Weekend News

Sunday was our first day of beautiful weather. It was sunny and in the 80s, winds only 15 mph. Hot sun and dry air. ahhhh. By 6 pm the fog was rolling in. It was so damp my bed table was soon puddled with water from the open window. The folding shade was dripping.

Paul and I talked to Charlie on the phone, he has such a cute voice. And Julia was screaming all the time in the background. Happy squeals. She is walking around now. Julie and Sean had Patrick baptised on Saturday after mass. She sent photos. We are leaving in one week. Can't wait to get my grandma hands on Patrick, he has grown so much. I have made some kits to teach Anna and Megan how to do Swedish weaving. It will be a stretch for Anna, but they have to do the same things always. It will be good for their math brains. Not sure what it will do for my brain. And Katie and Mark are looking for a house in New York state, and she likes her job, it is easy. Way to go Katie. Steff had emailed me about some new sock yarn they are getting in, can't wait to see it.

This past week three of our couple friends have left, Larry and Katherine back to Illinois and freezing rain, Rick and Shirlene back to Weatherford, Ok, and bad storms, and Randy and Caroline back to Arkansas and flooding. I sure hope that it is spring in Clare in a few weeks for us! And Billy Ray and Sherry left for Tulsa on Thursday too. Paul called him today and it was raining hard and a tornado was 40 miles from them. Oh, it is scary to go back to the weather.

How to Leave A Comment

You can leave an anonymous comment, and then say "this is Sherrie" , if indeed that is your name. We all have too many passwords already.

Port Aransas Shuck and Suck Party

The slogan for this oyster festival is "It's only dirty if you'r dirty minded!" And the web site is http://www.shuckandsuck.org/ . It started misting about the same time that the band started playing, but in the pavilion it didn't matter. This is in the harbor area, right next to the shrimp boat Polly Anna. They cooked and served oysters in a variety of ways that everyone else said were delicious. I can actually watch someone eat an oyster now, so making progress. Certainly I cannot get drunk enough to eat them myself. I also don't believe I can wear the tee shirt. Paul had to have one, actually everyone had to have one. They are tie dyed fluorescent green and white. When we got back to the park he had to wear it over to show all our Texan friends partying near us and the women folk drove down to Roberts Landing Park to buy some.

Was able to upload one photo of the Shuck and Suck tees, it is Susan and Paul. I also have a few on my Webshots, the Spring Break 2008 album.

Another week slides by

Weeks here just slide by and poof. We are sitting around all tired out on Sunday night, and then it is Thursday night and another week hits the dust. Where do those days go?

We spend as much as possible at the beach. Thursday was windy and in the high 70s. The high winds of Wednesday brought in a lot of junk. In one mile of beach I picked up 3 intact light bulbs and 3 glass bottles. And as much plastic crap as I could carry to the trash bin. Plastic is the biggest offender. Water bottles lead the way with packing materials close behind.

The sea weeds are Sargasso grass, which forms the Sargasso Sea. Which many miles of the grass floating out in the ocean. All the junk floats into it -- keeping the ocean clean, and it floats to land when the weeds blow in. Many marine creatures live in the floating raft of weeds. When they land on the beach it helps to build the dunes and feed the birds and spreads seeds from island to land, etc. The seeds are called sea beans, and there are many and varied. There are books with photos of the seeds and names. Of course they are hard and light so they float easily. I like the monkey face and heart of the sea.

I took a picture of a jelly fish yesterday. I posted the photo of a large one before, this one is about 2 inches across. Sometimes we find very tiny ones, they just look like a small dot of clear jelly. Also I have a photo of a Portuguese Man of War.

Dee Teller Runs With Her Brush

Dee is the artist that I told you about. I can't just send you to her web site because she doesn't have one. She paid someone to make her one but it didn't work out. She was invited to compete in an art competition by China's Ministry of Culture and won third place in the world, out of 6000 contestants. And she is nice and fun. Here are some photos of some of her art that I took. Was only able to upload one photo.
Dee's email address is tteller2@aol.com

Mexican Train and Poker

Monday night we were invited to a pot luck at a home near the park. Shirley's sister and husband live there. It was so nice. When we don't motor home any more we might condo or house rent. Dee is an award winning artist, she will get her own blog entry when I get the photos just right. Her speciality is Asian Brush Painting, seems to specialize in horses. Very, very nice.

