Young Snowbirds» united states

New Orleans Café du Monde and French Market

Darlene — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 01:48:26 +0000

Day two in “The Big Easy” (one of New Orleans other names) started off by actually getting on the shuttle bus from the RV park this time relatively early in the morning. I think we got on the 9:30am, first one out. We headed straight for Café du Monde’s famous coffee stand at 800 Decatur Street.

Sidebar anecdote: funny thing, on my first trip here I was expecting to hear French spoken quite commonly. Many of the street have French names and of course there’s the French Quarter. Nope – not even a little bit. In fact, names I’d expect to be pronounced in a more French way were completely murdered, in my opinion. Decatur is one of those. I expected it to sound more like “deck-a-tour” and when I said it that way they looked at me like I had two heads. They said it “dee-katter”. One of the odd things I noticed anyway. So don’t try and use your French here, it’s long gone.

Café au lait and Beignet

Anyway, established some time in 1862 Café du Monde has been serving café au lait and their famous beignet donuts for 150 years. Taken right from their site, here is the history of this coffee stand:

The Original Cafe Du Monde Coffee Stand was established in 1862 in the New Orleans French Market. The Cafe is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It closes only on Christmas Day and on the day an occasional Hurricane passes too close to New Orleans.

The Original Cafe du Monde is a traditional coffee shop. Its menu consists of dark roasted Coffee and Chicory, Beignets, White and Chocolate Milk, and fresh squeezed Orange Juice. The coffee is served Black or Au Lait. Au Lait means that it is mixed half and half with hot milk. Beignets are square French -style doughnuts, lavishly covered with powdered sugar. In 1988 Iced Coffee was introduced to the cafe. Soft drinks also made their debut that year.

This is the sight you’ll see as you approach the sidewalk café. What appears to be a long line up gets quickly cleared by an anxious server yelling “No line, no line! Find a table and sit down!” So you do and often it’s to share with another couple, which we did, or join a partly empty table. No space is wasted here and quick turn over is their goal – get you in, get you served, get you out – so they can serve more people I’m guessing and make more tips.

I’m sure I saw the lady in the photo below 5 years ago too, and in the TV show The Treme which we actually stepped into the set of by accident one other day (more on that later). She’s the one that ushered us in hurriedly. I learned later that they take the customer’s order, go to the back to get it, and PAY for it themselves. Then they have to collect from the customer to cover what they paid and hopefully get a tip. I hope they pay less than we would if we walked up to the window, but it makes sense then why they want you in and out so fast. The more served per hour, the more tips they can make.

Cafe Du Monde Beignets

Here we see people of all ages and backgrounds enjoying their beignets. I have to admit I did have some, while Rob abstained. But the Cafe Du Monde chicory coffee is out of this world! I love the little girl with powdered sugar all over her face. She was watching me take her photo, but didn’t seem to mind.

In the photos below you can see the staff, busily serving their tables. After they collected a plate of beignets and poured the coffees, they’d go pay the cashier waiting for them at the end of the line. I watched for a while and it’s a steady stream of coffee and donuts coming out. You’ll also notice the staff counting their money, I saw that quite often too. I’m sure they wanna make sure they are making more than they’re paying for the coffee.

Then of course there’s Cafe Du Monde take out, so here are three tips on taking stuff home with you.

order any canned coffee and/or souvenirs from your server when you order your coffee and beignets.
do NOT buy the canned coffee from any of the stores down the street or in the French Market. A can of coffee is $5.45 in the café and you’ll find it as high as $9 a few steps away. We ended up paying about $8 a can just because we didn’t want to get back in the take out line at the café.
go to the Café du Monde gift shop at 813 Decatur Street literally across the street. They have the same prices as the café and can ship stuff if you need that service. See photo of the sign below so you know what to look for.

New Orleans French Market

A short stroll north up Decatur street and you get to the French Market. As the sign below indicates it was here well before the café, and is the oldest city market in America. It has changed quite a bit since my fist visit in January 2005. The junk and tent stalls have been replaced with permanent stalls with secure windows and doors and the vendors have gone from dollar store nick nacks to really nice hand made crafts, food items, art, produce and more. A place locals and tourists alike visit.

