Young Snowbirds » seabreeze rv park

Our Review of Sea Breeze RV – Portland, TX

Darlene — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:30:46 +0000

We stayed at Sea Breeze for just over 5 weeks – and we will be back next year! Summarizing our review of Seabreeze RV Park in Portland, we would say that this is a great place to stay. We loved the location, the people, the activities and the area. You’ve already seen the owners and their classic Corvettes on the beach and the RV Olympics, so I’m not going go give too many details as I got an article on the place coming on the Good Sam magazine as well. So I’ll just show some photos of the park to give you an idea of what it was like.

The sign says "Welcome Home" and they mean it.

On a scale of 1-10 we give Sea Breeze full marks – TEN!

Our stall H48

"The Place" clubhouse where events take place

games room - patio

Dora starting off the pot luck for St. Patty's day dinner

Dancers for St. Patty's dinner

I got in on the act and picked up the spoons to play

There are an incredible number and type of birds that hang out in and around the park. Here are a few of them, most of these taken only steps from our door. If you’re into birding in Texas, this is the place to stay.

Blue heron in the creek at the park

Large egret - the littler Snowy Egrets also hang out nearby

Cardinal - I chased this guy around to get a photo of him. He has the neatest song too,

Egret

Ducks of course

Snowy egret

Brown pelicans

6 toed cat (6 on each front paw) - 12 pack as they called him that lives at Sea Breeze

Not a bad view hey?

The lights are from the city, Corpus Christi across the bay

And that marks the end of Texas for this year - cheers!

What We Liked About Seabreeze RV Park

Location – end of a road, next to Nueces Bay opposite Corpus Christi with NO SECURITY because there’s NO NEED for security. 5 minute drive to Shamrock Fitness center, 5 minutes to a movie theater, close to banks and shopping and a short 15 minutes to Corpus.
Birding – Texas is filled with birds and Seabreeze RV Park is no exception. As you see in the pictures above, many different types of birds live in the park and an area between the beach and the RV’s is designed for birds. I tried to convince Otto to put in a par 3 golf course hole here, but he declined. Otto said “That’s the birding area”.
Fishing – although we didn’t fish, our neighbors did. You can walk right out off the beach into the water and cast your line, or drive a short distance and launch your boat. Our neighbor had a boat he used almost daily
Laundry facility had accompanying television area. Can watch TV if you like, while waiting for laundry.
3 places to watch TV. The office (TV, and Pool table), laundry room, and “The Place” with a HUGE flatscreen.
Pool and hot tub
Covered games area offering Foosball, darts (and the pool table at the office)
Large washrooms with showers in 2 different places for a total of 4 showers plus an additional 2 washrooms at the office.
Daily “Happy Hour” at “The Place” where the guys meet to shoot the shit for an hour in the afternoon. Beverages optional.
Morning coffee and “shoot the shit” at The Place, which was always very active.
Every other week potluck suppers
Immediately brought into the social aspect of the park, welcomed with open arms. That was a first for us.
While the owners Otto and Dora don’t actually run the park, they are VERY active in the events. It’s their second home, so we saw them a lot.
We liked that the full timers had their own section of the park. If they went to work early, they didn’t wake other campers.
Vehicle vacuum and tire pump on site.
The ONLY downside of the park is the location of the trash bin. There’s one trash bin located outside the park entrance that fills quickly. One must save trash locally and then take it with you leave, or make a special trip. With it being the only downside, we quickly adapted.
Oh, and the price. It’s so perfect. Was the most affordable park we stayed at in our entire RV history.

Seabreeze RV Park in Portland is far and away the best place we’ve stayed at in our short time on the road. We think that it’s important to be able to call a place home and feel safe there. At Seabreeze, we were welcomed with open arms, included in events immediately and could not have felt safer or had a better view. I hope that our review of seabreeze offers you some insight into making the choice to stay here.

Classic Corvettes On The Beach

Rob — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 01:23:30 +0000

A little over a week ago, the owners of Seabreeze RV Park in Portland invited us to a private showing of their classic corvette collection. Today, WE invited them to bring their favorite corvettes to Seabreeze so we could do a photo shoot of corvettes on the beach. Classic cars, classic corvettes, the beach and a sunset, what could be better?

