Christmas week

This is our second Christmas in Rockport at Bayview RV Resort, we've had a lot of fun but did miss the family gatherings, especially the mountains of gift wrap in the middle of the room that the grandkids scattered. 

Wed., Dec. 17th,  The alarm went off at 5:30 (I hate alarm clocks) so we could be in Corpus Christi by 8:00 for Gary's dermatologist appointment.  Corpus is about a half hour drive from here. He had a pretty good report but did have another spot frozen.  I was also looking for a Santa hat for Luci for our Christmas photo, we stopped at Petsmart with no luck.  JoAnn fabrics was our next stop, I needed backing for the quilt I just finished.  After getting my fabric cut we wandered around the store and lo and behold we found a small Santa hat, I bought the hat and some elastic to sew on to keep it on her head. Our next stop was NAS Corpus Christi for groceries at the Commissary , while I was shopping Gary went next door to the Exchange.  When I got to the car I text'd him to say I was finished and it turned out I text'd myself.  We had to stop at the AT&T store to get the problem ironed out.  Wednesday night in the park is "dinner", our wonderful cook Betty made lasagna, garlic bread, salad and cheesecake.  Delish as usual.

Thursday, Dec. 18th.  After tossing and turning all night worrying about not getting enough fabric for my quilt I  had to go back to Corpus to pick up more.  Thank goodness they hadn't sold out of that fabric.  I hurried back to wash and dry the fabric so I could take it to a quilter here in Rockport.  Mission accomplished.  We played Pegs and Jokers with the usual suspects in the evening. 

Friday, Dec. 19th, We had a bit of rain today, the weather has been "mostly" nice with occasional drippy days.  Fridays at 4:00 is Happy Hour, after we went to Hatfields BBQ again for dinner with Steve, Marty, Teri, Larry, Bob and Sharon.  The Meza Band from Woodsboro, Tx (about 45 minutes away), a father and  2 sons trio played a nice mix of country and oldies,  Their very first song was one of our favorites  "Sweet Home Alabama".  We were the majority of the audience so we had fun interacting with the band, requesting songs, some silly that they hadn't heard of, Gary requested one of his favorites "House of the Rising Sun" which they sang quite well.

Saturday, Dec. 20th,  We started the day walking Luci through the back roads here at the RV park, it's a great time to have Luci off leash to run (and run and run)  When we got back we worked on our itinerary for Louisiana.  We leave here the 7th of Jan, for Galveston, Houston, Lafayette, La., then the New Orleans area for a couple of weeks.  We needed to find a place for Gary to hang out while I take off for Oregon for 6 days.  In the afternoon we went to Rockport Festival Grounds for a Holiday Market, lots of interesting stuff, we only bought a cookie.  On our way back to the park we managed to find 5 geo caches.  Last year when we were here we wanted to visit the Fulton Mansion but it was closed for to renovation.  As we drove past the mansion we decided to stop at the visitor center which is open.  The volunteer told us that the renovation turned into much more than anticipated, kind of like any house project, you start with a small repair in mind and end up with a major project.  The salt air and humidity have done it's number on the mansion which was built across from Aransas Harbor in 1877.  It was quite the house with gas lighting, central heat, running water and a flush toilet.  We watched a video about the house and grounds, before they started the renovation they had to remove all furniture, etc. from the house.  I asked the volunteer where all the furnishings were stored and he said they were in storage units all over Rockport, he added that if they were to get a hurricane all those things would be removed and taken up to San Antonio, that would be quite a chore to get everything moved. I asked if there had ever been a hurricane, he showed us the blade from a windmill that blew from Oakhurst into the neighbors oak tree and now the tree  has grown around it.  The mansion was name Oakhurst because it was surrounded by live oak trees on three sides.  George Fulton was from the Philadelphia area where, they say, most homes had basements.  Well that didn't work so well, the elevation is probably 3 feet, so needless to say, it was wet most off the time.  The basement housed the kitchen, laundry room, furnace, cistern and fuel storage.  The home had 5 bedrooms, 3 baths, library, parlor, sitting room, master suite and dining room. After the Fultons left there was a succession of private owners, a restaurant, a back drop for a trailer park and a recreation center until it was donated to the Texas Historical Society in 1976. They hope to finish the renovation by this summer.  Maybe next winter we can finally see the inside.

