Went out to the Alamo Quarry mall for dinner at 29 with friends from work

... it is a wine meal kinda place... learned about flights that at this place are called road trips.  You order a road trip and you get three kind of wines and they give you a write up on each of them... one glass would be 6 ounces so a road trip is 3 glassed with 2 ounces each so it it like ordering one glass of wine but you get to taste three.  I used to drink wine but not so much any more but a neat concept.  Had the pork ribs which were awesome.  Before we went into the restaurant, the parking lot was FULL of birds .... really weird  These pictures just show some of them.... very bizarre.  Maybe all the cdn birds have reached here all at once so they are all hanging out at the mall.

One more weekend over... No kids came trick or treating Friday night.  Saturday I went to Padre Island again.  This time I went further south to Malaquite Beach which is in the National Park in the area of the National Seashore.  I paid 20 to get into the Park which gave me an annual pass.  I could pay $10 for one day or $20 for a year from the day that I entered. They had a seniors rate but you have to first be a US citizen and then 62 years old so I paid the 20.  There is no parking on Malaquite beach.  1 mile past the beach you can park but they recommend 4 wheel drives.  I only went a little bit in on it.  First though I went to the welcome center right at Malaquite area.  Took lots of pictures towards the Gulf and then the other way to show how barren the land is there.  Lots of dunes etc.  They have lots of nature lessons going on at the center even bird watching hikes etc.  The campground is 1 mile the opposite way on the beach... paved area for you to park on.  For $8 a night you get washrooms and cold showers.  You can camp on the beach for free.  There are out houses on the entrance to where you can drive on the beach.  At the welcome center there are free showers and change rooms etc when it is open.
Curled again on Sunday.  Much more keen today.  They said the ice was faster because it was colder outside.  One lady said we were curling with Porcelain stones instead of granite.  I think that was my first time with that too  - at least I think all the ones that I curled with in Canada were granite.  They are supposed to run the same according to the internet but these definitely were faster today.  The ice was still 100% negative ice both directions but after awhile you start to think backwards.  When the rock falls sweeping has the opposite affect in that it made it fall more instead of trying to keep it straight... just have to think opposite to what you are used to.  Instead of hockey there was a birthday party on the ice before us.  Three times when the music played a particular song the girls started to dance... yes in texas they line dance on skates....  I really do have to learn those line dances... they even did it at our quarterly meeting at work waiting for the meeting to start....
Heres the pics of the beach... Very few people at Malaquite... lots of seaweed too.

lots of seaweed but very few people

Campground just off the beach

Campground looking the other direction

Blue heron on the bluff. ck out the vines everywhere

Hard to see but zoom in - a dead tree branches in the water with lots of Pelicans using it to roost

Camping on the beach has its challenges when it is so windy.  They have lots of stuff in the tent so it didn't blow away but it definitely collapsed.  They parked the tent right on the roadway where it was packed so all the cars driving along had to detour around them to get by and hope to not get stuck in the loose sand around them

View of the gulf from the welcome center

View out the back of the welcome center

View the other direction from the center

Even big trailers go on the beach.  Saw a big truck pulling a huge trailer. Hope he doesn't get stuck.  He drove way down the beach.

Back to North beach.  This is back in the beach I went to the first time.   I stopped there on my way back.  just wanted to see if it had as much seaweed as the other one.  This one has a lot more people and easier to drive on.  All three beaches have their pluses and minuses but they all have the Gulf and you can't beat that.  I could sit and listen to the water for hours on end.

Went curling today - the most frustrating game of my life.  100% negative ice.  Always throw one handle going each direction... the opposite to normal and it would still fall off 4 to 7 feet.  No boards between any of the sheets nor lines so you just had to judge if you are on the other guys sheet.  5 sheets across the arena.  They melt the hacks into the ice by sitting rocks on top of them for a few minutes until they melt the ice and sink in.  When we pull them out at the end for people to skate there then we put holes in the ice.  There are rings melted in the ice where they sat on the same spot for too long.  There are raised ruts from the zamboni that you have to navigate around... you aim your stone at the rut and do a bank shot to get it to come back to where you want it to go... if you don't hit it right it comes off too soon or too late or if you have too much weight you can make it over the ridge and then it goes off to nowhere land on the other side.  Oh yeah Weight.  Those who know me on the ice know I usually have no problem throwing take out..... Draw weight today was 2.1 tee to hog.  Full take out would be a hogged stone... started doing some of my really fast ones and they would still fall 4 to 6 feet... The one guy that I was with threw really hard and could get it to only fall a foot or two... one went straight through and the skips missed it and it went off the boards at the end.  I am amazed it didn't go through the boards....  I stopped trying to run after them to sweep since there is no way any sweeping at his speed would help.   They were telling me with the negative ice that they deal with sweeping makes it curl more ... doesn't keep it straight... so much to get used to.  Not sure if they will ask me back since I did so bad but oh well ... I can now say I have played on Arena ice.... It did get a little faster by the 8th end and the one guy said he could tell I was more in my element when it was faster ice(still very slow ice for Canada 2.3 then for draw weight) and my delivery was a lot different when I wasn't trying to throw it so hard.   For score boards they hang them on the glass at one of the ends.  We played three on three on my sheet which was nice since I got to practice more... we lost in the last end but oh well they would have only had two players without me.

