A Visit With My Sister and Brother-in-Law

My oldest sister, Anne, and her husband, Don, came to Rockport this week and we had a great visit.  They made a quick trip down from Houston and spent a night with us.  No, they didn't stay in the RV - no room for that!  They got a room in a nice hotel in town. The weather couldn't have been better.  Temps in the low 80's with a slight breeze and sunshine both days.  We spent some time visiting on our patio area in the RV Park the first afternoon and then headed out to show them the Big Tree in Goose Island State Park.  This is the oldest and largest live oak and it's massive.  We tried to find some whooping cranes as well, but no luck on that.  Then we headed to Paradise Key restaurant for a nice dinner on the w
ater.  The restaurant has large windows overlooking the bay and we say lots of fishing boats, a kayak and even an airboat go by.  There was also a large flock of spoonbills with their pretty

pink butts.  Then we drove along Fulton Beach Road and saw the windswept oaks with the blue herons nesting on top of them.  Don had his binoculars out and said he could have watched them for hours.  They do put on a good show.  The following day we headed out early and took the ferry to Port Aransas to show them the island.  We started with a drive down the beach and you literally drive on the sand.  Then we checked out a bird refuge which was fun.  There was a very long pier out over a marshy area where we saw some birds and two large alligators.  One of them had apparently recently swam in to join the other.  In the distance we saw two very large white birds and when one took off it had black tips on its wings and was massive so we think it may have been a crane but not sure about that.  We saw three oil rigs in dry dock and a freighter came through the canal on its way to Corpus Christi.  Before they left we ate BBQ at a small joint near the RV park and then they headed home so they could arrive before dark and the worst of the rush hour.  It was so nice for them to come for a visit.  They said they hadn't seen this area in over 20 years and the changes were huge.

The Not So Newly Wed Game

On Valentine's Day the RV park residents turned out in mass (about 100) for the Not So Newly Wed Game.  Several folks in the park worked hard to plan and put on the event and it was a great success.  Lots of pretty cupcakes and punch were made, door prizes were purchased and four great couples agreed to play the game.  Funny - they were all from Minnesota!  Rick, who is kind of the park funny guy, was the MC and I was the person who wrote all their answers down and kept score.  We even had a couple of wonderful young ladies who kept the spouses entertained in another building while questions were being asked of their better halves.  Rick did a great job bringing out the best in the contestants and created a lot of laughs.  Door prizes were handed out throughout the evening including a shiny pair of boxer shorts that said Sugar Daddy on them, which the winner promptly got help to put them on.  In the end one couple stood out with several more points than the others but all the couples received thank you gifts for agreeing to participate.  It was a great night and I think everyone is looking forward to it next year.

Whooping Cranes in Rockport

We have spent some time trying to see Whooping Cranes while here in Rockport and finally found 5 of them in the Goose Island area.  There is a large field with a pond on it that they come to during the day to feed and then return to the Aransas Wildlife Refuge in the evenings.  We bought a large telephoto lens that we could afford (LOL - the good ones are $5,000+) so the photos aren’t as crisp as we would like, but we were able to get some fun pictures of them.  These birds are endangered, and at one time many years ago numbered 15,000-20,000, but were down to 15 birds in 1941.  They are now up to over 600 and that’s not a lot.  They breed in far northern Canada and migrate to Rockport in the winter, a trip of about 2400 miles.  There is an extremely interesting article about them at this site - http://www.nwf.org/wildlife/wildlife-library/birds/whooping-crane.aspx- and I strongly encourage you to read it.  A second small group of whoopers has been developed in Florida and, in trying to teach them to migrate, are led by a plane to a breeding place in Wisconsin each year.  Like I said, read the article.  It’s very interesting.

These birds are majestic.  They are about 5’ tall with a wing span of over 7’ and they put on a show for us.  They mate for life and can have 1-2 babies, but typically only one makes it.  So when we see them in Rockport we can see a family – Dad, Mom, and child. 

Life at 65!

Spoonbill John photographed

It’s been a while since my last posting.  We’ve obviously settled into life in Rockport and I find myself busy with lots of things.  The big event this week was my 65^th birthday – yep, I’m now on Medicare and hope it lasts.  I’ve been attending the weekly activity meetings and, as usual, finding it hard to keep quiet.  My mind is constantly ticking trying to come up with resolutions to problems the groups encounters and wham, up goes my hand!  I’ve been approached numerous times to run for Chair/President of the group but I’ve been very good at saying NO.  In the meantime, John and I did agree to oversee the setting up of tables and chairs for various events.  Although there are several, I think once we’ve done a few, we will find this a great way to serve and hopefully keep the stress level down.  The first event was a bit bumpy as it was a learning experience and we caught some flack but that’s okay.  Round two is Saturday and I’m feeling good that it will go smoothly.  What concerns me the most is setting up for Christmas dinner next year.  They had well over 100 people this year and the folks must go through a food line in a room that was packed. 

One of the things that I have found fantastic is that before any food related event, the group prays.  How awesome is that.  Before we start the activity meeting we pledge to the American flag!  This group is very God and country oriented. 