This happy guy’s name is Oscar. He makes resin jewelry that is very colorful, just like him. I talked to him for a while and listened to his story of Katrina and how his life has been different since that day. He talked about how hard it was to come back and for him there were no customers, no tourists, so his market had disappeared here. He told me he lived in another city, I can’t remember where now, and started coming back on weekends once the market reopened and finally moved back home. But it was a tough go for him and many other locals.

I talked to two other ladies as we ate lunch and they live in East New Orleans and said many things are still not opened like stores, schools, clinics. They have to travel farther now to find those things. All of the people I talked to were super nice and seemed eager to talk about their experience to someone that was really listening. I feel for the people of New Orleans who, in many ways, have been treated like second class citizens in their country. I bought a couple books on the disaster, one on a group that rescued stranded pets after they had been left behind by their owners. The sad thing was the city told the people to leave them behind, that they’d only be gone a day or two at most. 2-3 weeks later many of those pets were still tied up to leashes, left in homes with 8′ of water, or left to wander the streets to find food. Some were found still treading water as they were tied to something and couldn’t get away. I don’t want to get on a rant, but this was a disaster of mammoth proportions that was utterly and completely preventable and it’s shameful how the government on all levels (municipal, state and federal) responded. (stepping off my soap box now).

Anyhow, continuing on - we had what was probably our best meal in New Orleans at a place in the French Market that I’d found out about on the internet (what a great resource hey?!).

Meals From The Heart

Meals from the Heart advertises low sodium, low fat and no transfat – fabulous! In a city full of rich, heavy foods this was a great find! We totally loved the food and have recommended it to others already, and they loved it too. If you are looking for a nice light, clean meal – this is the place to go. They also do catering and bulk orders – take home a couple dozen crab cakes today!

Rob's grilled salmon, brown rice and veggies

I had the crab cakes with lemon remoulade sauce, and fresh organic greens - yummy!

Chef Averill Lazard who created our fabulous meals at Meals from the Heart

Day 85 – Dolphin Connection dolphin tour

Darlene — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:01:48 +0000

I was searching the internet for dolphin tours in the Portland area, and somehow I came across The Dolphin Connection. A husband and wife team, Irv and Sonya Strong, that have been taking people out to MEET the dolphins for something like 16 years. They know many of them by sight and have named them – and the dolphins know their boat and their sounds too. They are located in Ingleside on the Bay, TX – basically around the corner of the bay from our RV park.

Their blog says they have their business up for sale and this might be the last year for them doing this, so I booked us in. We were supposed to go on the Monday but it was way too windy and in the little boat they use, we’d have been tossed around the waves in an undesirable manner. So we waited a day and headed out Tuesday.

Sonya met as at the dock and right away we were loaded up on the boat and off we went. No formalities, no waivers to sign, no payments first – just hop in and off we went. I opted for a life jacket (with my paranoia of water) while Rob opted for none. It was just us two and them – perfect.

Dolphin Connection - Sonya and Irv

See Dolphins or It’s Free

They talked about the dolphins and that their usual schedule has been a bit “off” lately, so we were sure if we’d see any today or not. They guarantee an encounter with them or you don’t have to pay – hence why no prepayment was done before we boarded the boat – sweet. Personally I’d rather pay and see them, then go out and see nothing for free.

Irv took us around the bay, looking in the spots where the dolphins usually hang out at this time of day. They have patterns and tend to hang out in groups he said, but their pattern wasn’t following the usual routine in the last couple weeks so they were having a hard time predicting where and when to find them. It’s a big ocean – lots of water to cover in a small boat.

We eventually did find one guy, but he wouldn’t come close enough for Sonya to touch him, he was playing coy with us. But Irv did show us a cool trick where he speeds up the boat and the dolphin basically body surfs inside the wake. We watched him do it for a while. Not sure if it’s playing to them, they’re very playful animals, or an easy effortless way for him to get from point A to point B. It’s like a kid putting on roller skates and bumper riding, same concept.