Sunday, Dec. 21st., Another cool day, a good time for housekeeping and laundry.  We played Pegs and Jokers in the afternoon with the usual gang plus another couple, Bob and Donna.  She has been full-time rvi'ng for 17 years and Bob for 10.  She was widowed, staying in Quartzite when Bob knocked on her door.  He said he could cook, they got married.  I asked her what she had to trade to get Bob. Quartzite is a big area in the desert of Arizona known for Swap Meets.  After the games we watched the Seahawks whomp the Cardinals35- 6, holy smoke what a game!  My sister that lives in Phoenix disagrees with me. Only one more regular season game, time sure flies.

Monday, Dec. 22nd.,We woke up to a beautiful day, Gary did his 15 mile ride to Allegro Key and back while I went to Snap for a work-out. In the afternoon, I took a break from trip planning to ride to the park office to pick-up our mail.  Before the Texas drought started there were two lakes in the middle of the property, now just ponds.  As I came back I saw a Spoonbill and a Blue Heron and about 15 turtles.  We had an impromptu happy hour at Bob and Sharon' in the afternoon.  Gail and RJ, Karen and Steve, Steve and Marty and Marge and Mary showed up.  Came home, ate leftovers and watched Cincinnati beat Denver.  Hahaha Denver.

Wednesday, Dec. 24th, Christmas Eve, everyone took appetizers for happy hour and gifts for a crazy gift exchange. I smoked some chicken wings for the party that  turned out mighty fine even if I do say so myself.  We took a Red Neck Salsa Basket, with a local salso, plastic bowl and spoon, some napkins and tortilla chips, and a 6-pak of beer Gary was hoping to bring back with us.  Gary had several gifts "swiped" from him, he ended up with a bottle of wine that I like and I got a vibrating pillow after losing a couple of nice things. 

Thurday, Christmas Day, Gary fixed French toast, bacon and eggs for breakfast, we had our "tree" then took Luci out for a walk.  Poor Luci got "nuttin" for Christmas. We talked to Chris, Stacy, Leah, Judy(my sis), Punch,(my bro) Gary's three sisters Laurie, Carol and Suzanne.  My sister Lauri called later in the evening. RJ came by to snap our Christmas photo, thanks RJ, he did a good job considering his subjects.  The park put on a nice dinner of ham and scalloped potatoes and the rest was pot luck.  I made a shrimp salad.  The cook Betty had a cream cheese "goodie" on her plate, she asked if I'd made it.  No I hadn't. She had the cranberry salad I made for Thanksgiving, she watched who left with the dish.  I ran into her in the dog "yard" after Christmas, can you believe this!?!  The cook asked for my recipe.  Cool!  I digress, after dinner we went into a food coma.  I napped.  I had to perk up to go back to the club house to play Pegs and Jokers.

Friday, Dec. 26th, Did the usual housekeeping chores then went downtown for a little shopping.  I wanted to get a few pictures along the waterfront for the blog.  As we drove down Fulton Beach Road we saw a suspicious couple, they were geo caching.  The couple were from Ottawa Canada.  It was fun talking with them, the particular cache they were looking for took Gary 4 tries to find.  Our neighbors invited us over for margaritas at 4.  Dick and Ruth are originally from Austin Tx but now spend half their time in Denver where their daughter lives. 

Enjoy the pictures and a Happy New Year to ya'all!

TTFN

Gary and Pam

                                                   Luci wasn't crazy about the hat

                                      
                                                    No, I don't want to wear the stupid hat

                                                   Betty and  helper Christmas dinner

                                          Photos we took on our drive down Fulton Beach Road

 

 

                                         Blue heron

                                         Egret along side of road

           
                                         Pelicans taking a break on fishing pier

                                         Those gulls can't read

                                         Fisherman

                                         Rockport Beach across harbor

                                          Self-explanatory

                                         The mansion under renovation

                                         I just love to watch the pelicans

                                         Egret in the marsh

                                         The lake post drought, an yes, there used to be an alligator

Christmas time in South Texas

Dec. 6-Dec. 16

 

Sorry I’m so late with my newest blog, I’ve been busy procrastinating.

