December 2001 |
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It has been nice to relax and do those things old retired people do? - play tennis, walk along the beach, do some birdwatching, play dominoes with the other happy campers, watch the Portland Trailblazers on NBA League Pass (It cost Wullie $180 for the season and the Blazers are pretty poor so far!). The weather has been mixed as is expected at this time of year, but has been predominately warm, 60 - 80F. Cold wet weather was forecast for the Christmas period but it didn't arrive until the very end of the month. This meant we welcomed the New Year in with temperatures in the 40's just a bit warmer than at home.
Tennis - As visitors to Port Aransas we are allowed to use the high school Tennis courts at any time except for a short period in the afternoon. As a result our tennis skills are improving daily, we can even play backhands now. It is a good form of exercise especially when temperatures are in the high 70's with humidity in the 90's.
Beachcombing - With several miles of beach to explore on the island we are never bored. Linda is collecting Sand Dollars here (a type of shell) just as she did in California. They are smaller in Texas? and have a different appearance but she meets with other like minded ladies on the site and they swap craft ideas. So far they have made decorations for the Christmas tree, Santa Claus & Snowmen figures. Other ideas that have been bandied around include, earrings and belt buckles. The shells are free but the paint, glue gun & glue, hardener etc. are draining the meagre pension we receive from Agilent/Hewlett-Packard, but she does enjoy it so if I have to reduce my beer intake to one bottle a day it's a small price to pay? We even took a trip to a nearby uninhabited island called St Jo where we collected lots of sand dollars. We must have walked about 6 - 8 miles on a beautiful warm day collecting shells and watching all sorts of sea birds and fishermen catching and eating their lunch & dinner.
Birdwatching - This is a terrific spot for water based birds but not so good for land based birds. It is still a thrill to us to see the large collections of brown & white pelicans, Herons of all types, Whistling Ducks, White & White Faced Ibis, Egrets, Ducks & Teals, Roseate Spoonbills, Ospreys and many more. We saw a "Host?" , about 20, of Black Crowned Night Heron's in one area of reeds along the boardwalk at the birding centre. We still have to take some birding trips, Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, boat trip around the coastal islands for Whooping Cranes and a visit to King Ranch. Some interesting facts about King Ranch - at 850,000 acres it is larger than the state of Rhode Island, is home to 60,000 cattle and 300 Quarter Horses, has a museum and conducts wildlife & birding tours. We added sightings of a Virginia Rail and a Sora to our rapidly growing list of birds this month.
Curling - We intend to take in two mixed bonspiel's this winter, one in Wisconsin and our annual one in Illinois. We have decided to drive again this year and will leave the RV in Louisiana for the two weeks we are away. The Bonspiel's are a week apart which will allow us time to visit with friends at both venues. As a warmup we contacted the Houston Curling Club to see if we could arrange a game and they very kindly invited us to their Christmas Bonspiel. They curl on a skating rink inside The Galleria shopping centre on a Sunday morning at 9,00 am. We were made very welcome by the Houston curlers, most of whom are Canadian working in oil related industries in the city. Although the ice was very stiff and completely negative we thoroughly enjoyed our game but wished we had worn shorts like some of the club members (75 degrees outside). After the Bonspeil we retired to the nearest Bar/Restaurant (10 yards away) for something to eat & drink and some social discourse. There were prizes for nearly everyone, Linda got some chocolates and Wullie a box of dominoes.
Houston- Since we are approximately 200 miles from Houston (petrol 90c/gallon) we travelled up on the Saturday. The original plan had been to visit Galveston island but the weather forecast was not too favourable so we settled on a visit to NASA, Houston Space Center. It was really very interesting to see some of the old launch rockets (Saturn V etc.) and the area where present day astronauts are trained. They have a mockup of the "International Space Station" and various chambers & simulators for training purposes. It is remarkable that there is very little sign of secrecy or security (although I am sure it is in place) in such a high tech environment. Other attractions include an I-Max. cinema showing films about life on the Space Station and "To Be an Astronaut". It was also an experience to receive an up to date briefing on the current mission. When we were briefed a replacement crew had just arrived at the Space Station and the previous crew were returning the next day. We visited the Kemah Boardwalk situated on Galveston Bay on the eastern side of Houston for our evening meal. The Boardwalk has a funfair theme and is extremely popular, so popular we had trouble finding a parking space. Most of the restaurants specialize in Seafood so we settled for large tasty helpings in the lively Joes Crab Shack. We stayed the night in a Quality Inn near NASA and after our dinner in Joes Crab Shack could only manage some fruit for breakfast before attending the Curling.
Other Highlights - On one of her many trips to Corpus Christi shops for craft supplies Linda observed a local desperado with his hands handcuffed behind his back. The mounted! policeman (on a bicycle) was calling the capture in on his radio for pickup we presume. We read in the local paper that at this time of year there are a lot of thefts from cars in shopping malls and the police beef up their patrols, so we guessed they got some results that day.
We have taken to playing dominoes in the site recreation room with fellow snowbirds. They play with coloured dominoes up to double 12. We play a game called Chickenfoot and with so many dominoes this can accommodate 6 - 10 players at a time.
NEXT MONTH: Still enjoying our relaxation here in Port Aransas
Miles travelled this month: a mere 931
Accumulative miles: 66,144
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