Yes, Mommy, there is a pool at this RV Park!!! Well, it is finally nice enough today that we got to go to the pool. We've been here 8 nights and this is our first time to the pool. They keep it nice and warm at 85F, so it was great. We played and swam for about an hour and a half. It left us with a cheerful feeling for the day. Earlier, Jim took Yvonne out for a date. They went for groceries and then he took her to lunch at McD's. She was thrilled and I got a chance to work uninterrupted. WOW. We just came back from a park-hosted BBQ and now Jim is up at the clubhouse playing SCAT. Neither of us know what it is, but they say it was based on poker, so he'll do fine.

Padre Island National Seashore was our playground today. We finally got a got a sunny day and it was a balmy 61f. Wahoo. Short lived though as it will rain a bit tomorrow bur warmer. Yesterday ir rained big time and never got above 43f. Oh well the long range is for warm sunny weather. Soon I hope.

Padre Island is the longest undeveloped barrier island in the world. It is over 60 miles long and is a great recreational area in Texas. The garbage and industrial waste along the beach is discouraging to see, as it is such a pretty spot. The lower picture is a tar ball with shells in it and there are kinds of them along the beach. They even have a tar ball memo board. You go onto the beach and you see a wind warning, wave warning and a tar ball warning. High , Med, or low. Pretty ridiculous. The worst oil spill was down here over 14 million gallons spilled into the gulf.

It was great just to get out along the beach and dig in the sand and have lunch and soak up a bit of sun. We are off to the Texas State Aquariun the next sunny day as some of the exhibits are outside. We are here till next Thursday and then up to the hill country above San Antonio. Till next time. Jim

Fulton Mansion
Key Allegro
Sunning Turtle

What a lovely place we find ourselves in. We went for a drive today to start exploring the area. We went along the beach road right across the street from our RV park. The first thing we came across was Fulton Mansion which was built in the late 1800's. It sported indoor hot and cold running water and a forced air furnace. It was quite the building for the time. The town of Fulton just north of Rockport (just north of Corpus Christi) sports his name. It has a lovely view of the Gulf of Mexico and is now surrounded by RV parks and small motels.

Further down the road, we came to a T in the road and went left to Key Allegro. Now, this is a neighbourhood we'd love to be a part of. Each house fronts on a street and backs onto a canal. Everyone has boats docked onto their back patios. So cool. We could just imagine what it's like in the busy season. Everyone on their back decks sipping drinks and hollering out to each other across the canal. Boats slipping out for a day of deep sea fishing or just pleasure cruising. Ahhhh, to have a spare million hanging about. It was terribly quite today, but then again it's the coldest part of the year.

We were happy to get over 60F today. It was balmy. As you can see, the turtles at our RV park felt the same way. There was an entire group of them sunning themselves at the side of the lake when we drove up, but my hopping out of the truck with the camera scared all but one of them away. We still haven't seen the alligator, but he must have been close to wanting to come out in the sun today.

Our culinary creation of the day was a citrus marinated pork loin roast with yams and black bean sauce. So absolutely fabulous, you'd never think it was gluten-free. I'm hoping that cookbook gets me a house at Key Allegro!!!!!!

The trees in our RV park
We're not sure what this pink bird is????

Hummingbird intarsia segmentation we bought today.

We started the day with cinnamon buns and an art sale. The first fellow's booth was this intarsia segmentation work. It was so beautiful, I knew right away I would have to take one of his pieces home. "Intarsia" is a term meaning a mosaic of wood pieces. Once a pattern is drawn on a board it is then cut apart, shaped, hand sanded, stained, then glued back together. We spent some time trying to decide which piece to buy, but got ourselves down to this hummingbird or a lighthouse. Hummingbird one. Yvonne also bought a little rocking horse for her room when we have a house. He was so pleased at her selection as that was the first rocking horse he ever made and it was done just a few days ago. He even signed it for her.

This RV park is lovely and peaceful. The two lakes are host to numerous birds. There's a group of pelicans I haven't been able to get a good picture of. There's only one of the pink birds pictured above and so far, we have no idea what it is. We'll have to find someone who does. It's not a flamingo. Tonight we have a BBQ to attend and look forward to another non-cooking night.

