Rockport 2016 January 13th through 19th

January 13 and 14 

           Sherry was ill we think she had some bad crab cakes for supper. She suffered through this and felt a little better so we could continue our adventure.

January 15^th  

           We rode bikes Texas Aquarium, we also went to Castaways a local thrift shop and didn’t find any treasure. In the afternoon we had happy hour with our friends.

January 16^th  

            Sherry and I both wanted to try a restaurant on Fulton Beach Road. Captains Benny’s. We had heard good reviews from the happy hour folks. Sherry enjoyed her shrimp basket and I really enjoyed my oyster po-boy sandwich it was loaded with oysters. We purchased a hat for father in law Bennie for his birthday.

January 17^th  

              Went to church at RV park and visited with neighbors .

January 18^th    

              We journeyed to Corpus Christi for a trip to Jo-Anns fabrics and also stopped at Academy Sports for some fishing equipment. Sherry and I both enjoyed a lunch at Joes Crab Shack, she didn’t have the crab as she was still thinking about her recent illness.

January 19^th 

             Toured Rockport fish piers, there are several of these from the one at Rockport Beach Park and old town to the Fulton Marina. We then had lunch at Pizza Hut, later we sat with the neighbors and solved the world problems. We look forward to set outside in the most beautiful weather we are having this year. Many of the same people were here last year and due to the bad weather we did not set out for happy hour very many times.

January 20^th to 22^nd

                Sherry and I went to South Padre Island to visit with her mom and Bennie. This is a three hour drive from Rockport and most of the area is open with no buildings to be seen. We met at the visitors center and enjoyed looking at the sand castles.

There is a great restaurant on South Padre called Dirty Al’s it has great big shrimp for us to enjoy. This is a local favorite and is always extremely busy. They also have a seafood market and have a selection of fresh fish and shrimp displayed in the entrance to the restaurant. Their condo was right on the beach. The sidewalk from their condo took you onto the beach. Lots of people just walk the beach daily while others fished from the shore. Their condo had a fish cleaning station and men were having some luck catching.  We visited and stayed with mom and Bennie at their condo for two nights. The afternoon we arrived we went for a drive the length of the Island just to see what we could do while visiting. Lots of beautiful sand. This truly is an area that you must love the beach.  

January 21^st we went to the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center. This center is really a plethora of wildlife. They give you a paper for a scavenger hunt that lists lots of birds including Great Blue Herons, Roseate Spoonbill which are beautiful pink birds, Brown Pelicans, Great Egrets and many other birds. This list also included alligators. You could check mark these birds off as you walked the boardwalk around this nature area. We really enjoyed this center and since Sherry likes to do the Penny Machines she was able to add to her collection of bird pennies from the gift shop area.

       

  We attended a concert at one of the hotels later that night and the performer sang all Frank Sinatra songs. The hotel was beautiful on the inside and he did a really great job of singing and from afar looked a lot like Mr Sinatra. 

We returned to Rockport on the 22nd and resumed our coastal adventure.

        

Rockport Texas January 10th -12th 2016

January 10^th thru 12th

     We really were blessed this year with lots of sunshine and warm 70-80 degree weather and so we rode our bikes at the Tule Creek Bike & Hike Trail. We have easy access to this concrete trail from our RV Park with it being less than 2 blocks away. So we ride from the park down the sidewalk onto the trail. Lots of times we would ride to the Rockport Beach and thru the Rockport Harbor area. This is a good 7 mile round trip for us. Except for the trail area this sidewalk ride goes along the water and always provides a spectacular views.

     Every Monday the Texas Maritime Museum has a Brown Bag Lunch Series. This week’s talk on January 11 was about Sea Turtles on the Texas Coast. Laura Wright from the Padre Island National Seashore gave a great talk on the population and hatchling release program. This was very interesting to us being from Indiana we knew nothing about sea turtles. She showed lots of pictures of turtles and their eggs. Their group is working with Mexico tracking the Green Ridley Sea Turtle. Turtles will return to their birth place to lay eggs. The eggs they find on the beach are packed in sand from South Padre Island and released after incubation on the shores of South Padre. They are not sure if the turtles impress upon the sand or the release point. These programs at the museum are well attended and very educational.