After dinner, the men and Mavis played dealers choice poker. The ladies played Mexican Train, which is a dominos game. I have played it before and it was fun. I sat at the table for four hours. Anyone who knows me realizes that this is a new world record of sociability for me. (with the exception of Pinochle with Cyndi and Wy, and euchre with Jen and Mike) I could hardly stand when we finished. I didn't lose but I sure was tired. I am always awake till 11, but am laying in bed watching TV by then, not concentrating and being nice.

SPELL CHECK HINT: Turn on spell check. Put curser on a suspected misspelling, right click. If it is spelled wrong, a list of choice will pop up.

New Pictures

Julie just posted some new pics of the kids at Easter. They are just so cute. We will be there in two weeks.

Patrick is wearing the sweater I knit him. He will grow into it someday.

Monday Moaning

It is 7:15 and the sky is clear, just some marine haze over the ocean. Sun should be peeking up soon. Only 55 degrees. It is mostly going to be in the high 60s this week. Should be in the 80s. Yesterday was all cloudy and very windy. We just hunkered down in the rig until 3. I took a walk and saw Larry and Katherine hooking their car to the motor home, they were leaving early this morning for Illinois. They are really nice and fun, we will miss them.

Javier called us later and they picked us up for supper. We stopped at the Blue Tuna for a drink and then went to their house. We finished off the shrimp from the boil. Jim made scampi from them. Excellent. A neighbor they had just met gave them some smoked brisket he made. We had po boys with it. Very good. One of the new neighbors they met on Sunday offered Carlie a job in their ice cream store. That's Texas!

Came home hit the sheets. Two beach days in a row had worn us out. I got a cute Charlie and Julia photo from her blog. I need baby hugs.

I missed my kids and grands! Hate to be gone on holidays. We leave two weeks from today. Hope the snow melts.

Big Beach Day With Sky Divers

What a fun day at the beach. Lots of interesting people and activities. The most exciting was the sky divers. We also saw them on Friday, but today they ducked around Paul's kite and landed right next to us. There was a grown up man with his half grown sons who had a skeleton hanging from the vehicle. The neighbors had little kids to play with. I have posted pics on Webshots and some here. On Webshots I can label the photos and you will know who, what and where. There is a link to my Webshots under Places to go on the left side of this page. From that album you can go to my other albums too.

Javier grilled sausage and tortilla's with saurkraut again. We stopped at the Beach Lodge for a birthday drink with Katherine. Topped off with a Shrimp Boil at the Munoz Beach House with their lovely and interesting new neighbors (Shirley and Donny) and friends Mark and Carol and boy Jack, and brother Jim and Tanisha and their son. Susan's dad made everyone excessively strong Bloody Mary's, mine had at least a half cup of vodka in it, I watered a plant with it. The shrimp boil was fiery. Besides the usual array of spices they added two bottles of "Go Juice." Which must be liquid fire. It was hot by Michigan standards. Still ate it. Update note: The Go Juice isn't the hot stuff, it was the tin of spices and bag of spices that Mark threw in.

It was great to visit with old and new friends and drip shrimp juice everywhere. The sky was full of stars and beautiful with no bugs at all. Guess they haven't arrived yet.

Exploring Charlie's Pasture

We hit the beach by 9:30 on Friday to get out favorite spot at mile marker 19. It was sunny, sometimes nice and warm, sometimes windy and more chilly. Big waves. Lots of kids to watch. Denise and Frank and their son's family was there fishing (caught a nice Black Drum). They have a little girl and baby boy. Very cute. Rick and Shirlene stopped by for awhile too. And Javier and Susan and Carlie came. He was working on Friday so they were later.

When it got on to 4 pm, we decided to leave and go fishing at Charlie's Pasture. We left our motor home at their house and drove in the truck. I had never been there. It is public land bordering the shipping channel, a very busy port site. It was a very, very bumpy road. Us girls were ratteling around the back seat like peas in a pan. Fishing was lousy, but it was interesting all the same. Susan's dad had heard about a good fishing hole in the river that went to the marina. We headed there, having a devil of a time getting up the sandy slope. And at the same time met Susan and Javier's new neighbors driving in, Shirley and Donny! Very nice Texans. Then we run into Susan's parents, Carlene and Jim. So he lead us all to the sweet spot for fishing, a crazy trail through sand hills and we almost got stuck again.