 

Saturday, Dec. 6^th.  The day started out drizzly and in some places downright raining.  We crossed the Copano Bay Bridge to Lamar to pick up the 4 geo caches we need to have a total of 2,200 finds. The sun did  come out so we didn’t get wet. We even saw Santa Claus; a portly gent was walking along the country roads with a Santa hat, as we passed him we saw he had a white beard and moustache.  You’d think the old guy would have been too busy to be exercising in South Texas, he must be quite organized.   Last year when we first arrived in Rockport we saw a sign at a local tavern advertising Sand Belt Racing, we thought, now that’s silly. They “race” the 1^st and 3^rd Saturday of the winter months, as it turned out we never made it to the races, something better always came up.  Robert and Diana had mentioned going so we decided to join them.  The races took place outside in back of the tavern with several bleachers set up for the spectators.  Our “host”, one of the racers, talked to us about the races, what is legal etc.  He was from Seattle area, although Belt Sander Racing originated there, he didn’t race until he moved to Rockport.  One thing he said caught my attention; it’s the only sport you can participate in that you can drink before, during and after.  Does it get any better than that?  The track is 75 feet long, 50 for racing and 25 for “cool down”.  Any standard belt sander under 24 inches that is commercially sold can be used; the racers can use any kind of sandpaper again that is commercially sold.  They are modified by changing the pulleys to race better.  The sanders are plugged into an extension cord that was long enough to go to the end of the track; they are “duct taped” on to ensure they will stay powered. Our “host” said that the fastest anyone has gone on their track is 50 mph, the sanders we saw that day went about 20mph.  It is formulated like any drag strip, two lanes with Christmas tree starting lights their timing system was quite accurate down to a 10^th of a second.  To start they played the National Anthem, announced the racers giving a little bio about each one of them even a couple of women raced.  Most of the sanders had specialized paint jobs, the one I liked best looked like the Texas flag.  After all the eliminations which took a couple of hours, we had a winner.  Depending how many racers there are depends on the “purse”, on that day it was about $50.00, the entry fee is $10.00.  Our “host” took 2^nd place.  It is truly silly but you have to see it once. 

Sunday, Dec. 7^th, Pearl Harbor Day was quite drizzly.  We picked up RJ and Gail to go to the USS Lexington, a permanent museum on Corpus Christi’s waterfront.  We had decided to go to NAS Corpus Christi to the NEX to pick up some Southern Comfort for Gail’s egg nog she will be making for Christmas eve.  (Had some last year, delish!)  We all got a bit carried away spending over $108.00 for booze.  Well, it won’t spoil!  Lunch was at BJ’s Brewhaus, of course, then we headed for the ship for the Pearl Harbor Memorial which was held on the hangar deck.  The Veteran’s Band of Corpus Christi started the program followed by the Corpus Christi Fire Dept. Pipes and Drums, bag pipes always make me cry.  The Colors were presented by Flour Bluff HS ROTC (a suburb of Corpus).  As the program finished, 4 Pearl Harbor survivors, that live in Corpus, placed  wreaths in the bay. We must always remember.  After we got back to Bayview we stopped to say our “good-byes” to Robert and Diana who are leaving for the Rio Grande Valley to visit friends.  We hope to see them again when we get to Louisiana, they plan to be there around the same time as us.  Later we played Pegs and Jokers with Bill, Carole, Linda and Al(ice) she was one of the guys that night.  Best of all, Seahawks beat the Eagles!!!!   Whew!!!!

 

Monday, Dec. 8^th, this would have been my Dad’s 97^th birthday, happy birthday Dad.  I was lazy all day, I felt like I was coming down with a cold.  Something caught Luci’s eye, it was a buck and a doe across the road by the laundry.  Cool.  I did spend the afternoon making Baby Back Ribs for Gary, he said they came out nice great.  He was quite industrious in contrast to my laziness, he took a 15 mile bike ride then took Luci for a long walk.  Last week we picked up some spray paint in Aransas Pass for refreshing our metal cactus so he got started on that job.  I did do some quilting so the day was not lost altogether.

