Gators & Mardi Gras....

Well, we have been having a great time.  Not enough hours in the day to do everything.  One beautiful day we took the Ferry and went over to Aransas Wildlife Refuge, looking for Birds.  But, it ended up that we saw more Alligators than we bargained for.  There was a 7 mile loop that you could take in your car and we toured the area and then got out to take the snapshots of the Gators.  We did a lot of hiking, also.  On the way back home we saw a dead Ferrel Pig that your Dad made me take a photo of.  Now, the next day we accidentally ran into our first Mardi Gras Parade in Port Aransas.  That was a new experience for us.  Dad said next year, we are going to be in the Parade......Funny, huh........Dad has been fishing and I have been playing Mah Jongg and taking Soft Pastel lessons.  More adventures to come, if I have time to produce them before we leave....love, Mom

It's all about CHARLIE'S PASTURE & our neighbor

Well, I went on a drive around Port Aransas and found my new favorite spot, Charlie's Pasture.  The first 3 photos are about Charlie's Pasture. It is a 1,217 acre natural Bird preserve.  It was a lot of fun to walk around, only you have to stay on the trails to avoid Rattle Snakes.  The locals say they have seldom seen any, so I felt pretty safe.  I took your Dad out there the next day and I think he really likes it, too.  The last photo of the Parrot, Boyd, is our neighbor down the street.  His owner is a lady with an English accent.  She said I can come back and have a photo taken with Boyd if I would like.  So you may see me with my new friend, Boyd, some day soon.  I am signed up for MJ on Wed. from 12-3 p.m. and will be taking art lessons weekly, on Thurs.  I wanted to take watercolor lesson's on Tues. also, but I don't think we will be here long enough.  I guess that is all the news for now......love, Mom

Moving Day.....

Moving day was yesterday and as you can imagine it was AWFUL.....Your Father did not see the reason to move so he wasn't really happy to start with.  When we got to the Marina Beach RV Park we had to setup the Dish network dish and we had plenty of trouble.  We tried to set it up by ourselves for about 2 hours and started to give up when ( thank the Lord) our neighbor on the right came home and asked us if we were doing alright with the setup.  It turned-out that he was a LIFE-SAVER.  He used to install them years ago before he retired.  It turns out your Father was "taken advantage of " when he went to Radio Shack in Hamilton and purchased the Dish.  It looked "used" the neighbor, Bob, said ,and it is a cheap piece of junk.  So after helping us for about an hour , Bob said, "why don't you just borrow my old one that I am not using anymore."  When I leave I will just take it back.  So, that is what happened.  Bob set his up for us and WALLA, we now have a beautiful picture.  Now, that we are settled in here, your Father can see how much nicer it is .  The top 3 photo's are pics of the Tropic Island RV Park where we were in the "overflow" section.  That is were your Father wanted to stay.  But the last 4 photo's are pic's of the Marina Beach RV Park where we will stay until we leave the area.  The last photo is of a mural that someone painted of the Port Aransas Beach.  When you walk around the Park you see it each time. It is cheaper here by the month.  This Park has better laundry facilities , a community gas BBQ, horseshoes, a pool, a clubhouse with a pool table, kitchen, flatscreen TV and community game night.  Everyone is very friendly and it is more centrally located so I don't have to walk so far to the Library and around town.  As you can probably tell, I am much happier here.  I am signed up to take oil painting and soft pastels lesson's at the Art Center here in town next week.  I am also going to the community center to see if anyone plays MJ.  This is a fun town and Dad can fish to his hearts content.  So, that is all the news for now.  Hope all is well with you.....love, Mom

Galveston trip....

We enjoyed Galveston, only we did not have enough time to see everything.  I would like to have stayed one more day.  I don't know what is going on with this Blog, but some of the photos turned out very large in one of the earlier Blogs.  I don't know how that happened.  Anyway, be on the look out for two Galveston video's on youtube.  One is a slideshow and the other is video footage for the camera....Today is Sat. I am in the Library using the WIFI and Dad is fishing.  We move to a new Park on Tues.   love, Mom

Happy Birthday Deidra

Happy Birthday, Deidra......Dad caught this Sheepshead fish Sat. and was very happy with himself.  We drove around Corpus Christi today and saw all the Pelicans with the fishermen.  The Pelicans like to hang out where the fishermen are.  They are very funny to watch.  Dad and I hope you have a very nice celebration on your special day.  We are heading out to Galveston tomorrow and I will blog again when we have news.....love, Mom

Art day on the Rockport docks

Well, Rockport was all a buzz with the Artist's on the dock.  Everyone had a painting project they were working on and they were all very friendly.  They told me that you can take art lessons in the building directly across from the docks.  I would love to do that but I don't think your Dad was crazy for it.  It was fun seeing what everyone was doing, anyway.  They said they meet once a week and paint, so maybe we will see them again.  On our way to Rockport we saw this man walking on the water.  Then we came across the sign about the Alligators.  Very cool...  On the way home we ran into the "Bird Convention."  They all seemed to enjoy one another's company and were not afraid to get their photo taken.  I am creating a movie about Port Aransas that will be on Youtube, soon.  Be on the lookout for it....love, Mom

Mom has fun in the Sun...