They brought three Corvettes. How do two people drive three Corvettes? Regardless, we brought them down to the very edge of the RV park onto the beach that disappears into Nueces Bay and began positioning them. When all was said and done, we were late for potluck supper, but this is what Dar got:

The blue corvette you see here is a vintage 61 placed on top of a brand new 2007 corvette drive train. Ottos says that it’s 400 pounds lighter but with the same horsepower.

We found out later that they would NEVER have taken the cars onto the beach. Dora said something like “Not for 1 in a thousand people would we ever do that.” Well, we’re glad to be the ones they trusted enough to get the shots right.

Days 65-68 Sea Breeze Olympics

Darlene — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:04:10 +0000

The 21st Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver had already started and we participated in the annual Sea Breeze RV Park version of their Olympics. The day before kick-off, each of our team captains came to find us (we were on different teams) to talk strategy and meet their new team members. It seemed pretty serious.

Rob's captain Bob, who he started calling "Bocce Bob"

Day 1

Scavenger Hunt

The first event on day 1 was the scavenger hunt. We were given a list of items to gather and there were points for coming in fastest too, so timing was a factor. We had to find things like canned corn, state flags, seashells, a recipe for crab cakes, a long shoelace, Elvis stuff, red lace panties and prints of photos of our team in places around the campground. My team separated to scavenge and agreed to re-congregate to take our photos. I went to the RV to get what I knew was there. Rob came in looking for my red panties but I had beat him to the punch. He was printing his team photos when I left and stole the shoelace out of his hiking boot, which was under the RV.

The Orange team - I'm not putting Rob's here, cause you can see his later on.

Olympic Sabotage

It never crossed my mind that he’d pull a stunt like this, but apparently that’s how the male brain operates. I came back to print my photo and the printer wouldn’t work. No power. I checked the power bar – nope, all good there. Then the cord from the printer to the power bar – it was missing! WTF!? He sabotaged me the bugger! That’s dirty pool I say! Undaunted the girls in the office let me use their printer which luckily had a slot for memory cards. When I saw Rob he played all innocent. Game on.

Jan modeling the corset and red lace panties from the scavenger hunt

Bean Bag Toss

The second event in our Seabreeze RV Park Olympics was after lunch, the bean bag toss. Pretty simple – each team member throws 4 beanbags – highest team score wins. The events were all pretty non-physical, keep in mind many of the players are over 70 or even 80 years old.

Team Standings After Day 1

Dar’s Orange Team – 4th
Rob’s Pink Team – 2nd

The score keepers - do NOT mess with them, they are serious!

Day 2

Sponge Game

Day 2, Robs “pink” team took control of the games winning both the sponge game and the bocce ball tournament. The sponge game required each player to put a sponge into a bucket of water, pick up as much water with it as possible, run (or walk) 20 feet or so to a second bucket and squeeze out as much water as possible – all using only one hand. Rob claims to have a secret technique, he must have, or he cheated again cause Pink won that event.

This is Mr. Ed - he teaches Spanish and leads the guys porch chats daily at 4pm. Ed's an ex Texas state trooper and sheriff

Bocce Ball

The afternoon event was Bocce ball. I’ve never played before and Rob played once before. He know boasts that he’s undefeated and never wants to play again – as they took that event too. Bocce is kinda like curling or shuffleboard except our playing surface was a tad bumpy (lumpy grass). But we had lots of spectators and fans cheering us on. It took the better part of the afternoon to play a whole tournament.

Rob’s comment: My first game of Bocce ball was played on the beach of Vancouver Island while I was hiking the West Coast Trail. I won the game. After another day of playing 2 games of bocce ball at the Seabreeze RV Park Olympic Games, I remain undefeated. I’ve never lost a game. I’m not attached to the game at all, so quitting while ahead leaves me with a perfect record.

My team captain Pete

more bocce ball - Rob got carried away with photos

I made a good shot I think

Group hugs after a match

See I did have fun! Super nice people

Rob poses before a shot

Day 3

Called on Account of Rain

It rained overnight and was raining Friday morning, so the event scheduled for then was pushed forward to the afternoon and the afternoon ones to Saturday morning.

