The Ray Adventures: December 28-March 4

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for their prayers and well wishes, I am finally feeling good.

I forgot to mention in my last blog, Gary and I went to see Dolly Parton in Corpus Christi in December. She puts on quite a show.

Sorry it's been such a long time since my last blog. We started the New Year at the Family Club House, Sharon our activities director organized a fun New Year's Eve party. We had an appetizer pot luck, hat, horns and champagne. Jef (yes with one f) and his partner entertained us with a mix of oldies and country. Since I was still "puny" we left at 10, darn, it was such a fun party.

Chris and Micah came down on the 14th of January for a quick 4 day visit. We were anxious to show them as much of the Rockport area we love. They drove down from Dallas, they wanted to see the Magnolia stores, HGTV's Fixer Upper show's stores in downtown Waco, Texas and of course geo cacheing along the way. We picked them up at the Aransas County Airport, the only rental car franchise in Rockport, about 5. After a tour of Rockport we stopped at the Oyster House so Micah could try the Gulf shore oysters. Chris doesn't eat seafood of any kind but she was a trooper and tolerated our "slurping". Of course the weather did not cooperate, a cold spell came down from the North but it was still warmer than Oregon at the same time. On Sunday we took them to the Lexington for a private tour. After climbing up and down many stairs I decided to skip the flight deck and bridge. The kids really enjoyed seeing the ship. We had a late lunch at a new restaurant in Corpus Christi, Saltgrass Steak and Seafood, it had only been open 2 days, they were really busy, we had to wait over 30 minutes to get a table but it was well worth it. After "dunch" or "linner" we drove to Port Aransas, taking the ferry to Mustang Island. We geo cached along the way until it got dark. Monday we left at 7 for San Antonio, we stopped in historic Goliad for breakfast, they found a geo cache at the Hanging Tree in the Courthouse square. Our first stop in SA was the Alamo, geo cached in the area before heading to the Riverwalk for the boat trip. After we went to County Line BBQ for lunch and geo cached our way back to the car. We stopped at 3 missions in town before heading back to Rockport arriving at 9. A long fun day. The weather started warming on Monday, Tuesday, the day they had to leave, was nice. Their plane didn't leave until 2:30 so we had time for a little more sight seeing, after picking up 2 gc's within walking distance we walked through the park then drove to LaMar to see the 1,000 year old live oak tree and got a quick glimpse of the Whooping Cranes and other migratory birds. They left in Corpus on time but their troubles started as they approached PDX, the airport closed due to ice and were diverted to Seattle. After spending the night they finally got to Portland about 4 in the afternoon Wednesday.

Since Chris and Micah left the weather has been nice. We've had several campfires under the stars.

We had a Super Bowl party at the clubhouse with an appetizer pot luck, we don't miss an opportunity to "pig out". Most of us were Atlanta fans that day and were sorely disappointed with the outcome.

February 2nd, Sharon, Fran, Gail, Lynda, Gail, Marihelen, Marge and I car pooled to Sinton, a little town about 30 miles from Rockport to visit the Justin Label Distillery to taste Moonshine. We had lunch at the Butterchurn, walked around town checking out stores before heading to the distillery. We tasted about several bottles including apple pie and lemonade. It all tasted the same to me. Wow! I think you'd have to be hard up to drink this stuff. Jason gave us a tour, showing us the processes needed to make moonshine.

On the 16th of January we joined Gail and RJ, Sharon and Bob and Marty and Steve to help celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary at Bellino's, an Italian restaurant none of us had been to before. Delicious food and good times with friends.

Valentine's Dinner and dance at the clubhouse was fun, we had a choice of prime rib or chicken cordon bleu, yum, and live music.
The 17th, Gary and I went to the Lexington for the major fund raiser. Gary wore his Navy uniform, he looked goooood! The Lexington Big Band Orchestra played music from the 40's with 4 soloists.

The following week the Lexington honored it's volunteers with a dinner. Dick and Fran (our neighbors), Jim and Connie (former Bay View residents) and Gary and I attended. This years' event was held earlier in the year than usual so Winter Texan volunteers could attend. It was a nice dinner with an open bar.

We finally put our kayak in the water, we paddled 3/4 of a mile into Aransas Bay to a sand bar, several cormorants flew away as we approached. The wind was picking up so we decided we better head back. A short trip, hope to find time to go again soon.

We've been to a couple of movies, Fences, which was pretty heavy, I'm sure it was better as a play and Gold, starring a fat, crooked toothed, cigarette smoking Matthew McConaughey as a down on his luck gold miner, it was "ok".

The Wall That Heals came to Rockport, a half scale, 250 foot long replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial that is in Washington, DC. It is made up of 44 aluminum sheets with 3 panels each. The local boy scouts helped set it up. Besides the wall there was a mobile Education Center and an information tent. We didn't linger long, it was a cold windy day.

Rockport has a marvelous Maritime Museum which puts on Monday Brown Bag lectures. We went the first time recently to hear a retired harbor pilot speak. How interesting, I'd always thought the tug boats just brought them in, wrong. The pilot boards the ship, a tough job in good weather but in rough seas it's very dangerous. The pilot tells the captain how to navigate the bar and shipping channel.

Gary, Luci and I spent an afternoon at Padre Island Seashore National Park, this is our fourth winter and our first time on the island which is only about an hour from here. Padre Island is the longest stretch of undeveloped barrier island in the world separating the Gulf of Mexico from Laguna Madre. The park protects 70 miles of coastlines, dunes, prairies and wind tidal flats. It is a haven for Kemp's ridley sea turtles and 380 bird species. It was a beautiful warm day, Gary unsuccessfully searched for a geo cache in the dunes, Luci loved running down the beach, rolling in the sand and wading in the surf. We had a late lunch at the Angry Marlin, the food was good but the flies (we ate outside on the dog friendly patio)were terrible. After we picked up quite a few gc's we headed to Port A to catch the ferry back to Rockport. The line to the ferry was long, by the time we got to Aransas Pass we decided we were hungry and thirsty so we stopped at Red FishWillies on an inlet, again sitting in the dog friendly patio, we had peel and eat shrimp and beer.

It's nesting time for the herons and great egrets atop the live oaks in downtown Rockport. We saw them here last year in the same place before heading back to Oregon. It's quite a sight.

We're planning our summer trip, we leave here the 2nd of April, head east to Jacksonville, Fl., then north along the coast to Virginia. We will poke around Kentucky and Tennessee for a while before we catch the Natchez trail in Nashville and follow it down to Natchez, Mississippi. This winter has flown by, it's hard to believe we leave in less than a month.

That's all for now, enjoy the pic's.

TTFN

Gary and Pam