It's hard to believe that it was 77F in Orange, Tx on Monday. We stayed an extra day in Houston because of the icy travel conditions yesterday. Today was a much nicer day to travel and warmer and drier as we got down near Rockport, Tx. It warmed up to a balmy 46F today and is supposed to warm up a little everyday. Whew.

We arrived in Rockport, and this is one of our Resort Parks. You can tell we are going west as the Resort Parks are getting better. We did not run into a lot of them in the east. Good ones that is. This one has 2 club houses, 2 heated pools, 2 hot tubs and a multitude of activities. They have art classes, paper tole classes, billiard, horsheshoes and Texas holdem tournaments. Can hardly wait. I am going to wear myself out. Can't believe they heat the pool in this temp. We had a chicken for dinner tonite, provided by the park. Saturday is steak dinner, and a 50's dance. There are activities everyday. The ppl her are friendly and all the old folks are getting and grand child fix on Yvonne. She will be popular here. Met a few people from Ontario here so it was like old home week for us Canucks.

I think we are going to try and stay here till the early part of Feb. if the weather improves. Sure is pretty along this coast. Jim

Space Centre, Houston.

We had a great visit at Houston's Space Centre today. Jim and I have been here before, so we took it easy and only did things Yvonne would be interested in. We saw another movie about the International Space Station that was awesome. It was different than the IMAX we saw in Cape Canaveral. The ISS is truly an amazing feat of engineering, international cooperation and imagination wrapped up into a functional station orbitting at speeds we can hardly imagine. The more we learn about it, the more fascinating it is.

Yvonne made us so proud today. She volunteered for a presentation of the living module for the ISS. She was up on stage for at least 20 minutes solid and helped demonstrate by: opening cupboards; answering questions in the microphone; climbing into a sleeping harness; exercising on a reclining bike thing; showing the parts to the toilet; looking into and reporting on her observations of the inner chamber of the toilet; climbing into a shower cubicle and showing the different nozzles; showing the special meal trays (above); and helping prepare a meal. WOW, she did so much and didn't freeze up or start crying. We were pretty impressed. She was an instant movie star today. She had a little girl come up to her to talk to her after the show. Jim heard a little kid say to her mom - hey, there's Yvonne's dad - when he went to the bathroom. Yvonne's just growing up so much on this trip. She would never volunteer, but then got the chance to do a few things, most notably be on stage with Belle as Mrs. Potts and now she knows she can do it.

Today during a show on the current operations on the ISS, they announced that anyone between the ages of 3 and 20 right now may be one of the people to go to Mars. WOW - might she be one of them????

Jim's thoughts. Nasa is always inspiring and the ISS is one of the few things on earth that brings people from other countries together to work, achieve, create and dream of the future, regardless of race , religion or politics. You cannot believe the advances in space and technology that have been achieved since the moon landing in 1969. The advances in every field of endeavor is truly amazing. The advances in medical reaserch as well robotics really amazes. If interested log on to www.nasa.gov . You will not be sorry. During the movie on the ISS today it was mentioned that the people that work at Nasa and on the ISS are able to think beyond themselves. That statement alone leaves most people off the list for employment at Nasa. I hope we can teach Yvonne to think beyond herself. Big job but worth the effort. Till next time.

Houston, We have a PROBLEM. Within a few moments of arriving in the Houston area - in 37 F / 4 C weather, we found our furnace wouldn't work. Then discovered we weren't getting propane into the trailer. Our first reaction was "what did those guys do to the propane?". Jim got work done to the trailer while we were in Orange. Good news is they finally fixed the leak in our slideout. We successfully travelled 2 hours through rain and it was dry - YIPPEE. Well, Jim fiddled with the propane and got it working. WHEW. I was imagining us with every blanket out and that poor little electric heater going constantly for the next couple days. We managed to get here without a hitch in traffic. We missed our original planned route, but luckily, Houston has a great interstate system and we just used a different route. We are just south of the city and only 7 miles from NASA. Our RV park is pretty gross, but luckily it's only two days and it's freezing outside, so we close the blinds and emerse ourselves in our little world.

We apologize for our lack of blogging, but we've been so sick, we've been just coping with day to day functioning. Poor Mike and Josie got us at our worst and we got Josie sick. The houseguests from hell. Whatever we have is pretty nasty. Yvonne bounced through her two days of fever. I guess that kid's Tylenol works better than the adult stuff. I got hit on Tuesday and was in some kind of alternate universe for two days. Friday I started to function a bit. Now I feel great but barely have a voice and have a horrid cough. Jim also handled the fever well and is now coughing, but still has a voice. Yvonne has now started coughing and is a bit congested, but happy. We are glad to be on the mend.