When we got there they fished some more. Tide was going out so no luck there. But cool boats flying by. So when we left we got really stuck hard. Jim and Carlene came back to see what happened to us and they tried to pull out, see the pic, not a lot of luck. Then Donny and Shirley came back. He noticed that the truck wasn't in 4 wheel drive. And that helped a lot. Guess you had to go into low 4 using the outside wheels. So it was nice to leave and we drove across the salt flats instead of driving through the dunes.

When we got back to the house Carlie and I made a big batch of Chili Jack Chicken and Rice, and a big salad. Carlie was a big help and made the whole salad herself. She is a good sous chef for 11 years old! That is just the best recipe. A good end to a busy day.

New Look

My blog's new look is entirely accidential. I am trying to make it more normal. Sorry.

We didn't drive to the beach on Thursday. Paul cleaned the rig and played poker. I walked. We had happy hour at Rick's and Shirlene's. Paul and Rick made beer can spinners.

The beach was wide and beautiful. Not too crowded. There are a set of triplet sisters here, about 12 years old, beautiful and tall with long black hair. They were having a spirited mud fight on the beach. I was sitting on the board walk as they walked back and I asked who won. The girl with mud in her hair said she did. Mom and Grandma looked a little worn out. Fun to watch.

We are leaving for the beach at 9 am today. Or maybe a bit later. Already 8:20. Pictures to follow.

Happy Hour Snacks

On Wednesday, Nellie and Rex, Rick and Shirlene and Mavis provided snacks for happy hour. Highlights were Texas Caviar, a Philipinio meat roll, and that yummy New Orleans style sausage with rice in it, Budan. Ron and Marlene, the great dancers, are leaving this morning for home in Midland, Michigan. So this was a goodby happy hour. They do go dancing at the American Legon in Sanford on Tuesday nights until summer. Maybe we can see them there. Twenty-four attended this happy hour and filled up the driveway and lawn.

So we are down to Rick and Shirlene and Paul and I and Mavis. Mavis said she didn't get to eat much at her party and was hungry and wanted to go to The Cancun Mexican Restaurant. I raised my hand right away. Always ready to eat. Paul is never hungry, he went and played poker. The food was really good. I got #23, it was tiny bits of fajita meat to make tacos with, beans, rice. Shirlene got #5, it had a really good meat in a sauce to make tacos with. Rick had a T bone steak. Mavis's dish involved meat and tacos too. Everyone was happy. I took two tacos home for Paul, who won $25 playing nickle dime poker. And he enjoyed it all too.

For the record, prices at the Cancun were $5 and some change, except the steak a bit more. We got our food very fast. It was clean and in a nice new strip mall right on the highway. Excellent tortillas.

Today is looking sunny and warm so off to the beach. Paul didn't wash the rig yesterday. Everyone else was washing and there was no water pressure. It was worse in Corpus, cars looked like they had mud balls all over them. So wash and then the beach.

What's up in Port Aransas

Katie says I have to write a blog post about ten facts, she tagged me. This is going to die right here because I don't know 5 people with blogs.

1. Yesterday was the fourth time this spring a tornado has touched down in the Corpus Christi area. We saw this tornado warning when we got home from shopping. Had no idea until we got out of the truck and saw the black sky. It was pretty windy, and the wind was full of sand. There was a sand storm to the west of us, and it all came down in the rain. I am pretty sure Paul is planning on washing the motor home today.

2. We went to Corpus with Rick and Shirlene to shop on Tuesday. It was fun, they are so interesting. From Ok, and just as nice as Texans are. We like the same stores. Found Macy's, a nice big one! We ate at a wonderful Chinese buffet restaurant, Golden Kitchen on Staples Street. Quite good, too bad we don't like sushi. I have been wanting Chinese food. They also will make you stir fry right there. Paul is reading the Caller-Times and said the tornado touched down on Staples, went 2 1/2 miles, 100 yards wide. Only 85 mpr winds. Mostly just trees down and windows broken.

3. We haven't been to the beach since Sat. It got cold and windy and foggy. Too bad for the spring breakers. Not good beach time. Today the high is 68, and it is sunny and windy. I will take photos this weekend. Too good to miss.

4. My big job of the day is to fix my split nail. I have bought and learned how to apply acrylic material. I bought the special uv nail dryer. It came with a shaper. Which is a battery operated electric drill with many attachments to file and shape nails. Isn't this just more than anyone wants to know? Blame Katie.