Water Balloon Toss

In water balloon toss each team had to successfully throw one balloon twice, between two partners, without breaking it and that counted as one point. It was funny to watch, many of the women caught it with their boobs. I was forewarned to remove all rings, good idea. Some teams got el zippo, nada, zilch. I think we ended up with 2 points and Pink won yet again with 4.

Day 4

Saturday morning were the last 2 events – egg toss and ladder golf.

Egg Toss

In egg toss, teams had to line up facing each other and were given 4 eggs with which to score. No, not by throwing them at the other teams! I wish. To get one point teams had to complete 10 tosses with the egg still in tact. If you dropped one, you could start again at that point with a fresh egg but the more you dropped the less points you could potentially get. And yes they were raw eggs. I didn’t get photos of this, didn’t want egg on my lens. I think Rob got some video but his laptop has bitten the dust so can’t get to it right now. Look for it later maybe. I hear the event was messier last year, but a few people did require a bath afterward. I successfully completed both receiving and tossing 2 eggs – redeemed myself a bit as I had broken 2 balloons by throwing too low to my partner. I got the technique now – watch out next year.

Ladder Golf

The final game was ladder golf. You throw a thing that has a golf ball tied to each end of a short rope and try to loop it over horizontal rungs (like a ladder). My team won our first game and advanced as did 2 other teams. But the Pink team got a buy into the final because they had the largest point spread in their win. Well laa dee dah! My Orange team went on the win the bronze match to meet Pink in the finals. It was a hard fought battle but in the end Pink once again triumphed and had enough points to take the Gold medal. We had to settle for 4th, out of the medals. But it sure was fun and a great way to socialize with people and get out in the fresh air.

Rob’s comment: just to be clear, and summarize what Dar’s saying in the paragraph above – My Pink team met her Orange team in the finals of ladder golf and the Pink team defeated the Orange team to take first place and get the Gold medal.

They had a wrap up BBQ (hot dogs and chips) and presented the medals. Now we have to come back next year. Rob has to defend his title and I want a rematch to kick his butt!

Mr. Ed

You can see Rob’s Kombucha Tea brewing on top of the stove in the background to the left. He’s got a 2 gallon glass container and a 1 gallon container brewing up there. It was nice and warm in The Place, and the Kombucha loved it.

First place PINK team, I keep emphasizing pink cause Rob was in denial about being pink.

Second place - BLACK

Third place - RED

The committee that put the games together

There was one extra event which we ended up running on the Monday, but didn’t count towards the medals – it was just for fun. Blind golf cart races. So one person gets blindfolded and the other seated next to them has to direct them around the course which twists and turns around a series of pylons. Quite hilarious to watch the navigator pointing which way to go – cause of course the driver can’t see that! Or them telling the driver to “go” or “step on the gas” and the driver thinks they are moving when they aren’t. Good game for husband/wife teams to try – just like real navigating the RV out on the road – lots of yelling “no no!” and some cursing, and sometimes running the curb or innocent bystanders.

Spectators at blind golf cart races

Ken directing his wife

Ken's wife almost running over the video guy! Look out Dick!

An all female team almost running over all the spectators. When the navigator put it in reverse and the little "beep, beep" sounded the driver was very confused. She didn't realize she'd run aground.

We did it twice – once with Rob driving and once with me driving. We had a better time when I navigated, not sure if that means he’s a better driver – or I’m a better navigator or what. We decided to leave that one alone.

This is the fourth year they’ve held the Seabreeze RV Park Olympics and they’re sure to keep going as long as the winter Texans all return. We enjoyed our time playing the games, the fellowship and time out of the RV itself. I’m not sure if any other RV parks do this sort of thing, but that again is just part of what makes Seabreeze RV in Portland Texas unique.

Days 56 to 61 – Sea Breeze RV and Goliad

Darlene — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:53:39 +0000

We arrived at Sea Breeze RV in Portland, Texas on Monday February 8th. Portland is across Nueces Bay from Corpus Christi. We can see the city skyline from the RV park. I researched a LOT of RV parks in the area and tried to find us one on Padre Island, facing the ocean. But, they were all either full, or really pricey (over $700/month). We settled on Sea Breeze based on cost, location right on the water, and a the fact there’s a gym 5 minutes away for Rob.

