Having Fun in Port Aransas

We've  been here at Gulf Waters over month already, what with Thanksgiving, fishing (Dave) and all of the socializing we've been doing the time has flown by. Three and a half more and we'll be heading back north to VT :(

We're ready for Christmas, lights up outside, the tree is up and the inside is decorated, packages to the kids are in the mail. Plans to celebrate the Christmas holiday are made, a little more baking to do  next week we'll be ready for celebrate.

 Shortly after Thanksgiving some more of our friends arrived, DuWayne and Jackie are from WI we met them here last winter and have stayed in touch over the summer. With Jackie's arrival, her and I along with our friend Kathy have started walking everyday and if the weather is nice we also get some laps in at the pool. We've been out to lunch a few times, I'm enjoying having some girlfriends around as it seems Dave is spending much of his time fishing or cooking.

Here are some of the highlights of the last few weeks:

Bonfire On The Beach

 Bloggers Get Together

Al & Ingrid of Live Laugh RV, Steve and Mona Liza of The Lowe's RV Adventures and then Dave and I. We had the pleasure of meeting Al & Ingrid last winter here in TX so when we found out they were going to be nearby we planned a meeting. Their blogging friends Steve and Mona Liza were going to be here too so we invited them over too, Dave of course got the smoker going so there was plenty to eat. As can be expected lots of good food and laughs made the evening fly by.

The blogging women

Chicken Shit Bingo

One of the many crazy things they do here in Port Aransas is hold Chicken Shit Bingo at a local watering hole, any excuse to have a drink or two, I think most of Gulf Waters was there

Port Aransas Christmas Boat Parade

Took A Driving Tour of Candy Cane Lane in Corpus Christi

And to think they used to call Dave "Griswold"

A gift from my dad

Since I know I won't be blogging again before the holidays Dave and I would like to wish everyone

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Until next time...

A Week Filled of Family Time

Our Thanksgiving week was filled with lots of family time, my younger brother Andy and his family arrived early in the week from Colorado Springs, our first holiday together since '87. Our son David and daughter in law Laura arrived on Tuesday after a long travel day from Phoenix. Andy has a house in Port Aransas that he rents out when they are not using it, funny how that worked out him with a house here he plans to retire in and us buying an rv site which we plan to use some winters. My sister in law Kati has a cousin that lives on North Padre Island, we spent a day on the beach with them afterwards we visited the Texas Sealife Center where we got to view some of their rescued coastal and aquatic wildlife.

After a long days drive last Tuesday David and Laura arrived about 9:30pm, Wednesday was spent getting their beach fix in and then a family gathering here with all of the family. Andy and family had never had the pleasure of meeting Laura, what a great evening we had and what a workout our new smoker got, filled with a brisket and numerous racks of ribs. Oysters fixed a number of ways were provided by our friends Jay & Kathy who joined us for the festivities.

David & Andy

Thanksgiving day David and I spent in the kitchen getting our contributions to dinner prepared, my sister in laws cousin Jim and wife Sherri had graciously invited all of us to here home.

Nieces Maggie & Meredith, daughter in law Laura in middle

 Lots of great food, more than enough to feed the 12 folks who were there for dinner.

Friday, the kids last day in town, we headed to Padre Island National Seashore for a turtle release, due to a recent severe cold spell about 90 juvenile green sea turtles had been rescued and were due to be released.

After the release we headed home and spent the afternoon sitting in the sun on the beach, Dave made an attempt to catch a few fish to no avail, the and I spent the time talking and watching Dave's antics.

We were sad to see all the family leave on Saturday and are thankful they all had safe travels home.

Until next time...

Time Flies When Having Fun

Hard to believe we been here at Gulf Waters Beachfront RV Resort a little over a week already, a week ago last Friday we left Goose Island State Park for the short 35 mile drive to Port Aransas. A short wait for the ferry and we were on the island by noon and pulling into Gulf Waters shortly thereafter, after checking in at the office we headed to our lot. Our friends Kathy and Jay must have been keeping an eye out for us, set up was abandoned for a bit while hugs and a quick catch up were exchanged. Since we are here for 4 months we took our time getting the rig in just the right place, giving us as much outside living space as possible.

Once we were set up we took a walk around to see what had changed and who was around. We found Mui of Two To Travel's Phaeton Journeys outside washing their motorhome, with water restrictions in affect Friday is the only day washing of the rigs is allowed. Erin soon came out and we spent a short time catching up and wishing them well on their winter overseas adventure. They'll be getting back about the time we're heading north, since we're both owners here I'm sure our paths will cross again.

Our walk took quite awhile since we kept seeing folks we hadn't seen in 10 months, while we were only here 6 weeks we made good friends whom we've kept up with on Facebook. So while we'd only spent a short time here last year it has felt like we've come home, we are looking forward to our winter here. Kathy invited us over for a chili dinner and we spent a nice evening catching up with her and Jay, thanks again for dinner guys.

The rest of the week flew by, dinners with friends, walks on the beach, chores and of course meeting new friends.

Our first Saturday here we went out with a group of folks, old and new friends. It seems there's a younger group who have bought some sites just down from us, most of them are still busy working full time and they use Gulf Waters as a weekend getaway. Many of them are from the San Antonio area so their section of the park has been fondly named San Antonio Row. Dinner out was at a place we'd been before, Stingrays is a sports bar so the local TX teams were on the big screens. Food there was once again good and we enjoyed our time there, afterwards we made a stop at a local watering hole, the Coastal Club where the music was so loud it was hard to hear the person talking next to you. 

We've been into Corpus Christi a few times for a variety of things, a trip to Lowe's resulted in a variety of lights for a Christmas display. We have a shed here where we can keep things so the excess lights will stay here for our use when ever we stay here. We thought we'd turn off the lights until after Thanksgiving but everyone wants us to keep them lit every night so guess we will, most are LED so they are cheap to run.

Dave's new smoker, test run on one rack of ribs turned out great.

Getting ready for the holidays, we were going to turn them off until after Thanksgiving but due to popular demand we've kept them on.

 Our neighbors last week were Ron and Rose from Australia, they have been at Gulf Waters before and had made friends with Jay & Kathy. Between the happy hours, fish fry and a dinner out we got to know them well, what fun they are we just wished they could have stayed longer. Ron and Rose toured the US for a year just a few years ago, Ron writes a blog about their travels Aussie's Travelling the USA in a Fifth Wheeler and it seems we've enjoyed some of the same places. From Ron Dave has learned a few new phrases some that could get him into trouble :) We sure hope our paths cross when they are stateside next time.

The weather has been all over the place, with lows in the 30's and high in the 80's, with calm days and then days where the winds had us rockin' but at least we weren't rollin'.

My brother and family have made it down, they have a house they rent when they are not using it, we haven't celebrated a holiday with Andy since '87. Our son David and daughter in law Laura are due in tonight for a few days, they will be staying with us. Looks like it'll be a good Thanksgiving with lots of family.

Until next time...