One Month Down, Five to Go

Tri-colored Heron found on bird walk.
Example of native plants and labeling in Bird Park.

Our rig at Tropic Island RV Resort.

Scene on the south jetty.

Our girls waiting for mom to get out of the loo.

Looking south along Mustang Island beach.

Some of the migrating ducks near the bird walk. Oil derrick on barge in background.

Some of our Wednesday morning birding group.

Well, we've been on Mustang Island for one month. Having no first-hand knowledge of what to expect before we got here I have to say that we are anything but disappointed and except for a couple of days when the humidity was pretty high, wholly pleased. This is a tropic paradise. Looks like we might be in for a really good winter. After a lifetime of Minnesota winters, and about ten Washington winters, it feels good to be wearing shorts and t-shirts instead of sweats and polar fleece this time of year.

The attitude of the locals towards tourists has to be mentioned. We are treated as welcomed guests. There are signs that say "Welcome Winter Texans." It's an attitude that goes a long ways toward making people feel welcome.

Perhaps the most important aspect of tourism is to have sufficient infrastructure to handle the crowds. Here you will find plenty of RV resorts, motels, restaurants, and fishing accommodations. Even if your town only has a (full-time) population of 2,000 somehow that governing entity has to enable the building of facilities to handle 20,000 or more visitors. They have made it happen on Mustang Island.

Check back often. We're keeping busy.

King Ranch Ranch Hand Breakfast

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The breakfast is prepared and served by volunteers.

Pretty decent breakfast. Notice the refried beans. It's a Texas thing.

It takes a small army to prepare such a large breakfast.

Some of the several thousand who came for breakfast.

King Ranch has lots of longhorn cattle.

These guys are stuck in an 1880's time warp.

Rug weaver demonstrating his loom work.

Baking biscuits in a cast iron dutch oven.

Pretty good biscuits.

Pat found a new friend.

The King Ranch is located about 30 miles south of Corpus Christi, and is the site of our most recent outing. The annual Ranch Hand Breakfast attracts thousands, locals and tourists, each year. It's a fun and educational outing, and inexpensive as well. The ranch is huge beyond mortal reasoning. Over 825,000 acres, which they say is about the same area as the entire state of Rhode Island. Obviously, in one less-than-a-day visit, one can only see a small part of the ranch. The breakfast event is staffed by local volunteers, and there are hundreds of them. Funds raised go for community organizations and projects.

The day was cool. For us that meant carry and/or wear a light jacket. For the locals that meant parkas, long pants, and stand close to the campfire. All in all, it was a pretty nice day.

Saint Jo Island

The two of us, alone on San Jose Island.
One lucky fisherman we met on the beach.

This is steel, but it washed here during Hurricane Ike.

The Jetty boat makes hourly trips from Mustang Island.

Is this a great place to be, or what?

One of the full-time residents on San Jose Island.

A lone crane just hanging out on the dunes.

Brown Pelican meets the jetty boat every trip.

Another barrier island, just north of Mustang Island, is San Jose Island. The island is uninhabited and undeveloped. The only way to get there is by boat or helicopter. We rode over on the Jetty boat and spent about 6 hours wandering on a nearly deserted beach. The beach was well-littered by hurricane Ike. In fact, it was really messy which made it a lot more interesting than the more traveled beaches on Mustang and Padre Islands. The pick-up boat didn't come to get us until after dark so that made for a very full day of fun in the sun. We want to go back to Saint Jo for a longer visit. The island is over 30 miles long, so we've only seen a small part of the south end.

Marine Science Institute, Mustang Island

This is a marine research facility located on Mustang Island.
On the self-guided tour of dunes and salt-water marsh habitat.

An abundance of wildlife on the dunes, birds everywhere, and fish and turtles in the water.

Pat with part of the skull of a whale that was found in the gulf.

In our quest to see and experience as much as we have time for, we recently visited the University of Texas' marine research facility here on Mustang Island. It's located adjacent to the ship canal along the south jetty. They recently completed an outdoor interpretive area for dune and salt-marsh habitat. The paths and walkways protect the fragile landscape from the feet of many visitors while still allowing the very close observation of nature. Inside the headquarters building are exhibits of marine life present in the Gulf of Mexico. A visit here is a good way to spend an afternoon.

Stuff you might see walking the beach

There's more than just fish in these waters. Here is a small sting ray.
Great blue heron is but one of the 500 types of birds along the shore here.

Tankers and other types of ships pass Port Aransas enroute between Corpus Christi and the Gulf.

Molly just had to sniff a Portuguese Man of War (jellyfish) that washed up on the beach.

Lots of jellyfish float by.

These small lizards (chameleons) are everywhere basking in the sun.

Always check the shells on the beach for hermit crabs.

This guy was hoping to catch a fish, but got an eel instead. It was vicious!

Lots of wildlife hereabouts. Much of what we see is different than what we are accustomed to seeing in the Midwest or Northwest. Every time we go for a walk we see something different and intertesting. I have omitted the scene with the turkey vultures cleaning up a dead turtle on the beach. Too gruesome for this family-oriented blog. :-)

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Goliad, Texas

Photos above:

Tree in street in Goliad.

Sign we had made in Goliad.

Some of the street vendors in Goliad.

Pat's new Texas earrings.

Garbage can fried potatoes.

More art vendors in Goliad.

Pat with huge yucca plant at Presidio La Bahia.

Reenactment volunteers drilling.

Volunteer actor preparing lunch.

You all know we have nothing to do, and all day every day to do it. Yet, somehow we seem to stay busy. The past weekend we traveled about 75 miles to the north to a small town named Goliad. It is a site that is important in Texas history, being the place where the fight for Texas independence took a large turn. In 1836, General Santa Anna had 341 men executed there, twice as many as died at the Alamo. The Presidio La Bahia, the fort of the bay, is there, now restored, to commemorate the event. The day we were there many volunteer reenactment actors were present to play to the tourist audience. Impressive show. If you are interested, you can access the fort website at http://www.presidiolabahia.org/.

Following our visit to the fort we went into historic Goliad for the Market Days event. Goliad is a quaint city with lots of historic buildings. On many of the streets large, old trees have been incorporated right into the right of way. Traffic has to go around the trees. It's quite unlike Spokane where they simply cut the trees down if so much as the shade from them encroaches on the street.

The weather here has been great!

Flippers

One of the exciting things we have noticed is the abundance of bottle nose dolphins in the shipping canal between Mustang Island and Corpus Christi. Dolphins are often playing around the ferries that serve as a bridge between the island and the mainland. Perhaps the most impressive show put on by the dolphins is when they play in the bow wave of the larger ships. The photo here shows a dolphin jumping in the bow wave. Click on the picture to enlarge it. Although there were 4 or 5 dolphins playing in this wave, you may only see one. They don't pose for the camera, and I was quite a distance away and didn't have a telephoto lens with me.

Check back often. If you can't, or don't want to leave a comment you may email us directly at dwink@supersat2.net

See ya.

Dave and Pat