Riding the wake of the boat

We did see a couple more but nothing close enough for us to touch. They just were not in the mood today and we didn’t find the big group Irv was looking for. We still had a great trip though and as was indicated we were not required to pay, but voluntary donations towards gas were welcomed. We left them some money anyway.

Also saw lots of pelicans, of course

Saw quite a few really large cargo ships too.

We said our goodbyes and thanked them for the ride and I took a few photos on the beach before we headed out. I’m really hoping they hang in there for another year so we can go back in 2011 and give it another go with them. Yup, that’s my intention – they will be there and we’ll go again and see the whole herd/tribe/gang – whatever it is you call a group of dolphins.

Texas sunset

Fish bones on the beach, left by the fisherman that cleaned and filleted them here

I thought it was pretty, even with the fish carcass

If you’re in the Corpus Christi or Portland Texas area, I highly recommend doing this dolphin tour. It’s only $25 per person and you get a small personalized tour with people who know and love the dolphins.

Day 82 – Oysterfest in Fulton, Texas

Darlene — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 16:08:19 +0000

I had planned our entire Texas stay in Portland to make sure we stayed long enough to go to the Fulton Oysterfest, about 30 minutes north east of Sea Breeze RV park. I had no idea what the Oysterfest was all about, but I love raw oysters so I wanted to find out for myself.

Fulton Oysterfest Parade

We dragged our butts out of bed late as usual and headed out to get there for around 11am or so. I had read on the official festival site that there was a parade and free parking at the old Walmart lot, which we just happened to stumble upon a few days ago. So we parked there and got in line with the 200 or so other folks waiting for the free shuttle bus. It came and took about 12 people, and round trip is 15-20 minutes, so we figured we were gonna be in line a while.

When we finally got to the festival site the parade was still going down the street, so I rushed to catch up to it. I do love a good parade – Rob is indifferent to them. As it was coming up to St. Patrick’s Day soon there was lots of green, and locally made floats and school marching bands, and some uniquely Texan things.

Notice it says "adult day care" - what it means is it's a bar! LOL

Love the headline on this one

Only in Texas! Guy in a pick up playing a guitar in a parade

And then we entered the festival grounds!

Let the eating commence! And so we did. Rob started with the BBQ turkey leg – I think I got one bite. Then we each had a dozen raw oysters, then another dozen later. Rob thought we were going to have like 4-5 dozen each. They were fairly cheap at $8 a dozen – and really tasty – but that’s still a bit costly, so we stopped at 2 dozen each.

Rob’s comment: As far as I’m concerned, any “fest” requires large amounts of the “fest” item to be consumed. If it’s a beer fest, one consumes large quantities of beer. If it’s an Oysterfest, the same should be true. That’s my opinion anyway.

First round

We even got filmed by a local TV station and ended up on their blog eating our oysters

This is how the shucking is done

They had a whole row of guys shucking non-stop and still couldn't keep up to the demand

The entertainment was pretty much non-stop too

Eating Oysters On Texas TV

We even got on local TV (of sorts). The Corpus Christi Caller Times, a local paper, had a camera crew out to the fest. She came by while we were eating and video’d us. She must have liked us because she came back 5 minutes later saying that her “white balance” was off and wanted to video us again. Later that night Rob checked the Caller Times website and found the video of us eating oysters.

After satisfying our oyster needs and listening to some country music, we went to browse the other tent with crafts, art and stuff for sale. I actually found cowboy boots on sale for $10, so I had to buy a pair. There was a photographer with some great bird shots from the area, and some great art.

Me trying on boots. Not my best look

Thought about getting this for my brother-in-law but not for $350 - sorry Troy

A typical Texas style outfit, mini-skirt and boots

Oysterfest Oyster Eating Contest

Next we saw a crowd gathering around the stage as the men’s oyster eating contest began. We couldn’t really see that well but Rob got a few photos over the tops of everyone’s heads. I’m not quite tall enough to do that without a ladder. There were about a dozen guys in the contest and it lasted about 5 minutes.