We immediately took notice of the many social activities here, including a potluck dinner Thursday night. We signed up for it so we could meet some people and that we did! Betty came to sit at our table that night and we learned she is a friend of the owners and the unofficial social convener for the park. She insisted that we had to come to the Valentines dinner on Saturday. It was only $15 each, so we agreed.

I found out about an arts and crafts market in a town about 80 miles away, but it’s only on every second Saturday monthly. This was my only chance to go, so I headed out on my own for Goliad, Texas while Rob stayed behind to do some things around the RV park.

It was an interesting drive. I saw Texas longhorns (cattle), sheep, and a whole lotta nothin’ in between little towns. Again I noticed signs that Texas is just a little a little different. There’s gun shops and signs of “guns for sale” everywhere, and road signs that say “Don’t mess with Texas“. It refers to littering on the roads, but I think it’s a broader statement than that, or at least that’s how I read it. I wish I had stopped to take photos of the longhorns and signs, cause I never did get these later.

An old house I saw while driving through Refugio, TX

Driving along, I remember thinking, “this better be worth it” cause it was a long way to go by myself. Once I got there though, it was well worth it. Goliad is full of history. There’s a Spanish mission, an old fort, and lots of great old architecture in the town including a fabulous courthouse in the town square, I’d learn more about later.

Goliad Arts and Crafts Market

I wandered around and checked out the vendors’ wares, which were spread out around the courthouse. There were several stalls selling knives – for hunting, fighting, or . . . I don’t know what and I don’t want to know. There were also a lots of art pieces with stars, the Texas state flag, or Texas map on them. I can’t remember if I mentioned this or not, but Texans often fly the state flag either instead of, or alongside the American one. More than I’ve noticed ever in other states. I’m ashamed to admit, I don’t think I even know what our Alberta flag looks like.

Texas Lone Stars, Flags and State Symbols Everywhere

Food for sale was pretty much all junk. Cotton candy, corn dogs, popcorn, fries, etc but there also a couple interesting offerings. Giant BBQ’ed turkey legs were $5 and trash can fries which were cooked in the big metal trash can full of hot oil (see photo below). The fries were very different. The guy making them put a whole potato into a machine that sort of peeled it into one big long ruffle looking thing. So kind of like kettle chips, but not cut into single chips. I got a bowl of chili because I wanted to try real Texas style stuff. That and I only had $3 left after buying a few things and chili was $3 – so there you go. It was disappointing though, just meat, no beans, no peppers, no onions, nothing. It was like eating spaghetti meat sauce by itself and it wasn’t even spicy either.

After I ate I walked around the square and took photos. I met a couple of old guys who were also winter Texans. They told me about the “hanging tree” in front of the Goliad courthouse that was actually used for just that purpose, back in the day. They also told me that just about every town in Texas has a fancy courthouse dating back over 100 years. Apparently they competed with each other to make theirs bigger and better than the last. It is a stunning looking building.

Goliad Courthouse

Goliad County Courthouse built in 1894

Here’s some other photos from around Goliad:

Goliad Mission Espiritu Santu

Next up was Mission Espiritu Santo. I didn’t stoop to read about it much but it’s another of Texas’ historic Spanish missions dating back to the late 1700’s or earlier. This one is pretty well preserved, and the Spanish influence is obvious on the architecture style.

You’re going to want to see all the photos of Mission Espiritu Santu and Presidio La Bahia in Goliad.

On the way back to Portland, I saw this little plane doing crop dusting. He’d do one row, pop up over the road and wires, turn around and make another pass. It was neat to watch but I wondered what sort of noxious crap he was putting into the air.

The Valentine’s dinner was pretty good and we sat with Rick and Linda from Ontario. Rob made a new friend in George (who lives across from us) as he supplied sangria to those that wanted it all night, and George willingly partook. Betty even introduced us and any other new comers to the park, and we met Dora and Otto (the Seabreeze RV Park owners) for the first time. Everyone else left by about 7:30pm, but we stayed until after 9 talking about wine, travels, and RV stuff with Rick and Linda. She convinced us we needed to play in the RV Olympics next week – so we agreed to that too. We decided we really liked it here. Great location, great price, and really friendly “folk”.