 

Tuesday, Dec. 9^th,  Gary took the car to Aransas Pass to have the transmission serviced on the Jeep, seems like just yesterday we bought it now it has over 100,000 miles.  My cold was a little better so I did some more quilting.  It’s best if I’m alone when I quilt, the sewing machine is on the table, the cutting board and ironing board are on the counter and I usually have the bed covered with “pieces”.  When Gary got back from AP he finished the cactus, looks better than new.

 

Wednesday, Dec. 10^th, My cold is gone, Airborne sure works wonders.  We took Luci on a long walk (off a short pier) through back roads so she can run, the weather has warmed again with high humidity so by the time we get back we’re just dripping wet.  Just a few things we have noticed here in Texas; it seems like every other ad on television is for attorneys, Evangelists come in second.  Then we saw a crazy add for a drug store in Corpus, Drugs and Guns, they even have a shooting gallery there. So come get your drugs and guns, listen to the Evangelists and then sue someone.  On Wednesday nights we have a dinner at the clubhouse, tonight Betty made Burgandy Beef Stew, salad with dill dressing, rolls and a peppermint frosted brownie.  Yum. 

 

Thursday, Dec. 11^th, We listed our timeshare on Kauai for sale several weeks ago. We got a call from the Real Estate agent, he had an offer for us to consider.  It was a couple thousand dollars less than we were asking so we had to give it some thought. We drove to Corpus to get some new phones.  What an ordeal, we both got the iphone5, the newer phones are so large they don’t fit in pockets.  Thursdays we play Pegs and Jokers with RJ, Gail, Bob, Sharon, Bill and Carole, girls versus boys.  The last game I got real lucky, I must have had 6 or 7 jokers, they are like a wild card. 

 

Friday, Dec. 12^th We started the day with a walk along Fulton Beach Road. It was another beautiful day especially compared to the cold weather we had here last winter. We spotted an egret in a tree along the road and several pelicans perched on fishing piers or cruising the water for breakfast.  It seems most RV parks are near railroad tracks, busy freeways or airports.  We don’t have any trains or freeways here but are on the flight path for Aransas County Airport.  Do you remember Baa Baa Black Sheep, an old television series about pilots in the Pacific during WW2?  NAS Corpus Christi sends single and twin engine planes to the airport for training, it sounds just like that as they take off, circle and land.  Then there are all the helicopters that fly personnel to the oil platforms out in the gulf.  I’m not complaining, I actually enjoy watching the planes.

 

Saturday, Dec. 13^th,I have decided to go to Salem for my best friend Charlotte’s birthday, I won’t say how old, so I spent most of the morning on the phone booking my flight with my frequent flyer miles.  I’ll leave New Orleans Jan. 28 and return Feb. 3^rd.   Gary was needing a new pair of walking shoes, I guess he spends too much time walking Luci, so we went to Portland (only about 15 miles from Rockport) to Academy, a sporting goods store similar to Dick’s or Sports Authority.  We weren’t too smart, we didn’t need to go on a Saturday during the Christmas holidays.  He found a pair of Merrill’s that fit and felt good.  After lunch at a deli we picked up 4 geo caches in the area, then headed towards Aransas Pass.  We stopped at a Hispanic cemetery to pick up 2 more gc.  Later we watched Marcus Mariota win the Heisman Trophy, he had twice the votes as the other two combined.  Wah hoo.

 

Sunday, Dec. 14^th, We attended the Symphony by the Sea at Rockport Fulton High School with Gail and RJ.   In addition to the Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra about 150 members of the high school choir sang.  It was a fundraiser for the Education Foundation of Aransas county that provides grants and providing monies for other things such as field trips.  The guest conductor was Andres Franco from Columbia, now living in Fort Worth.  He is quite accomplished especially for his age.  Brian Otripling, the trumpet virtuoso, was  amazing, his voice, a deep baritone was delightful and could he ever play the trumpet.  He is a soloist with the Boston Pops Orchestra as well as a featured soloist on PBS.  The Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra now in its 69^th season, have had many featured artists such as Van Cliburn, Marvin Hamlish and Itzhak Perlman make appearances.  Their principal performance venue is at Texas A&M University- Corpus Christi, Performance Center.  After the symphony we had dinner at Charlotte Plummers Restaurant by the sea.  Gary and I haven’t been there before, we thought it  was one of those fancy overpriced places but were pleasantly surprised.  Everyone but Gary had a margarita, delish!   We were seated by the window, it’s right on the harbor so we could watch the boats come in, one of them was the excursion boat we took last winter to see the whooping cranes. After dinner we drove around town looking at the city’s Christmas decorations. We got back to the coach for the last quarter of the Seahawk game.  They did kick the niner’s behind.  We played Pegs and Jokers at 7:00 with Bill, Carole, Alice, Linda, (we called her Bob, she was on the boys team) and Gary and I.  Such a fun game. 