Oyster eating contest - mens

Notice the plastic beer jugs with grey stuff in them? That's the oysters - they're basically drinking them

After the time limit was up, they had to sit and wait another 5 minutes to make sure they kept them all down. Any that come up don’t count, or maybe that guys gets disqualified – not sure. So after the waiting was done they announced the winners. The top oyster eater swallowed down 200 of them in the allotted time! WOW! Impressive. We didn’t get back the next day to see the women’s contest but I’m curious to know the numbers from that one. That is a LOT of oysters.

Texas highway patrol - cool looking hey?

Bikes and boats by the marina

We bought this for the RV

shrimp boats

More shrimp boats

I thought this was a cool shot - this is all I got of him

Lots of birds overhead so I tried to get some good shots of them flying. This one above I thought came out kinda funky with only half a bird. The one below is one of a bunch of them we saw playing sort of leap frog. They all sat on their own post, all in a row. Then when a new bird came in for a landing, he’d almost land on the bird who was last in the row, who in turn would get up and fly up one to land on the next bird and so on until the one at the front got bumped off and had to go find a new spot. We watched them do it again and again – our video camera batteries were dead so didn’t get video. Animals do the funniest things – I’ve said it before but will say it again – if you have animals you don’t need TV!

This is one of the leap frog seagulls

Me with leap frog gulls in the background

Fulton Mansion

So we decided we’d had enough and headed back via shuttle to get our car. On the way out of Fulton we took a detour to drive by Fulton Mansion. It was closed already so we put it on our list to come back and tour next year. The Fulton Mansion was built in 1874 it had features that were highly innovative for that time period including: gas lighting, central heating and indoor plumbing with hot and cold running water. Rob was interested in their water saving and recovery system – we’ll be going back for a closer look when we have more time.

Fulton Mansion

Great porch

All in all we had a great time at the Fulton Oysterfest and plan to do it again next year when we return to Texas.

Day 79 – Taking the RV to the Beach

Darlene — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:32:05 +0000

We wanted a chance to park the RV on the beach and do some beach camping on Padre Island, but since we didn’t take the RV south to Brownsville (and South Padre Island) we decided to drive it over to Port Aransas. Our mission was two fold, to get a photo of our RV on the beach, and to let Rob’s cat experience the ocean. We actually have a magazine article that we wrote being published in Good Sam “Highways” and they may use an image from this shoot so we wanted it to be spectacular.

Taking the RV to Port Aransas by Ferry

Getting to Port Aransas and Padre Island by RV requires taking a ferry or driving all the way through Corpus Christi and around from the south west. Taking Victor (what we’ve named our Winnebago Vectra RV) over on the little ferry was interesting. It only holds about 20 cars and they put us in the middle of two lanes at the front in order to stay balanced. Funny.

Parking the RV on the Beach

We got to Padre Island and found a solid packed spot on the sand for us to park our RV on the beach. With memories of the other RVer getting stuck in the mud back in San Antonio, we didn’t want to risk it. Rob felt it was important that the cats got to experience the beach and the ocean. He took Pumpkin out near the water in the sand and I brought Boo out a few minutes later. They were none too happy about it and I wish I had video of Pumpkin backing up increasingly faster and faster as the water came towards her. (Rob here, um, we DO have video of that Dar) Then she almost left with a nice lady that stopped to pet her.

Cats On The Beach

Rob placed Boo in the ocean in about 1/2″ of water. She just sat there, motionless as the water came up to about 2″ and Rob had to go rescue her. And NO it’s not animal cruelty or cat torture – they are THE biggest chick cats ever and so far their RVing experience has helped them to be more daring and relaxed when things change. Now they will actually venture outside on their own, and not run and hide under the couch at even the sight of another person. So they have grown and this was indeed another experience for them. After the cats on the beach adventure, we got down to the business of getting the photos we came for.

HDR of 3-4 images combined, then us added

The RV on the beach shots accomplished, we tried to find a spot near a marina to get some boats in the photo with the RV. It was hard to find the right angle, decent lighting and access with a 34′ vehicle. Not to mention by parking it in front of the boats – guess what – I can’t even see the boats, so it kinda defeats the purpose.