My friend the Pelican, sits on the edge of the pier and surveys all that goes on.  We watched the big ships going out to sea through the channel.  This one was very pretty because of its red color in the fog.  We watched a guy catch a Sea Turtle on the beach and another guy preformed surgery on it and they threw the Turtle back in the Sea.  The photo is of the "hero" that saved the Turtle taken just before they threw him back in.  As you can see I am having fun in front of the sandcastle by the Sea.  It was the second day that it was there and I was glad to see that it had survived.  As you can probably see the weather is beautiful and we are enjoying the warm days.  More tomorrow about Rockport....We will go out to dinner tonight and maybe Dad will start to fish, tomorrow.  He has been talking to lots of fishermen and getting pointers.  I think he will be ready to fish himself , soon.  He met fishermen from Big Fork on the dock, yesterday...More adventures to come...love, Mom

First Day in Port Aransas....Sandcastles by the Sea

Very cool stuff here in Port Aransas.  We drove along the beach and found a cool sandcastle by the Sea.  The front of the sandcastle talks about winter in Texas and the back said "Porta" and had a very cool lizard on that side.  We watched from the beach and saw the huge ship sail by.  Farther down the beach everyone was parked watching the ship come into Port.  Steve thinks he will go fishing off this Pier tomorrow.  I liked the cool looking Seagull on the pole today.  He looks like he thins he owns the place around here.  Todd, Dad and I have noticed how many people are here from Iowa.  Dad told me I needed to tell you about it.  We also think the Iowa crowd drive really fast around here.  Very strange.  Well, we are glad to be settled here in Port Aransas.  I am hoping to get some really good photos of new birds.  They seem to like it around a lot.

Scoping out Port Aransas...

Thank the Lord, I decided that we should go to Port Aransas and scope out our RV site before heading over there tomorrow.  When we got there they did not have us scheduled until Feb. 7th.  So we looked around and decided to stay in there overflow parking lot for a week.  Having a home to go to tomorrow, we decided to go see Rockport across the Bay.  We took the tinest Ferry I have ever been on.  It must have held only about 10 cars and took about 5 minutes to cross the Bay.  When we were looking around Rockport we found" Mom's bait shop."  As we drove farther down the coast we came to the cool art work on the side of this building.  Then we pulled into this parking lot and found this cool bird just hanging out there.  We will go to Walmart and H.E.B for supplies tomorrow before we head out to Port Aransas.  We plan on eating out tonight for the first time since we have been here.  A little hole in the wall called "the Reef" or some thing like it.  I am really enjoying all the birds down here.  The Seagulls are even different around here.....More adventures tomorrow.....Mom

Seagulls hang out in the parking lot...

                            It was a funny Saturday.  I don't know if you can see it, but the Sailboat in the Bay is stuck out there.  The boat is leaning way over. We felt like this guy was NOT having a good day.  Then we drove on and saw this funny sight with all the Seagulls in this parking lot just hanging around on the pavement.  They didn't even seem to care if we drove past.  They did not fly around but just sat there in a group.  Very strange.  We drove to the Pier and looked out at the rough and windy, Saturday.  We drove around a bit more and looked at some neighborhoods.  We are not very impressed with this area.  We can't imagine what Gregg did here for 2 months. We are back home now and Dad is going to make Shrimp fettuccine.  I will make a salad and another day bites the dusty...

A Day at the Texas State Aquarium

What a fun time we had at the Texas State Aquarium yesterday.  I had my picture taken with the diver that feeds the fish in the tank.  Then the Otter's were just too cute.  I enjoyed watching them in their habitat.  They have a very nice area to swim in and they seemed to be having a nice time  together. We saw an alligator and a baby alligator that one of the employees held in her hand to show it off.  A little boy was petting it and asking all kinds of questions about it which was very cute.  The Sea Turtles were very large and the Aquarium employee would brush their backs with a brush because , she said they like to have their backs scratched just like humans do.  There were many animals there that I didn't even know the names of but they were very cute and fun to watch.  We saw a Dolphin show and a lot of kids got splashed that sat in the front row.  Then we walked around and looked at all the displays of beautiful Jellyfish that you would not even think existed.  It was a very nice day at the Aquarium.  We came back to

the park and we did laundry so we are all set when we leave for Port Aransas on Tuesday.  A new place to go with new adventures.  Steve wants to go to the Beach today, so that is where we are headed...love to all...............................................................................................................................Lynne