5. The sand dunes are full of rattle snakes. That is why they have boardwalks over the dunes. Shirlene told me a very interesting story yesterday. When she was 6, in first grade, she and her 9 year old uncle got off the school bus for a half mile walk to the farm. A black racer snake started chasing them. She couldn't keep up so uncle threw her over his shoulder and ran, giving her the view of a big black snake at their heels, chasing them. I never thought that a snake could chase you, and go fast. One more reason to live up north. Never been chased by a snake. Needless to say, Shirlene is terrified of snakes. Huge phobia. Can't blame her.

6. The St. Patrick's Day party at the park was fun on Monday night. Tumble Dry Low played and we danced a lot. Paul's knee is all better so we can dance. Can't hardly remember how. Lots of food. Grandpa's and kids dancing. Always fun. There are many families here for spring break.

7. Our Tivo card is dead. I have direct tv on the bedroom tv, we hooked the front one up to cable. How can you watch tv without Tivo? It is so primative. And annoying. New card can't come soon enough.

8. Eva Longoria Parker does a HEB commercial that is amazing. She is from San Antonio.

9. Rick has made me three beverage can spinners. He is the king of cans here.

10. I have no more ideas or facts.

FOR ALL YOU ALlERGY SUFFERERS

My friend, Shirlene, wife of Rick the cable guy, showed my the allergy pill that her doctor recommended to her, and it works. Lots of pollen here, the red cedar pollen blows down from hill country even. So this is called Loratadine, 10 mg. Told her to get it at Sam's Club. A box of two bottles of 150 pills is around $8. No prescription needed. You take 1 a day. Every day all year. It is a antihistimine. She has no sleepiness or any problems with it. And is feeling much better, she had bronchitis and all that coughing crap. The only constriction was do not take if you have liver or kidney disease. Sounds interesting and useful.

It says done spellchecking. Would be nice if it told me the errors.

Sizzling on the Beach

Saturday was a pretty perfect beach day. We got there by 9:30. Someone was in our favorite spot. A trailer, all settled in for the week. And as you learned yesterday, that is a big no-no. Paul politely asked them to move their sand covered baby and we pulled in next to them. So Paul goes over and tells them that they have to move to mile marker 27. Oddly, they believe him and move. Ah, the power of gray hair. We have our favorite site again. A little later a French motor home pulls in next to us. Paul tried to explain they couldn't spent the night, but he had that Quebec attutide and unloaded all his gear and set up for the weekend. They left in a couple of hours. We did warn them.

I took a 2 mile beach walk about 10 am, wasn't long and the fat in my arms was sizzling. Ah, a hot Texas sun. It got to 88 here on the island, with a nice breeze. The weather we have been longing for.

Foodie Report: Javier made a most delicious lunch. Grilled smoked sausages, sauerkraut straight from the can, on a grilled tortilla, onions, mustard, (and ketchup for me). I had Paul grill me a hotdog but then had to have the sausage on tortilla. It was heavenly. You know how a bun is too much white bread? The tortilla enhanced and brought out the sausage flavor. When Javier was a kid his parents cooked this on the beach. I am pretty sure the sausages were the Kolbassa brand, made in San Antonio, your basic smoked sausage would work. Just thinking about it is making me hungry.

It was a great people watching day. I saw the cartoon character "Maxine" wearing a pink checked two piece. Bleached hair with a big bow on top. Smoking. I will take the camera on my walk tomorrow.

We met a very interesting couple with five kids. He is in an army unit that doesn't have uniforms or pesky rules. Has had 5 trips to Iraq and 3 to Afghanistan. I will get more about this. His very nice wife was in a bikini, size 2, maybe, with softball sized implants. If that isn't going to look odd when she is 70. Anyway, Paul even noticed them and told me. No stretch marks. How can that happen? Sorry, I was too interested to take photos. couldn't pull myself away from the conversation. I am sure we will find them again on Sunday.

HOW SPELL CHECK WORKS!!!

I accidentally found out how spell check works. Highlight the word in question. Click on the ABC box, put the curser over the word, you get a list of words close to what you spelled. Pick one.

Well, it worked 3 times. I seem to have lost the knack.

Just tried it again and it said, no misspellings. Ok, this might be working now.