 

Monday, Dec. 15^th, A quiet day, we started with our morning walk along Fulton Beach Road.   Gary spent some time at the club house using the wi-fi putting info into our new phones while I quilted most of the day. 

 

Tuesday, Dec. 16^th, almost identical to Monday, we walked, Gary worked on the phones again and I finished my quilt.  I BBQ’d a turkey breast, I smoked it for about an hour then turned the heat up for a couple of hours.  It came out PERFECT!  We had an offer on our time share that we turned down, the agent called back after talking with his client, it sounds like they’re going to purchase it at our asking price.  Yea!!

 

Enjoy the pictures,

TTFN

 

Gary and Pam

 

 

                                         Legends Saloon Home of Belt Sander Races

                                          Our host with whiskey in hand

                                         Getting ready to race

                                          USS Lexington

                                         Flour Bluff ROTC

 

                                           Corpus Christi Fire Dept Bagpipers

         

                                          Gary, me, Gail and RJ on the Lex

                                         Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra & RF HS Choir

                                         Gary, me, Gail and RJ at Charlotte Plummers By The Sea

                                              Light post in front of Charlotte Plummers

                                        Christmas decorations in Fulton

                                         Charlotte Plummers

                                        The view from restaurant

                                         Scenes around Fulton

                                          Tree in front of Paws & Taws, convention center Fulton

                                                   Rockport's tree

The first week of December in Rockport

I keep saying this but time does fly.  The weather has been wonderful and time spent with friends has been fun.

Friday Gary rode his bike in the morning, about 14 miles along Fulton Beach Road down to Allegro Key, an expensive area of homes on the water. Again, I keep saying this but it is so beautiful here.
After he got back, we walked Luci in an area where she can be off leash to run.  The good news, the weather has been great but the bad news, the mosquitos are back.  We should buy stock in Cutters.
We decorated for Christmas in and outside the coach, last year we purchased a lighted Santa face, he's inside the windshield and when we were in Mexico we bought a large poinsettia flower (plastic) that we put over the windshield.  I'm not too sure how long that is going to last, the wind keeps stripping it's leaves.  Inside I have our ceramic lighted Christmas tree that we had used in the house in Salem for many years, I'd found it when we were getting rid of our "stuff".  It's only about 8 inches tall so it doesn't take much room.  Then my favorite decoration, a gift from Marilyn, an original water color picture of four snowmen.  And the nice part, after Christmas, it won't take long to put everything away.  Then of course Friday night happy hour, we were a little late, I was finishing publishing last weeks blog.

Saturday as we walked along Fulton Beach Road we noticed a heron flying with a fish in his mouth, he was drawing quite a crowd, other birds were wanting a bite.  We had several errands to run in Rockport so we decided to grab a bite to eat at the Apple Dumpling deli.  Delish, Great sandwiches, salads and their specialty, apple dumplings.  I haven't had one but they sure look good.  We picked up some pork chops at the meat market, the Dollar Store and HEB, a regional grocery chain.  In Texas it seems your only choices for groceries is HEB or Wal-Mart, you never see a Safeway or Albertsons.
We enjoyed BBQ'd pork chops then watched the Ducks win!

Sunday on our walk down FBR we noticed a group of white pelicans, they stood out against the blue water, they tickle me the way they dive into the water for fish, looks like a suicide mission.  All along the Gulf Coast is a major birding area with thousands of birds and waterfowl that winter here to nest and breed.  At 2:00 we went to the ice cream social, again, skipping the ice cream, then played Pegs and Jokers after.