RV at the Marina

Rob texting while I shoot - or he's playing a game on MY iPhone

Around the corner from there we found some pelicans flying around and Rob even saw a dolphin out in front of a big freighter that was coming in. We love pelicans – find them fascinating birds. They’re so large but graceful and how they can fly just inches off the water is amazing.

Brown pelican possibly with dinner?

brown pelican

Look at the huge wing span of these guys!

I could watch them all day

With the sun setting we headed for Virginia’s (the place with the piles of oyster shells out back that I didn’t get to eat last time cause we found it too late) for dinner. Rob parked in the biggest lot we could find nearby and put a note in the window so people would know we were not planning on camping overnight there. Rob found an online RV Journal that discusses RV unfriendly towns and made note of a few of them. Apparently some towns are not RV friendly at all and in Flagstaff, AZ they may ask you to leave even if you just stop and park to eat dinner. So now I understand why he left the note.

Beach Camping

While the idea was originally to do some beach camping on Padre Island and then go to Mexico for the day (which we did do), we weren’t actually able to pull that one off this time around. We’d both love the opportunity for beach camping, to let go of the tethers, unhook from the sewage line and do what they call dry camping. To back away from the computer, put out the awning and read instead of type so much would be a wonderful experience. Because of our schedule and events as they unfolded, beach camping was simply not going to occur.

Parking the RV on the beach on Padre Island was not only a safe experience, it was great for the cats as well. Dinner was good with a great view of the sunset over the water. A great day in paradise.

Cats On the Beach

Rob — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:37:35 +0000

Ever since we left Edmonton and set out on our 12,000 mile trip through the US and Canada by RV, I’ve wanted my cats to experience the ocean. They’re 16 and 15 years old and rarely ever left the house until recently. I’ve wanted them to experience as many things as possible while remaining relatively safe at the same time. If you’ve been following our blog, you’ll know that our first few days in the RV resulted in so much of Dar’s clothing and our bedding covered in cat pee, so we didn’t know what to expect from their time on the beach.

Pumpkin and Boo on the beach of Padre Island Texas

Pumpkin is the orange cat and Boo is the black one. They’re my Halloween kitties, but born in October and named respectively. Boo is about 16 while Pump is 15.

How did this all come about you might ask?

We took our RV to Padre Island near Port Aransas so we could get shots of our rv on the beach for Good Sam Highways magazine. We wanted good shots to accompany a recent article entry we submitted to them, so on day 80 we packed up and left Seabreeze RV Park for the day.

How Did The Cats Handle It?

Another good question. I’ve had some people tell me that they’ve never seen a cat on the beach, nor pictures of cats on the beach and neither had I. I had to walk them out to the ocean as they wouldn’t leave the rv on their own, but that’s not new. Even with the door wide open, they rarely leave the RV to venture outside.

I walked Boo down to the water and put her in about an inch of water. She didn’t move. Her paws sunk about a 1/4 inch into the wet sand. A wave came in and got her underbelly wet. She still didn’t move. I’ve been told recently that what they experienced was this:

They saw water on one side and beach on the other. They dont know what the water was and just saw it as “moving earth” and couldn’t comprehend it. They thought of the beach as a giant version of cat litter and weren’t too happy about walking in it so much.

I do have video of Pumpkin experiencing a wave coming in. She saw it coming and began to back up, but couldnt keep up, so kept accelerating in reverse as it rolled in . I’ll post it when I have time to edit it (seriously lacking time to travel, experience the US first hand AND process images and blog about it).

It was a long way between the water and the RV, so the only thing of familiarity around them was me. They huddled up around my legs. Boo hunkered down and crept her way back to the motorhome. Dar eventually picked her up and she just looked out at various things before we took them back home to safety.

For the record, I love my cats more than anything. I’ll even swear on their life to Darlene if she thinks I’m fooling around about something. That way she knows I’m serious.

At no time were they in danger and I kept them safe next to me at all times. The worst it got for Boo was about 2 inches of water that touched her belly as a wave came in. That was it.

The “cats on the beach” experience was all part of the day we took our rv to the beach, make sure you check it out.

