hard to leave San Antonio as it was to leave home! The photos are going across the causeway from Corpus Christi to North Padre Island and Mustang Island. We had been here in February of 2006 and loved the laid back family atmosphere of Port A as the locals call it. This time we were staying at a different campground sight unseen. It is right in town so we can ride our bikes places and it is just two blocks to the beach. This campground has very nice people here and a very nice pool and hot tub but it brings new meaning to the phrase "Reach out and touch your neighbor." We'll put it on our list of "never again" campgrounds because it is too tight for our size rig! The campground sits on the bay (Laguna Madre) side of town. In fact, in these photos of Doug and Homer playing ball on the sand flats by our campground, the bay shore is just beyond where we are playing with Homer. He loves to play ball and Keep Away. Yesterday he played and played. When we came back to the motorhome, he laid down and we didn't hear from him for hours! Last night when I took these photos as the sun was going down, it was getting quite windy and chilly compared to the 70 degrees it was during the day.

Doug and I bought a bus and streetcar day pass and rode the bus to Mi Tierra, one of our favorite restaurants. After lunch, we hopped the old-time street car across town to the Alamo for a second visit. This time we took our time going through the Alamo and enjoyed the warm sunny weather. The plaque and brass line in the stone sidewalk is the presumed location of Col. Travis legendary challenge to Texans.

Visit to the Alamo

We have spent the last week here in San Antonio enjoying the weather and the San Antonio International Christian Film Festival (SAICFF). For those of you who might not be familiar with SAICFF, it is a yearly event of competition (this year's top prize was $101,000) for newly produced films, short and long. Represented were film producers from all over the world. We had the opportunity to hear the Von Trapp Children, the great grand children of Sound of Music fame Maria. We also got to see unreleased new films by Dean Jones and the recently released film Fireproof. Both Dean Jones and Kirk Cameron were there at the film festival.
Naturally, breaktime at the film festival meant a short walk to the Riverwalk and lunch along the river at Casa Rio with our friends Ruth and Gavino Perez.







On our walk back to the film festival, Ruth, Gavino, and Doug had to put there western boots on San Antonio on the granite map of the USA. I was relegated to taking the photo since I didn't have my boots on that day! None of us wanted to claim cold PA since we were all in TX at the moment.

Christmas and New Years

Sorry folks - I just can't seem to work the photo uploads on this blog site. It seems to have a mind of its own as to the order it uploads photos and where it places them. I need to search out a new website for posting because this is quite frustrating to me. Enough complaining....

We have enjoyed our Christmas here in San Antonio. Here are some photos. The first photo is of dinner on Christmas day here at the RV Resort. The resort provided the turkeys and hams and we each brought side dishes and desserts. There were about 150 of us sharing a family meal with lots of laughter and fun.

Two nights later several of us got together to enjoy a pork roast dinner as the sun was setting. The southerners showed us northerners how to slow cook a roast all day in a smoker. It was good! It got dark on us quickly so we had to utilize the lights to finish dinner. It was Nells' birthday so we naturally had to celebrate his birthday with a cake!

Doug and I went to San Marcos, TX to shop at some outlet stores several days after Christmas. We couldn't believe all the vehicles we saw from Mexico. Goes to prove the grass is greener on the other side. We go to Mexico border cities to shop and they come to our outlet malls to shop. On the way back from shopping, we stopped in Guerne, TX (It is said "Green") and had dinner at the historic Guerne Grist Mill. It was a great place overlooking the Guadaluppe River - the same river we were camped by in Kerrville before coming to San Antonio. The whole town is stuck in years gone by and is very quaint. We enjoyed dinner and a walk through the General Store.

On New Year's Eve Doug had to take a soak in the hot tub. Since I was still getting over my terrible cold, I decided to just take some photos. No one was in the pool that night due to the temperature being down in the 60's. Homer has a German Shepherd buddy here at the campground. He is 6 months old and the two of them love to play together in the enclosed dog run. Homer has learned some tricks - I'll try to get some photos of them for you all to enjoy.