Today I was struck by the comparison of Vancouver to here in the manner the land handles rain. It hasn't rained all week but it started last night and it's been raining on and off during the day. Not a hard rain at all. Especially by Vancouver standards. In Vancouver, we'd not even give a day like this a second thought. Here, the streets and fields are flooded instantly. Similar to San Diego last winter. It barely rained and it was flooded everywhere. I guess we just have good drainage and good storm sewer systems. Quite interesting to actually see the difference and see how the land here is so supersaturated (since most is just a smidgen away from being swamp) that it can't handle much rain. Good thing they don't get very much.

Anyway, our plans for the next couple days are to catch up with work after last week's sickie marathon and visit the Johnson Space Centre. Jim and I were here with Mike and Josie a few years ago, but it is so fantastic, it's worth a second visit. We plan to get to Corpus Christie by Wednesday. If the weather stays yucky, we may just stay a few days then move on to hill country just north of San Antonio.

Take care everyone and stay tuned for some pics.

The Gulf of Mexico is full of oil rigs. This is a view of a bunch of them tethered up and waiting for better oil prices before they will be hauled into service.

Mike took us for a drive to Cameron, Louisianna. This is were Hurricane Rita (1 month after Katrina) hit land. There were beach houses all over here. All of Cameron was totally wiped out. It looks so surreal now on a nice sunny day. All the beaches are still closed and fenced off. It's amazing to see all the RV's parked where houses used to be.

Here's what happens to a mobile home in a hurricane. This was quite a ways away from the total obliteration. All around Mike and Josie's place, virtually every house had at least one tree put through it. They were lucky to have a tree damage just their garage. FEMA (federal emergency measures agency) came in immediately following the hurricane and put up blue tarps on all damaged roofs. You can still see many of those blue tarps today, over a year later.

Here we are in Orange, Texas. We have been graciously hosted by Dwayne and Darlene and by Mike and Josie. We are really enjoying having lots of space. We overnighted in Lake Charles on Thursday. Parked the trailer at Dwayne's place and came over to Orange to stay with Mike and Josie. Yvonne has been playing with Annagrace (Mike and Josie's grandbaby) the last two days. They play together well and Yvonne is happy. We were meant to attend 12th night last night, but Yvonne came down with a fever and fealt horrible. We got her all Tylenoled up and she's feeling fine today. She's just not up to perfection yet. Twelfth night is the beginning of the Mardis Gras season and is always January 6th. It is also known as the Feast of Ephiphany or Little Christmas. It's supposed to be quite a great display of costumes and such, but oh well, we'll have to catch it another time.

Full Moon view from our "dining room" window. We have such a gorgeous spot to stay, it's too bad it's so cold right now. Tonight, we ventured into town to go to the famous Mulate's restaurant. We had some authentic Cajun food and got to dance a bit to the band before Yvonne pooped out and wanted to go home. Jim got a wonderful seafood platter. He had eaten half a frog's leg before he asked what it was. It was delicious he said. I felt fortunate it was coated in batter. Yvonne really enjoyed her fried catfish and I enjoyed my grilled chicken breast. It was great fun to have some Cajun music to dance to. Yvonne caught the idea of a photographer, but she acted shy and wouldn't let him take her picture.

Tomorrow morning, we pull up stakes to head for a visit with Mike and Josie and all their family. Yvonne is excited to sleep in a real bed - she says it will be one with posts. She's also looking forward to playing with all the grandkids and their Barbie's.

Breaux Bridge, Louisianna was home to our New Year's celebrations. We are at a gorgeous campground that has huge fishing ponds stocked with fish. We've all been taking turns fishing and Richard is the only one who caught anything. The first day we were here, we were treated to the above beautiful sunset. Each evening has been the same. It is sunny and clear, but cold. All the kids have been enjoying playing outside. The Taekemas put together a New Year's pinata that was quite the hoot. We started hitting it with a wooden spoon and quickly progressed to a baseball bat. Little kids didn't do it blindfolded, but the two older ones did.
We have said goodbye to the Taekema and Morch family this morning. It is deafeningly quiet all of a sudden. Have a safe trip to Mexico, guys!!!