Spring Break Begins

On Friday, spring break began with our usual polite pissing match with the local police. Only polite because Paul talks to them instead of me getting us thrown in jail. We park on the beach on mile marker 19, an officerette stops and tells us we have to move and park between mile markers 27 to 34. We say we aren't camping here, we leave by 5. We think, "don't you have anything better to do? Go arrest some drunken children who are driving crazy in monster trucks. " Since we are grandparent-like to all these kids it keeps the lid down on things a little.

We know the parking ordinance pretty well after 5 years, you can't camp in a RV overnight unless between 27 and 34. You can park. But no, she got promoted to Sgt. and knows it all. Politely. So we have to leave. Paul makes several phone calls, he and Billy Ray ride down in his pickup to 27, the sand road is all torn up, a favorite pass time of young men with big 4 wheel drive pickups. We could never get in and out of there. A problem to us and the motor home is our only transpo.

So Billy Ray and Sherry leave, we are packing up. Our shiny new Sgt. drives up again, Paul says he is packing up, has to dump the coals from our grill. She says she went in to the office and reread the ordinances, reviewed the SOP for the last few years, and we are right, and don't have to leave. She apologized three times. Wow. Yay!!!! We love the beach. We call our friends and they came for happy hour.

It was supposed to be a wonderful, 80 degree, sunny day. And it was above the fog. Almost burnt through a couple of times. Then the wind picked up. Sand started blowing and the temp dropped. Us ladies went in the motor home to visit. Then we gave up the ghost and left. We were eating sand until bedtime, sand everywhere. My eyebrows were full of sand.

Today looks calm and the sun is out. Heading to the beach about 9:30 to get our favorite spot at marker 19.

I wonder how the spell check works on this system.

A Plugger Story

Our RV park is full of pluggers, those middle class, 60+, folks with belly fat and a baseball cap. This is one of their stories.

Mavis, Bob and Jim drive over to the Big Fisherman in Rockport for the $3 Chicken Fried Steak special on Tuesday. On the way back, on a road crowded with other satisified pluggers, a car passes three other cars in the double line no passing area. When they reach the ferry line to cross over to Port A, Bob notices that the crazy driving car is right next to them. So he gets out and taps on the driver's window. A 30 something woman. He starts to explain to her how dangerous it was for all the other drivers when they passed in the no passing zones. She starts to roll up the window. He says if you don't listen to me I will call 911.

She rolls up the window and her passenger, a man about a head shorter than Bob, gets in his face about it. Big deal. He gets back to his car and calls 911 and reports the car, license plate number etc. The scoflaws get on a ferry, Bob gets on the next one. By this time everyone is real interested in this story. It's a small town after all. It was brave of Bob to confront them, but as there are plenty of guards, and they were blocked in by many cars, not a real threat. Not fool hearty. Paul disagrees and thinks it was crazy and he could have gotten shot. Good point, it is Texas and there are plenty of guns around.

Suddenly, the other ferry turns around mid channel and returns to the Aransas Pass side. The excuse being that one of the trucks had too many gas cans in it. And there was the police waiting for the car. They had to arrest them on that side as the other side was a different county. You so seldom clearly see someone getting justice. Go Bob.

Geek Alert

I don't want anyone's brain to explode, but I found a excruciating detailed explanation of how the govt found Eliot Spitzer and the ho mess. This was on my fav geek site ZDNet, where I get my downloads of virus softwear ect. for free. Here is the link http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=8211

I am convinced that reading this stuff will protect you from Altzheimers.

This link is in real people talk. http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=610&tag=nl.e550

Need Baby Hugs

Patrick was six months old on Sunday, and Julie took these photos. Megan, 6, Anna, 4, and sweet Patrick. Andrea needs to send me photos, but I did hear Charlie sing a song about the chicken and the egg, and Julia is taking steps.

Now I really want to go home and see them all. I need baby hugs. Does Patrick's hair look a little red to you?

The Oyster Festival in Fulton, TX

We went to the Oyster Festival up in Fulton on Saturday. It was very crowded, the food was good, and the weather was better. The line for oysters was very long, we all ate other things. Paul had Polish sausage with saurkraut and onions, I had a pulled pork sandwich and we split 6 fried shrimp on a kabob. The food booths are set up and run by various churches and organizations. There is a huge tent with booths of goods and crafts, another huge tent with live music and food. And beer of course.