Day 74 – A Fish Fry and Willie Nelson

Darlene — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:16:45 +0000

When I photographed Dora and Otto’s corvettes the day before, she invited us to a “fish-fry” at their ranch on Friday. We already had tickets to go see Willie Nelson (I found them online for $20 each) but said we’d love to go. I wasn’t even sure what all was involved in a fish fry, and as neither of us had ever been we were eager to find out.

So Friday afternoon came and we headed out north towards Goliad, where I had taken photos of the Spanish mission earlier in the month, using the directions Dora had given us. Several others from the Seabreeze RV park were invited too, so we made a sort of convoy the 30 miles out into the back country of Texas.

Their ranch house is like a weekend or getaway place for them, as they live right in Portland. It’s a ranch-style house with one level, a porch and screened in patio. Otto has turned the garage into a workshop and 1 bedroom guest house. We immediately noticed and set out counting the stars that adorned almost every vertical surface. He was so engrossed in his counting that Rob completely overlooked the pistol that was just sitting on the counter. Just like any other household item, keys, a hat, etc. Texans sure do like guns – yes sirree!

Porch on their house

Doesn't it just LOOK like Texas? You have wagon wheels on your porch too right?

Front door and one of the many stars around the ranch

Yet more stars!

I found us a bit segregated as the men hung out in the garage, while George fried the fish (using his secret recipe that he wouldn’t divulge), and the women sat on the enclosed patio. Otto offered us a ride out into the pasture to see his cows, so we jumped at that opportunity. Brought me right back to my childhood and my uncles dairy cows out on the farm. These however are beef cattle, not dairy.

Texas Grass Fed Cows

Another lady sat up front in the “Gator” with Otto, and we had lawn chairs set up in the back for us to “set” on. He’s quite proud of his cows and seemingly everything he does is something he’s very passionate about. Not a bad way to be at all. He told us about how he was gonna do this and that and move some trees around a pond. When Rob asked him why, Otto said he likes to keep busy – no kidding!

Otto driving the Gator

We watched as the cows ate real grass and the calves fed on their mother’s milk – as it should be! However, we were disheartened to learn that even most grass-fed cows are sent to the big mass production feed lots and fed corn to fatten them up, and turn their fat from yellow to white (better for marketing supposedly). So apparently to be able to advertise “grass fed beef” the cows only have to eat grass for a certain percentage of their lives. In the end, they all end up in the same feed lots, and being handled poorly as they had to slaughter houses. We were not very happy to learn this.

THIS is what cows are supposed to eat!

See, she likes it!

Baby cows drink milk!

The Fish Fry

Back to dinner – the fish was catfish and tilapia (a white fish), coated with George’s special cornmeal and spice mix and fried. I particularly liked the catfish. As I mentioned, Rob asked but George would not give him the recipe. There were also leftovers from potluck the night before, so there was lots to eat. Good food, good company.

The signs says "RIP here lays the last SOB that didn't close the gate"

Yup, deep in the heart!

Willie Nelson Concert

The timing worked out for us to stay for the whole dinner, and after a quick stop at the RV back at Seabreeze, we headed off to the Old Concrete Street Amphitheater for the Willie Nelson outdoor concert. We got to the area and sort of just follow the traffic to find our $10 parking spot blocks away. It is in a warehouse area, and they had a free shuttle going back and forth to take people up to the main gate – a nice service!

The venue is a bit odd to say the least. It has two sections of pre-reserved seating with actual chairs placed in rows. The rest was just general seating where you could stand or sit if you could find a spot. It’s basically a flat area so seeing from the back – good luck. Or, they’d be happy to rent you a chair for $5 each if you could find somewhere to put it and actually see the stage. Bringing in your own chairs was forbidden. Of course – they couldn’t make the $5 then!

We also waited in line for about 30 minutes just to get through security at the main gate. They use actual metal detectors and everyone got patted down before being allowed to enter. It IS Texas after all – you did read about the pistol earlier right? LOL.

Yes it was Texas and Yes we wore winter clothes

We found a spot on a grassy hill area and put down our tarps – which we were allowed to bring. It was NOT that warm that evening, maybe 5c or 6c and I had on gloves and long underwear and 3 shirts. That didn’t seem to deter the girls that paraded around in Daisy Duke like outfits with teeny tiny short, cowboy boots, and midi tops. Made me wonder where Hazard County really is anyways – must be close!