Monday we needed to go to Aransas Pass for several errands, the major reason, the car has been making a funny "boing boing" noise every so often.  It sounded as if it came out of the radio but when we turned the radio off it still made that noise.  They didn't have a clue, said they would need to drive it, it's such a random noise we figured it would not happen.  We stopped at Lowes for spray paint to freshen up our cactus and Wal-Mart to buy some toys for Toys for Tots.  Gary got a little truck and I got a little doll, which giggles.  Well it giggled all the way back to Rockport, we were glad to drop it off at the Park office.  We did some geo caching on the way back. one was pretty cute.  The clue said "it will see you before you see it", very true it was a skull. (not real of course)  As we were passing through Rockport the "boing" noise started again.  Gary just happened to glance at the GPS, the "boing" was a warning for school zones.  We could have spent big bucks getting the noise analyzed.  We've had the GPS for over a year without the warning, maybe we just weren't in a school zone when the yellow lights were on.

Tuesday morning I had an appointment to get my hair cut, the humid weather must make hair grow faster.  The gal here that has been cutting my hair is 8 1/2 months pregnant, I was her last client until she gets back from maternity leave, she's had some minor complications so Dr. told her to quit working.  I worked on my quilt for a while, starting to make some headway. 

Wednesday we took Luci to the Salty Dog Doggie Day care and Grooming for a few hours of play then a much overdue bath.  We decided to go geo caching, we headed back towards Aransas Pass, just about 10 or so miles from Rockport.  We had noticed a Historical Marker along the way on previous trips but never took the time to stop. The Cemetereo San Antonio de padun, according to the sign, a man named George Lewis (1859-1895) donated a half an acre of land to be used as a cemetery for Hispanics.  I'd like to know why but I can't find any information.  Anyway there was a geo cache right under the historical marker.  We cached all the way to AP ending up in the marina where RedFish Willies Restaurant is located, it was Gary's plan all along.  We had a nice light lunch, continued gc'ing only to have 4 DNF's (did not find) in a row.  Time to quit and go pick up a much better smelling Luci.  Wednesday night happy hour is followed by a dinner.  Talk about delish!  Betty fixed a pork loin, potatoes au gratin, fresh green beans, cranberry salad and a wonderful cherry chocolate cake.  MMMMMM.  She sure can cook.

Thursday we went caching with Robert and Diana, aka, Spike and Velour, their geo cache name.  We headed off to Aransas, across the water from Aransas Pass, you have to take a ferry to Mustang Island.  Our goal was to pick up 11 to make a total of 2200 and they had 6 to go to 3700.  We failed.  We kept getting stumped on seemingly easy ones.   We're not sure if they had been muggled or we were just inept.  You'd think  four people with a total of almost 6900 finds could find simple gc's.  One of the caches was in a bird viewing park, Robert and Diana are are birders also, we were thrilled to see several large birds in the marshy area, they identified one of them as a Black Crown Night Heron, a gorgeous bird. As we were watching he spread his wings out to dry them.  As we were on the ferry crossing over to Mustang Island we noticed a SUV in front of us with a dove on his back windshield wiper.  What was really odd, it was fake.  Why would anyone want to put a dove there? We had lunch at  Aransas Brewing, the food was good but I think I was still full from Wednesday nights dinner, so I had a crab cake appetizer, Gary had a delish looking burger.  We had to get back to Rockport by 4:00 so we had to scurry.  Thursday night we play Pegs and Jokers at the same time as Bingo, I want to yell Bingo just for fun.  I'd probably get stoned.

Friday morning I wrapped the grandkids Christmas gifts so we could get them in the mail.  Justin retired from the Army and will be going to school in Olympia so they moved to Shelton just this week.  It's been a geo cache week, we picked up four more.  I discovered the reason they named Fire Ants, because my feet felt like they were on fire after stepping on an ant hill.  Not pleasant. We went to Friday night Happy Hour then home to watch the Ducks win the Pac 12 championship.  Go Ducks!

That's it for this week,  Hope as is well with all of you,

TTFN

Gary and Pam
PS pardon my technical skills

                                         historical sign

                                          clever geo cache

                         
                                        Just about stumped us

                                         How it looks in the pile of rocks except it was turned over

 

                                           Black Crown Night Herron

    

                                           disregard this, just my usual tech skills at work

 
                                        The Hispanic cemetery

    
                                         The SUV with the Dove (?)

                                         Crossing the water into Aransas

                                         Gary and Luci looking for birds

 

 

  

                                         A nasty geo cache