Updating - February 2014

Texas 2013 – 2014

February 17 2014

Wow, did not realize how quickly time has been flying! We have been in Texas since December and this park since the 8^th of December.  Since the weather has been cold (I know nowhere near what it as back home) we have been quite a bit housebound.  Our “house” down here does not have the insulation qualities of regular house, so has been cold.  Temperatures that should have been in 70’s have been down to freezing or less overnight and some days never got over 40 (10C) and of course need to double wrap as winter clothing at a minimum.  Now that I have finished complaining ……

 

Friends of ours, Don and Donna had arranged a local bakery tour in San Benito, TX before we arrived so we did that one morning.  Bakery has been around and now run by children of original owners.  Not much has changed inside and their methods are still all hands on, a few mixing machines and regular oven, but they still run a block oven heated with wood to cook quite a few items.  The bakery now has an historic designation from the city. It is clean, but not industrial strength the way most people would expect to see from up north.

 

Outside

 

 

 

Paddle

 

 

Oven

 

 

We had a Christmas parade here with a bit of a twist; it really went to the dogs.  See who was walking and who was driving!

 

This is how Santa arrives down here

 

No walkies here

 

Yes, the car is full of dogs and no that is a person driving

Christmas Day dawned nice and warm, had sit down dinner for 6 here at our place, so our Christmas tree outside, and a few decorations outside.

Christmas Day was pretty relaxed, everyone brought a dish as well, was really nice.  Earlier in the day we had all called home to speak to family or try to but did get them.

 

Dinner for 6

 

My Christmas tree

 

Decorations

 

 

Some sites we have seen and places we have visited on the nice days.

We went to South Padre Island for a dolphin and eco tour that we had booked.  Was a nice sunny day, still a bit cool, but not too bad.  The boat took us around the sound towards the gulf but not out in it.  They had a net that they dragged to pick up different see life so that we could see what was in the area.  They managed to dreg up a fish that actually squeaked a squid, a jelly fish, and a puffer fish.  They put them in a bucket and the handler took them out for us to see and touch.  This apparently does not hurt the fish, they are in the water and they don’t hold them out too long to upset them.  The puffer fish though is the one that gets the stressed and takes in air and that is why he gets puffy.  We did see a couple of dolphins but what was kind of funny, is that they were at the same area as we saw them when we were down here a couple of years ago sitting at a little bar on the water! Hummmmmmmm…

Don and Donna

Ken and Don

Jelly fish

 

 

Puffer fish

 

Mary, Jim and Donna

 

Our ship

 

Puffer fish

 

 

 

 

Squid

After this it got cold again and this is the one morning we woke up that it had been freezing overnight and yes that is ice on the steps and the handle, that was downright crazy weather.

 

 

Then in beginning of February we had another nice day and went to downtown Harlingen which is the town we are staying to see the murals.  They were really amazing, some were painted, some were mosaic and some stone.  I have a few  posted here.  They also had the oldest liquor store around, which is now a chain called Feldman’s that has been around since 1938.

Winter Texan home

Feldman's est. 1938

The gang

Colletti's courtyard

Inside

Should be everywhere, only for misbehaving parents!

We stopped at a nice Italian restaurant for dinner – loved the sign on door as we went in.

 

We have had a few shows here at park that have been good.  We saw one group called the Jet’s that is local to the area, rock and roll. There was a Beach Boy’s and Beatles tribute band that was amazing, costumer changes and everything.  It was supposed to be at our park but not enough tickets sold so we went to our sister park just up the street. Then we had a Neil Diamond tribute show as well and this was same fellow we saw when we were in Florida a couple of years ago and I can’t remember what venue, (been too many places or maybe just getting older, don’t know what I want to admit to).

Unfortunately at these shows, I did not bring a camera as most shows we go to a home you are not allowed to take pictures, but since these entertainers run the RGV circuit and use word of mouth a lot, they don’t mind, just some don’t want video due to some contracts they have.  I have now started taking camera to shows.

 

The last few days have been beautiful and we finally took a beach day, and it was foggy all day, but where we were staked out, the sun was shining right above us. I unfortunately did not take my camera and there were some great fog shots I missed.  Hoping I can get them from our friend Don and I will come back and post some of his.

 

Yesterday, we had a Mariachi group here from local school.  They had the 3 levels of entertainers and the entrance fee, was given to them as a donation.  They start in school in grade 5 and none of them have had any musical training.  They are tought violins, trumpets, guitar and other instruments.  They started with the newest up to the ones that are doing the tours and competions.  They were all beautiful and sounded great.  You can of course tell the difference once they had the older and more seasoned ones playing but starting at the beginning, they were impressive to start so just kept getting better.  We managed to raise $1100.00 for them which was great.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, this is our latest update and hopefully they will keep up now that we have nice weather and we will be doing more sight seeing and keeping updates as we go