The concert itself was just okay. The sound wasn’t great in this venue and Willie seemed to be mumbling a lot. But HEY – we saw Willie Nelson in concert IN Texas – how cool is that?!

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.

Whooping Crane Birding Tour in Rockport

Rob — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 02:54:40 +0000

Whooping cranes summer in Alberta Canada, just north of where we live, so while we were wintering in Texas in our RV, we thought it appropriate to see where they winter too. We found a Whooping Crane Birding tour in Rockport Texas, so decided to go after our last event in the Seabreeze RV Park Olympic games.

Sandhill cranes in flight

These are some sandhill cranes we saw while heading out into the Gulf.

The Wharf Cat

The Wharf Cat and it’s sister ship, the Scat Cat are two very large catamaran boats that operate out of Fishermans Wharf in Port Aransas Texas. They offer day long fishing trips, sunset dolphin tours and from November through March, take birding tours to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge to visit the winter nesting ground of the Whooping Crane.

The whole area of Rockport, Corpus Christi and Portland Texas are great birding tour areas. In port alone we saw seagulls (of course) and many egrets.

Fishermans Wharf

Darlene and I first stumbled upon Fishermans Wharf on our first trip to Port Aransas. As we toured the dock area there, we saw a fishing trip that has just come back. They hooked up and displayed all the fish from the fishing trip aboard the Wharf Cat in front of their sign.

After seeing its sheer size, we knew Dar would feel safe enough to go on a tour. It’s a two level boat, air conditioned, with two heads and a beverage bar inside.

Whooping Crane Tour

We found out that there are two types of tours. One that starts from their location here in Port Aransas, two days a week and the other Whooping Crane tour in Rockport, which leaves three days a week. Basically, the boat has to sail up past the Rockport to get to the Wildlife Refuge, so can begin at either location. We choose the tour in Rockport simply because it would give us less travel time on the boat, and focus squarely on the whooping cranes.

Whooping Cranes

We saw a bunch of different types of seagulls, blue herons, terns, egrets, cormorants, roseate spoonbills, brown and white pelicans, sandhill cranes, dolphins and of course whooping cranes.

Blue heron in port

... and a moment later, heron in flight

Growing up in small town Saskatchewan, my father was a hunter and taught firearm safety. He did so for over 25 years and I came to appreciate the whooping crane in a whole different way. I recall him having a patch sewn to his coat that displayed “Save the whooping crane” because of its place on the endangered species list. There are said to be only 250 of them left in the wild.

Dar here: from what I remember there are only 3 wild flocks left with this one being the only MIGRATING flock anywhere in the world. So they take good care of these birds to try and ensure their survival. We saw evidence of conservation efforts but unfortunately for the birds, this year was a bad year for their food (the blue crab) so they were having a hard time finding food. That doesn’t bode well for the poor whoopers. Made me not want to eat blue crab ever again.

A pair of whooping cranes in flight as they passed in front of our boat

Imagine our amazement as we neared Matagorda Island and saw two “whooping cranes in flight”, as our birding tour narrator Ray called out on the Wharf Cat’s speaker system. The two cranes flew across the channel in front of our boat and landed in the marsh area about 100 feet from our location. Simply amazing!

The magestic Whooping Crane

Ray our Birding Tour Expert

As a special little treat, and part of our Whooping Crane tour, the Wharf Cat staff provide the services of a professional birder who gives the riders some insight into the birds we’re seeing. Ray was easily in his 70’s and an excellent source of information. We enjoyed Ray’s narration and explanations of what we were seeing or could possibly see. He cracked the odd joke and simply kept us very interested and entertained with our birding tour.

As we headed back to Rockport, we enjoyed the sea breeze and kept our eyes peeled for dolphins. We eventually saw some.

Dar here: Ray also explained how to tell the difference between the sandhill and whooping cranes, as the sandhills are often mistaken for whoopers. The Sandhills do not have the distinctive red patch on their head that the whoopers do, and the whoopers feathers are much whiter as are they larger than the sandhills.