     The evening entertainment at the Lagoons RV Park were the Redhead Express family. They were at the park a few year ago to sing so I had heard them before but Sherry had not. They are really good and we really enjoyed them.

  Redhead Express at Lagoons RV Resort

   On January the 12 we drove over to Lamar Texas to see the Whooping Cranes. You can always see them in the field within a wetland area. We have never seen them close to the fence and they stay close to the pond. This area of Texas is really a wonderful place for people to bird watch and the Whooping Cranes and the Sandhill Cranes are a big attraction. You can take boat rides out of the Fulton Harbor to see the cranes and other birds. While we were in Lamar we drove passed the “Big Tree” and then headed to Pop’s Place restaurant for lunch. The food was good and I took pictures of the fish murals on the walls that are made from beer bottle caps.

Whopping Cranes

Beer Cap Mural at Pop's Place Restaurant

Rockport January 1st thru 9th 2016

January 1 through 3

         Arrived at Lagoons RV Resort in Rockport Texas on January 1st and it rained for three days. Cold weather ( 60 degrees) kept us inside or driving around. We got the Rockport Beach Pass and did some shopping.

 Went to church at RV park pavilion and enjoyed gospel singer Brian Arnold as he gave testimony and played and sang songs. He was here last January and we really enjoy his music.  His sound man Dan Lyming just released a new CD so we bought one of Brian’s and one of Dan’s. We have enjoyed listening to them both. We also had some fellowship with other RVers. The whole town of Rockport lost power for two hours on January 2^nd. We did not know why but were really happy the power came back on so quickly.

January 4 through 9

      We went to Port Aransas and had breakfast at San Juan Restaurant. Great food with large portions, inexpensive we recommend this good place to eat. We then picked up our annual beach pass and drove the beach and watched cart boarders being pulled along with large sail kites. One thing we like about this area are the big ships we see in the Intercoastal Waterway alongside the beach park. We then went to Roberts Point Park and watched the dolphins play and feed. This is the Intercoastal Waterway and the ships and ferry boats stir the water and make excellent feeding grounds for the dolphins. When we returned to Lagoons we set out with the neighbors and enjoyed Happy Hour.

    We paid our lot rent for January and elected not to add cable tv and later I couldn’t stand the poor reception and added the cable to the system.

     Jay wanted to explore the Mission river fishing site between Bayview and Refugio so we drove to the site. You could fish at this point but looked like you would be better off with a boat. While on the way there we drove through Bayview and saw a property for sale. This house is listed on the Texas Historic places and was the former home of John and Nancy Wood. He was a merchant who enlisted in the Texas revolution force and moved to Texas in 1834. After the original house was destroyed by fire this house was built to replace the one that was lost.

      Lagoons activity director Pat Roberts has an informational meeting every Thursday to give updates on everything from what is happening in the area to park business. There is a drawing with prizes for attendance and also a fifty fifty drawing is held. We ate at the RV park café on the 6^th and then saw a movie Daddy’s Home at Rockport Cinema. We also toured the Rockport Art Gallery and saw several paintings, this is a great place for local artists to display and work on projects.

      Jan 7^th we rode our bikes down the bike trail and then took Daisy bug to a local restaurant Paradise Key where Sherry had a fish dinner and I had an Oyster po-boy sandwich. The Key Lime pie is great to follow the meal, so we splurged and split a piece. We fixed shrimp on the grill for supper.

      Jan 8^th we went for a seven mile bike ride along the bike trail and out to the Memorial park bike paths. We picked up Salmon cakes at the local HEB grocery to fix for supper. We sat out with neighbors for Happy Hour and attended the Gospel fest in the evening.

       Jan 9^th Sherry wanted to eat at one of her favorite restaurants in Port Aransas (Virginias). This restaurant has water views with large glass garage doors that can be opened weather permitting. This day the temperature was 64 degrees so they remained shut. Sherry had a Campechana Cocktail that she really liked. 

We drove the beach and again watched the Dolphins. I should mention every time you visit Port Aransas you cross a ferry with your vehicle, while it doesn’t cost anything you can get caught in traffic and should expect to spend some time waiting for the ride. This is part of the adventure and we enjoy the scenery while waiting. They have moved an oil rig to storage alongside of the ferry landing and you can get a great view of how big these rigs really are when so close.