Pelicans waiting for food at a cleaning station

From the time John retired he assured me that I didn’t need to worry about him finding something to keep himself busy but that’s hard for me to do.  He can entertain himself all day on a computer and in front of the TV.  He eventually went and visited with the man that heads up the group that gets together and carves wood but just couldn’t seem to get excited about that.  Then he gave a lot of thought to doing something with photography and although that excites him, he didn’t want to just take pictures and not do anything with them.  This past month he finally decided to try working with stained glass again.  This is something he dabbled in before I knew him and what he wants to learn to make is stained glass figures with metal windchimes. So, the packages started arriving after he ordered all the items he needed online and then we made a trip to Hobby Lobby to select stained glass and to Lowes to get tension shower rods to make the chimes with.  He has done a lot of research on the chimes and is now getting started.  I’m excited for him. 

The photography hasn’t gone by the wayside though.  We both love to take pictures to share on Facebook and currently we are interested in getting pics of all the beautiful large birds here in the Rockport area.  Of course, our biggest desire is to find and photograph the ‘whoopers’ (Whooping Cranes).  We’ve been given a lot of info on where to find them during the day so it means a few trips to that location and just waiting them out.  We did finally order a very large telephoto lens that requires a tripod to hold it steady since it’s so long hoping that will help us when trying to photograph wildlife from long distances.  We’re still working on how to use the lens so I’m thankful John has had lots of classes in photography.

I’ve also been helping a neighbor learn to blog and organize photos on her computer, which is something I really enjoy doing.  She and I seem to have clicked as friends and it turns out that she doesn’t live far from my hometown in Minnesota.  We did have to enlist some help from John as she works on a Mac, which I have no experience with, so we could figure out how to organize her photos.  The file management system on a Mac is definitely different from a PC.  She seemed very pleased with her computer lessons.

Stock photo of whoopers

This week we finally made a day trip to north Houston to visit with my sister and her husband.  They are always so gracious about allowing us to bring our fur babies with us who are usually much better behaved than many children.  While we visited, they had a blast running through the house for a bit.  Bailey loves to run fast and doesn’t bet to do it very often since they both must be on leashes every place we go.  When I take her to a dog park she just smells and smells and smells but no running.  At least she will run when we are at our place at Cedar Blue.  We also played cards and then had a nice dinner out before heading back to Rockport. 

I hope to be able to post some pics of whoopers that we take soon so more to come.

We're Into the New Year - 2017

Spoonbills

The New Year has come and gone and we are started into 2017 and looking ahead to a new president soon and lots of potential changes in our country.

  I find myself excited but also wondering how things are really going to work out.  Both of us are pleased that we have finally made it to full retirement and able to enjoy it and with our faith in the Lord, neither of us are going to worry about what may or may not happen.  We plan to live each day at a time with our eyes on the Lord, enjoy all that He has created for us and remain sensitive to His direction.

Little boy petting the girls

As I sit here writing this I’m watching small airplanes fly over.  This park is right next to a county airport and if it wasn’t for the Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi, it would be fairly quiet as only small planes can land here.  BUT the NAS does touch and goes in small planes for hours on a regular basis here so lots of airplane noise.  I’ve heard these are pilots that are training to land on aircraft carriers.  You get used to it though and it stops before dark.  Sometimes they are so low you can see the pilots!

We have joined in on several activities in the park including bingo, live music they bring in, dinners, exercise, and Bible study.  I’m hoping to get started on beginning line dancing.  We’ve also been roped into overseeing the setup of tables and chairs for major events.  They have a sock hop coming up and they are going to play the not so newlywed game for Valentine’s Day.  The Bible study is mostly women and a great group.  It’s made up of numerous denominations and wonderful that we can all study God’s word together.

Last week we went to the movies.  Rockport has a small theater with 4 screens and on Tuesday nights the popcorn is free if you bring your own bowl.  We just brought a small popcorn bag with us not knowing what others bring in.  I didn’t want to stand out walking in with a large red plastic bowl and be the only one.  That would have been awkward.  Well as soon as we got out of the car I saw several others with multiple large bowls in their hands.  Almost went home to get my large red plastic bowl.  We enjoyed the movie Sing and the small theater feel.  It just felt safe and like a family place. 

Today we drove to Goose Island State Park and it’s really nice.  It sits right on Aransas Bay and you can actually book sites right at the water’s edge.  Yep, we book five nights for next year leading into our stay back at Wilderness Oaks.  They have this enormous live oak tree there that is said to be over 1,000 years old.  It’s quite a sight.  They have it fenced off and have put bracing under some of the limbs to give it stability.