Arriving safely back in Rockport, we chose to drive around the area a bit more stopping in Fulton to see the Fulton Mansion which was closed, and then just to drive along the shoreline. We saw, more birds, of course, pelicans this time. They were off the pier across from the Waters Edge RV Park in Fulton, which we had originally looked at as a possible RV park on the Gulf of Mexico. From what we saw, it looks like a good location and has its own private fishing pier complete with pelicans.

A whooping crane birding tour was not something I had ever thought I’d be doing. The birds were something I grew up knowing about but had never seen. As the cranes migrated from my home province of Alberta, all the way down here to Texas, I thought it fitting that I should take the opportunity for the birding tour. It was a day well spent. We would easily recommend the Wharf Cat tour operators as they were professional, educated and had a good operation going. If you’re in the area and looking for a whooping crane tour, Look them up www.WharfCat.com

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.

Day 62 Corvettes and the Beach

Darlene — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 16:03:05 +0000

I was walking back from having a shower when the owner of Sea Breeze RV park, Otto, flagged me down in one of his vintage 1960 Corvettes. He wanted to know if Rob and I would like to come see all of his classic cars. He was showing someone else too and thought I might like to take some photos – uh, yeah!

He had us meet at a secret location where he showed us EIGHT classic corvettes, all predating us. He has one that he’s redone with a new 2007 chassis on a 1961 body, it’s gorgeous! They’re all lovingly restored to perfection and he’s been featured in Corvette magazines and car shows for his efforts.

Just a couple old cars sitting around in Otto's secret storage facility

He also has 5 or 6 (I lost count) old Chevelles and a Modal A that is Dora’s (his wife). He owned it previously and sold it, and she was very upset as it was her favorite car. 10 years later it was up for sale, so he bought it back and gave it to her. We didn’t se any of these cars, we were told they are at another location.

I took a few photos, but it’s hard to make art inside a dark building with no lighting control. I was formulating ideas for a photo shoot on the beach though.

1961 on a 2007 chassis

Inside the '61

hood of the '61

Classic black

Dora and Otto have had an interesting life, it seems. If I had to guess their age I’d say late 60’s, maybe 70 (they have a son 5 years older than me). They’ve done cotton farming, have some cattle, own a palm tree farm, a car wash, and an RV park. But he’s quick to tell us “we’re not wealthy you know”. Rob cracked up at that one. Maybe they aren’t wealthy, according to Otto, but they do pretty well we think. Their stories are great, we enjoy listening to them and they seem to enjoy showing their cars (they take great pride in them) and telling tales.

Being it was Valentine’s Day, and it was sunny and warm, we took the afternoon off and went to the beach over at Port Aransas on Padre Island. There’s two ways to get over to it – a short ferry ride, or around the long way driving through Corpus Christi. We took the ferry.

The beach was fairly busy, but not overly so. We parked on the sand and walked around for a bit and vowed to bring the RV over to camp on the beach for at least one night at some point.

A rare photo of me

Rob was too much in my face, can you catch my gesture?

I've got a new Photoshop plug-in filter, it's pretty funky hey?

We ate a late lunch at sort of the first place we found – not a great idea. Mostly all deep fried fish, shrimp, oysters and fries. Texans really like to deep fry stuff – well pretty much everything including, get this – cheesecake! But they did have a salad bar! LOL. Texans are among the states with the highest obesity rates – not hard to see why.

boat pier at Port Aransas

great duck photo hey?

Pile of oyster shells outside restaurant we did NOT eat at

We LOVE pelicans, they are SO cool!

This ship takes people out for a day fishing on the open sea - this is their haul for today.

Continuing on south west on the island, we popped into Pioneer RV park, which was recommended to us. It’s very nice and a short walk to the beach (over the sand dunes), but at premium prices. It reinforced our park choice, we’re very pleased with Sea Breeze RV.

The last stop was to try and get a sunset, but we were on the wrong side of the island and you can’t get to the west side as it’s a closed area (national park). There isn’t any beaches facing the bay really anyway. So we stopped at Mustang Island Park. This is the view from there as the sun set.

Our car next to the beach