Carlie and Susan went on several rides. We had pictures taken with a monkey. Does it get any better?? We stopped at the Moon Dog Cafe on the way back to the car. It is right on the bay. Susan got a plate of oysters there and said they were really good. This year the oysters came from Louisiana, as the local ones are too toxic to eat. Something is poluting the water. Paul and I had sweet potato fries and a Philly Steak Sub. Good eats. I made the mistake of drinking two tubs of diet coke. I was awake until 2 am, with my heart going pitty pat real fast like. Too much caffine for me. Back to the no diet coke diet.

We got home at 6:35 and had 10 minutes before Billy Ray and Sherry picked us up for the evenings entertainment. Threw on the warmest clothes we could find. Went to a nice little outside bar, The Back Porch, that was having a blues style country band playing for the evening. We sat by a big heater and had blankets and left before the music even started. The wind picked up strong and we were right on the harbor. So we left there and went to the Blue Tuna. They had really nice music too. Just one guy, it was more like a soft easy jazz style. Nice for visiting and listening. Now that spring breaks have started there is live music everywhere.

Shopping in Corpus Christi

The more I shop in Corpus Christi, the more I like that town. We left at 7 am on Friday as I needed to have some blood word done at Quest Lab. That is where BCBS says we have to go if they are paying for it. Was very surprised to find 6 Quest listings in the phone book. There is even a lab in Rockport. They techs were very nice and even remembered my phone call during the week. Texans, for sure.

We ate breakfast at Taco Cabana. Felt queasy all day. Had to eat fast. It was fast. Good ice tea. So I hit Target, Hobby Lobby, and we both went to Academy. Love that store, sells sporting goods. Excellent selection of clothing and shoes. The store brand Magellen, is like the Columbia fishing clothing line, only a quarter of the cost. We both got shoes, tennies and Treads flip flops for me and sandels for Paul.

Got groceries at HEB on the way out of town in Flour Bluff. Excellent as usual. Found their store brand of instant oatmeal, labeled Heart Healthy Whole Grain Oatmeal, no sugar added. It is pretty good. So hard to find low sugar foods with healthy carbs. I don't know how poor people with little education can figure out how to eat when they have diabetes. It is a challenge for anyone. Free sample this week of spaghetti, beef roast and tomatoes with chilies. PDG.

Larry and Katherine' Fish Fry

Thursday night was the Craft's annual fish fry down at the Beach Lodge. Larry and Katherine bring frozed crappies from Illinois, and Kentucky Lake. Beach lodge fries them up and adds french fries, hush puppies and cole slaw. They were delicious.

To add to the excitement, we were under a tornado watch for the event, but felt safe in this substantial shack. Apparently a tornado was spotted by the Horace Caldwell Pier a mile down the beach. It hardly rained there. Corpus Christi had tornado damage and 3 inches of rain.

It was great to see everyone. We had a ladies table and were able to have a good visit. We are meeting more nice folks every year.

Nature Study

So here I sit at 6 am, looking out my window at the horizon gently turning coral and grey, just above is Venus and to the right is a tiny fingernail of moon. Last Friday when the sun rose it ran up the side of the dune at the perfect angle and launched into the sky. On Saturday I ran out with my camera but it apparently only happens one day in the spring. Very cool.

Monday night the wind was so bad we pulled in the slides on the motor home. A cold front came through and yesterday was sunny with a cool breeze. I saved my walk on the beach for afternoon so it would be warmer. Paul came back from his beach walk with the news that it was a great day for shelling. He had found a lot of barnacles and shells for Roma. We take the loot over to her and we all end up with James driving us down in the golf cart for more. The ocean was the quietiest we had ever seen, it was much warmer than in the park, and no wind at all. This beach is protected from the NW winds by the dunes. Man, it was perfect. Wish we had figured that out sooner.

Roma uses the barnacles and shells, etc for her sea art. The barnacles are white and a pastel fushia. ?? Not sure about the color name. I will get a photo. We found many tiny crab shells, and other shells. I was kicking myself for not bringing my camera.

There were disgusting things washed up all over the beach. Huge transparent jelly fish. Not the poison type. They look like enormous "see through" cow pies. Lots of sticks and sea weed leaves washed in and were covered by brown squishy live things, shaped like fat tubes, 2 " x 2". I don't have the words to describe them, except it would spoil your dinner. No, I am not swimming in the ocean any time soon. It is interesting and I spent a lot of time poking things with sticks.

