Saturday, December 19, 2015
We started our day off going to see Star Wars at the local cinema. A senior ticket was $5, so for $10 we got to see Star Wars. The special effects were fantastic. Not going to say anything else about the movie.
After we had lunch, we decided to take a short hike along Tule Creek.
Along our hike, we saw this blue crane and.....
And this white heron.
It was a beautiful day for a hike.
After our hike, we decided to take a drive along Copano Bay. We found Howard Murph Memorial Park along the bay. We decided to sit and and watch the sun set. I had to choose from 56 pictures and whittled it down.
All these branches come from the same trunk. We are not sure what the name of this unusual tree is that is here in this park.
This is looking one direction on the bay. Here are a couple of fishermen coming in from an afternoon of fishing.
This is looking the opposite direction on the bay.
I got this picture of Tic, camera in hand.
The cloud formations are so pretty this afternoon.
As the sun was setting,Tic got this picture of a father and his 2 sons fishing on the only piece of high ground during high tide.
The clouds have increased and changing colors as the sun sets.
The sun has just gone behind the lower clouds.
Just a few mintues later. It is amazing how fast the sky changes.
Now the sun is between the cloud bank and the horizon.
God's handywork is so awesome!!!
The sun is almost below the horizon. What a beautiful sunset we were so blessed to witness today. Thank you Lord!
Friday, December 18, 2015 - continued
We left Padre Island and headed to Corpus Christi. We decided to go see the USS Lexington. It was completed in 1942 and commissioned in Feb of 1943.
As we walked up the ramp Tic took this picture. The ship is 873 feet long.
We even got to see a plane like the one George H. W. Bush flew. He was shot down during WWII, and rescued at sea.
There were several planes on the lower levels.
There were many more planes on the upper deck.
All these planes were on the stern of the ship.
I was impressed with how mean this Cobra chopper looked.
This plane and the next two planes are some on the ones on the bow of the ship.
This is the front view of the plane above.
Most of the plane's wings folded.
We are near the bow of the ship looking back at the bridge and communication antennas.
We are in the bridge looking out towards the bow. Cool!!!
This is only one of several control panels in the engine room.
Look at this chain! It is one of the 2 anchor chains. We read that each link weighed an average of 130 lbs.
The propeller shaft is painted red and white for a reason. We were told the stripes would provide visual proof of when the propeller had stopped turning. Interesting.
We saw all the living quarters; barber shop, dental, optometry & medical areas; galley, radio rooms, briefing rooms, engine room etc. It was amazing and very interesting all the areas we got to see. We spent two hours and would have liked to have had more time. Parking limitations prompted us to move along. What a fun day!
Friday, December 18, 2015
Today we decided to take the ferry at Port Aransas and go to Padre Island.
We are parked at the loading area for the ferry. See the GPS? It is a short ferry ride.
Seagulls on the pilings at the ferry loading dock.
This is the ferry we will be riding across. It is such a short ride that we were not even allowed out of our cars.
Then we headed on to Padre Island.
At our first pull-in to the beach, we did see a few cars & people.
We also saw this huge ship heading towards a channel.
As you can tell, we are not very far out of town.
Further down the road, we pulled in to the beach again. Now there were no people but several birds.
This blue heron was walking in the tide.
These birds all had their backs to the wind.
This bird would put its head almost under water to peck out the little creatures he was after.
We are not sure what kind of birds these are perched on this dead tree.
We stopped here at the Malaquite Pavalion and Visitor Center. I really like the clouds in this picture.
We walked to the top deck on the building in the foreground. While we were up there we saw..................
....this helicopter. We learned that the border patrols were constantly patrolling looking for drugs more than illegals.
It was nearly 1pm so we decided to stop here and have our picnic lunch. Still no other people. The temperature has warmed up to about 61 degrees.
Next we are heading into Corpus Christi.
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Today we move to Bay View RV Resort in Rockport, Texas near Corpus Christi. I am a born and raised Texan that has never been to the Corpus Christi. Tic is looking forward to sharing this area with me.
We were warned to ask for a site without trees, because they hang so low. So we got what we asked for. We are happy. The site is mostly level and plenty long for both coach and Jeep. There is nice spacing between sites so you don't feel crowded.
It was 3pm before we got parked and settled. We had a small problem. The battery in our Jeep was dead when we tried to start it after arriving. We realized we left the key on and ran the battery down. I called our roadside assistance. They jumped the Jeep. We drove it a little and then to the grocery store. Hurrah, the Jeep started after shopping. All is good. We were tired after a long day, so stayed home.
Thursday, December 17, 2015
This morning we had a few chores to take care of before we could head out. After lunch, we headed to Goose Island State Park in Fulton, TX where we are supposed to see lots of birds.
We are not sure what the name of this bird is. It was walking through the shallow part of a pond.
From Goose Island we could see all this smoke. We asked what was burning and were told there was a scheduled grass burn at a national refuge.
This really long fishing pier was at the park. We walked out to the hump. We watched a man catch a fish. Sorry no picture.
We did see these people out in the water. Obviously it is very shallow a long distance out. They are at the end of the pier in the picture above.
This duck looking bird seemed to have swim fins for back legs. He used them to dive down for fish.
From the fishing pier we could see the causeway bridge we used to get to Goose Island State Park.
It is partly cloudy today and Tic got this beautiful shot of the clouds and clearing sky. Beautiful!!
This seagull seemed to pose for Tic.
We saw a group of these white pelicans. Tic got a close-up of this one.
We saw this man leaving the dock as we walked out on it. We found it amusing to see the brown pelicans begging for scraps as he cleaned his fish.
Just behind the begging group were these 2 brown pelicans making sure the white pelicans did not come out of the water.
Not far from the Goose Island State Park we found the "Big Tree". The Big Tree was about 1000 years old in the early 1900's. It measures 11ft across the trunk, 35 ft around the trunk, 44ft tall and 89 feet across the canopy. BTW, the "Big Tree" is a coastal live oak.
The coastal live oak are numerous around here. Can you see Dusty standing beside another large coastal live oak.
Next we drove along the water's edge. We were amused by the pelicans and seagulls perched on the posts.
We stopped at another fishing pier in Rockport, TX. It is a little cool this afternoon and not many people fishing.
A little ways down the street from the fishing pier was this huge crab. This is a good crabbing area also. Lots of crabs served in the restaurants.
Then we found a part of the Aransas Pathways consisting of miles of hiking, biking and kayaking. The little section we found was about the wetlands.
This blue heron was fishing at the water's edge.
There were lots of small fish jumping in the water. We missed the fish but you can see the rings.
Tic also spotted some deer. They drank at the water's edge.
This walking bridge crossed the water.
This view is from the bridge looking back toward the grey heron we saw.
This is a close-up of the green plants growing on the water.
We enjoyed the peacefulness of this place.
Home to cook dinner now. More excursions tomorrow.
The clouds have increased and changing colors as the sun sets.
