Change of Plans:

We canceled our trip to Padre Island National Seashore and extended our stay in Rockport by one week due to windy weather. Our plans to spend a few days camping on the beach would not have been fun if we were being sandblasted each time we left the coach. We spent the week kayaking in sheltered waters, swimming, and enjoying some local restaurants.

Sandy has been using the large patio awning to create an outdoor sewing area for her quilting projects. The spring inside the awning popped one day and we could not roll it back up automatically. You can say the awning’s old spring has sprung. So we hand rolled it (19 feet long, 7 feet wide), and tied it off at the top as a safety measure. The new spring on order arrived today and we hope to have it installed tomorrow morning before we leave the area.

We have been on-the-road for seven weeks (or almost 2 months) now. So, do we like our new lifestyle? That would be a definite Yes! We are feeling more relaxed and healthier than we have for years. We are spending more time being active indoors and out. We have had our run-ins with Mother Nature as well – furry caterpillars dropping from trees, a small invasion of ants and of course, mosquitoes. But, we have also made friends with squirrels and deer. Our new friends, the squirrels, will strategically sit in the big tree watching us through our front window. “Hey! I know you are in there. I’m hungry. Where are my peanuts (or cherry tomatoes, or grapes)?” When we open the door, there’s one of our friends sitting on the patio waiting to be fed. We were pretty sure that one of the mornings when we opened the blinds we would find a squirrel hanging onto the window ledge – “Hi there! Got any nuts?” The winter-Texans have them well trained for asking for handouts.

There are additional bird pictures from the Birding Center and the Rockport Beach area. They were added to our Kayaking and Surrounding Area folder in webshots this week. Here are few pictures of our cats enjoying their time outdoors. Grey at age 17 does well off the leash, but we stay within several feet of him. Squirrel and Dusty remain in harness with leash attached, and enjoy laying, rolling on, and eating the grass while watching for birds and squirrels. Even though they are wearing harnesses and a leash, we cannot walk them. The leash does help us keep them under control though.


For anyone wanting to know who won the sand carving contests, here is a link to the Texas SandFest 2009 Winners website. The competition was good and the winners are very deserving.

Texas State Aquarium and Texas SandFest

We kayaked Redfish Bay and Light House Trails between Aransas Pass and Port Aransas for several hours one day when the winds let up. We discovered Redfish Bay and the Trails are very shallow, with many oyster fields. We scraped the kayaks and were hung up on oyster beds many times while navigating through the mangroves and openings between bay areas. We hope to kayak a couple of more times in different bay areas with more water depth before leaving Rockport.

With windy weather making it difficult to kayak more, we explored more of the local area. It is very entertaining to go to the docks and watch the shrimp fishermen cleaning out their catch. They have quite an audience of Brown Pelicans, Laughing Seagulls, and Cormorants who want the discards from the nets. It is so unusual to be in a local parking lot and see a Blue Heron or a Great Egret fly over.

We spent a day in Corpus Christi for shopping and to see the Texas State Aquarium. Sandy enjoyed shopping and taking lots of pictures at the aquarium. We were able to touch Sting Rays on their backs – very slimy! While the Dolphin show was entertaining, we had more fun watching the dolphins relaxing and playing ball on their own after the show was over. You can see photos in the Texas State Aquarium album in Webshots.

We saw our first sand-carving contest at the Texas Sandfest on Mustang Island. The artwork and the attention to detail are truly amazing! If you ever get a chance to see one, do so. The pictures just don’t do the artwork justice.

Where is Rockport? Click on Rockport to see the surrounding area in Google.