Actually after hearing James talk about catching 9 foot sharks right off the shore here I am in no mood to swim anyway. He hires out to take people out in his boat to shark fish. Held the TX record for Hammerhead Shark for 13 years. Caught it off the jetty 3 miles from here. There are shark attacks on people here, but more are hurt from sting rays.

Today looks like a good beach day, I will get photos.

Trout Street

Sun and clouds today in the 70s. After church, which was very entertaining tanks to Fr. Rory, we met the usual suspects at Trout Street for lunch. We were celebrating Susan’s parents 50th Wedding Anniversary, our 39th, last month; and Javier and Susan’s 18th next month. We had never eaten there, had heard various opinions of the food, and it looked expensive. Lunch was super and not as expensive as dinner - around $10 .
It is a beautiful building full of windows, overlooking the harbor. We sat on the porch watching the cabin cruisers moored on the docks. The spinach and bacon salad was very good. It had the hot dressing that is so good. The house dressing is a ranch with pecans. I had broiled shrimp in butter with bread crumbs, rice pilaf, and vegetables. Very good and fresh. Paul had a prime rib sandwich, which was prime in all ways. Carlene had the coconut shrimp. We shared chocolate cheese cake, about 4 inches tall, with an inch thick cookie crust topped with a half inch of fudge, covered with sauce. It was very, very good. Also had a bite of the key lime pie, tart and creamy. Oh, and a hot appetizer of artichokes, and shrimp in a creamy sauce with taco chips. Yummy good. -

Then we went over to Robert's Park and watched Susand and Javier and Carlie fish. Carlie caught a small ray. I was knitting on a new sweater for Patrick.

Weekend Update

On Friday we drove to Corpus Christi to restock the pantry, as it was bare. Also hit Walmart, always fun. So HEB was great as usual. Got some really good food samples. They have actual cooks at kiosks in the store, cooking. A sushi area too. We had an excellent Enchilada Casserole, it has only four ingredients; and Roasted Potato Salad with Bacon Dressing. The secret to that was the Canyon Foods Bacon Vinaigrette. It had a $1 off coupon attached so you can guess it was pricy. But very good, exactly like the dressing for the spinach and bacon salad with hot dressing. Love that. We also had fresh pineapple, and muffins. There were two other food stations going but I didn't want to slip into a coma right there in the store. This HEB has the best Bear Claws ever. I buy one and have 1 bite a day. yum. Paul likes the chocolate donuts. We share.

It was cloudy and high 70s in Corpus, but the sun was out on the beach. Javier and daughter, Carlie, were in Port A already. He has a new job in Corpus and rented a house in Port A. Susan and Carlie are staying back at the ranch until it sells. Exciting times. We went to see their new digs. Very liveable, needs some paint. Owners are still fixing it up.

Paul met some guys on the beach, one was having a big 40th birthday party this weekend, so naturally, as Texans, they invited us all. Nobody as friendly as a Texan.

Paul and I stopped at The Wharf for dinner and both got fried shrimp. It was very fresh and firm and was breaded with cracker crumbs. Pretty good. A nice big salad bowl to split and those tasty battered fries. Ah, yes, a whole day of health food.

Saturday was the craft show and yard sale here at the park. We never noticed it in past years, just headed for the beach. I went to pick up our mail and what a surprise. The clubhouse was full of people and great stuff. It was wonderful. I had to call Paul to come down and bring his wallet. The wood carver club at the park had amazing things. Lots of jewery, hand made. Roma's beautiful, artsy shell creations, crocheted afghans, teddy bears in sweaters, shells in frames, dvds of the area, and tees with local birds on them. Nothing tacky at all.

A lady from Norway, MI, had beautiful stone bracelets, etc.; and a German lady had crocheted bead necklaces. I will post some photos later. Amazing work. I asked the lady from MI if she would teach a class in jewery next winter. Got her card so I can nag.

We ate breakfast at the club house, and met new friends at the same time. Learned about a beautiful camp ground in NW New Mexico right on a huge fly fishing river. Sites on the river and elk and deer in the nearby fields. Got it on the bucket list.

Then off to the beach. Met up with the Munoz's and the party people. A big jelly fish day. But beautiful. Good walking. Exhausted, zonked out early.

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