Live Oaks, Palm Trees, Cutter Ants and Dogs

We’ve had about a month now in Rockport, TX and are enjoying it.  The temperatures are a bit up and down.  Other than a couple of very cold days in the low 40’s, the temps have ranged from the mid-60’s to the low 80’s for highs.  We’ve had nights where we needed the heater and days where we needed the AC.  Each day seems to have some clouds but we see sun several days a week.  The forecast frequently shows a chance of rain but often that is just some drizzle.  Any real rain still isn’t a downpour but just a gentle rain for a short time.  We also deal with wind here.  It can go from days with almost no wind to a pretty good clip for several hours.  We have also had lots of fog especially in the evenings.  Overall, we are wearing anything from shorts and t-shirts to long pants and sweatshirts which is my idea of how to spend winter.  80 is a bit warm for me in the winter but upper 60’s and low 70’s is perfect.   As I write this I’m sitting outside in about 70 degree temps, with sunshine and some wind under a massive live oak tree. 

The park and the entire area is filled with live oaks and various types of palm trees.  The live oaks are massive and would make great climbing trees.  You typically see multiple large trunks with them so I’m not sure if they are all one tree or several together.  The palm trees are interesting as well and I know nothing about them yet.  It appears to me that there must be several types as you see them in various shapes and sizes and with differing types of trunks.  Some seem to shed these large bark-like things from their trunks and others shed what appears to be clumps of palm fronds.

I’ve also learned about cutter ants and they are not a good thing to have around.  There can be up to 2 million of them in a nest!  We saw them marching back and forth along about a one block area at the front of the park and many of them had bits of flowers and leaves in their mouths.  Apparently, they can strip a small hedge in one night.  They haul the foliage into their nests and let it turn to fungus and that is what they feed on.  I must say, they are hard workers!

Our girls (Bailey and April) have made lots of friends with the numerous dogs in the park.  I’m guessing there are more RVs with dogs in them than without.  Misty and Riley are cute brown Dachshunds, Charlie is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Samson and Goliath are huge Mastiffs that are gentle giants, Maddie is a Goldendoodle, a new red Standard Poodle has recently arrived, and Simon is a black lab mix.  There are so many I cannot remember all their names yet.  There is a pair of Shitzus, a Portuguese water dog, and numerous other mixed breeds.  There are also two ragdoll cats that are enormous named Gracie and Rags.  These two cats are much bigger than our girls and their Moms roll them around the park in carts!  What a life!  Our girls have not interacted with them.  Overall, our girls have met with most of these dogs with no problem at all, although April barks her fool head off when she sees one she hasn’t met.  The only issue we’ve really had to deal with is how to stop our girls (mostly April, the mouthy one) from barking when we are away from the RV.  They are used to being able to have the run of the place but even when we confined them to the back half of the RV so they couldn’t see out, they still barked a lot.  So, we have resorted to putting them in crates on the bed with the TV and sound machine going so they can’t hear outside noise.  So far this seems to have worked.  I don’t like to have to crate them for extended periods (4-5 hours) but I just remind myself that if we weren’t there and they weren’t distracted, they would be sleeping anyway.

We are slowly starting to make some friends and even friending each other on Facebook to stay in touch.  I’m getting to know a couple of ladies, Arla and Rene, a bit better and enjoy visiting with them.  Arla is Mom to Charlie, the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, and Rene is Mom to Misty and Riley, the Dachshunds.  Both ladies go to the exercise classes three mornings a week so I gave that a try yesterday.  They start with stretching and then do some yoga, which I had never tried.  Yesterday’s yoga was difficult and the rest of the class agreed so I think they are going to do some things that are bit less strenuous.  Then another lady comes in and does an hour of walking that is apparently very fast paced.  They do 4 miles!  Yikes.  I didn’t stay for that yesterday but will get started with that tomorrow and at least try to get 1-2 miles in and work up to the rest.  I found out in a very big hurry yesterday how out of shape I was.  I have no problem with walking but anything else was a real challenge so I need to continue with this!  Today I did feel better and less knotted up.  I hope with this and the massages I’m getting that this will loosen me up!

I’ll write again after the new year so I wish everybody a Happy and Safe New Year!

Christmas Has Come and Gone

Christmas has come and gone.  We watched a lot of Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel.  On Christmas Eve about 90 folks in the park got together and played Dirty Santa which was a great time with lots of laughs.  There were those two priceless gifts that showed up that all you could do was laugh but, of course, not something anybody really wanted.  On Christmas Day we went to church and enjoyed a nice service.  There was a decent crowd considering about 600 had showed up on Christmas Eve for that service.  About 1:30 pm over 100 folks piled into the rec hall in the park for a large Christmas dinner.  We were seated next to some Canadians that were fun to talk to.  They were from Ontario and have been coming to this park for nearly six years.  After a brief rest at home following dinner, we took the girls for a long walk at one of the city parks then came home and crashed.  Too much food.

Today we put up Christmas to get our RV back to some normal living conditions.  The weather here the past 2-3 days has been very warm (low 80s) and sunny.  It's been a bit of a challenge to get in the Christmas spirit with it so warm but that's what we wanted - no snow, no ice, no cold weather!  

On New Year's Eve there is going to be a park get together with finger food and music.  The Activity Committee frequently brings outside musicians into the park to provide music for us and it only costs $5/person.  Should be fun.  From the sounds of it, most of the folks are home by 10 pm.