Wonder if the hockey players mind the curling rings

Hockey on the ice before we went out

I was facing the ice taking the pictures of the hockey players playing before curling started then you turn around and they have a nice fire place for people to go to to get warm while they watch

This weird plant was in the parking lot.  All four from the same main trunk of some kind of palm with funny white flowers growing out of the top of the green leaves.  Pretty cool looking whatever it is

Went to Six Flags Fiesta Texas today.  It was the annual family picnic for Whataburger.  You could bring 3 people with you... free entrance to the park.  We had a picnic there from 10 to 12 before the park opened.  There was brisket and sausages and salads and drinks.  Free midway games for the kids to win lots of prizes.  Face painting, baloons and caracatures all for free.  We each got 5 tickets for door prizes.  You could put the tickets in which ever prize you wanted to win.  Flight for two anywhere in the US... tickets to the Spurs game, day at the spa etc.  DJ was playing the whole two hours too.   Once we were in the main part of the park we could take our free ticket from Whataburger and upgrade it to a season pass for the rest of this year and all of next year... so I did that.  This place is less than 10 minutes from our Apt.  It is two exits past Blanco off the 1604 so easy to get to.  Sea world is near there too but I haven't found it yet... soon.   Tomorrow morning I go to Austin to Curl on Arena ice.  Should be fun.  I am just sparing up there for something to do before Jim gets down here in 5 weeks.

Being there first thing got us parking close to the entrance.... not so great a thing when you go to leave.  It to forever to get out of the parking lot but then just a hop skip and a jump and I was home

These are the 4 arcade games they had set up for the kids to play to win their  little stuffed animals and balls etc

Those booths above are to the right of this picture.  In the far end was the rows of food to pick up buffet style with the picnic tables under awnings on the left.  The face painters and caracature guys and balloon guys were over there on the left too.

I turned totally to left here to see back end tables and rest of tables st ahead from left of middle picture.  Lots of room.  This was just for the people at head office . .. not the restaurant staff.  There are over 300 in head office so with all of their families there were still a lot of people.  It was weird walking around the park after and actually recognizing a lot of people.

Always wanted to get this done but was too cheap to pay but when it was free... why not.  So what do you think... she did get the pointy nose thing

Home tonight

No more sleeps - home tonight YEAH

Jim sent me a picture of his new truck so I would recognize him when he comes to get me at the airport Friday night.  Big box on it so we will be able to pack lots to come down in it.  I love the colour.  See I am still not american in that I know how to spell colour... I do say y'all though sometimes... it just comes out...

Port Aransas

Went to Port Aransas on Saturday.  This is on Mustang Island.  Apparently a lot of Canadians settle there for the winter.  They don't call them Snowbirds here... they are Winter Texans!!  There were a lot of RV parks, Condo's hotels and resorts here.  The town stretches from the channel side to the Gulf of Mexico side.  This is basically just south of Corpus Christi but a little north.  Padre Island North where I went last weekend is south of Corpus Christi but a little south... Corpus is kinda in the middle.  Once you go over to the islands you can drive from Padre to Mustang which I showed last weekend.  Just to complicate it all there is a South Padre Island which is in the most southern tip of Texas - almost to Mexico.  You cannot drive on Padre Island from the North to the South.  You have to go back on the mainland to drive down to the South.  The city South Padre Island  is pretty well all resorts etc. but is a couple more hour drive so not really a day trip for me but definitely could be a weekend trip.  You drive to Brownsville and then drive across to the island.
Back to Port Aransas.  I found this beach a lot busier than North Padre Island and a lot more hotels that you can see from the beach.  I like not seeing them better.  There were 3 weddings being set up that I saw on my part that I saw.  There was a lot of seaweed on the beach here that I didn't notice much of last week.  Not sure if there is more there this week or not since I didn't go there this time.  I went over on the bridge and drove up from the south to Port Aransas.  I took the ferry back over to the mainland on my way home so travelled back to Corpus on the mainland side.  The ferry was cool since there were tons of dolphins in the channel jumping everywhere.  I just kept clicking the camera but hard to see them in the distance since they are not out of the water long.  You can at least see the white spots where they are or were...  I tried to get a picture of the power wind mills that  they have all along the coast.  They start from the Sun corp refinery... so I am wondering if they are using wind power to refine oil...kinda cool.   I also have a picture of my new beach chair that I sat in for a few hours.  I love watching the water, birds and people in it.  I also read a book.  It was getting warm so I put it near the water so that some waves came close enough to wet my feet to cool me off. 15 to 20 minutes later you have to back it up cause the waves are wetting the chair - combination of the chair sinking in the sand and the tide coming in... kept backing it up and at one point I backed up the car just in case.   It was pouring rain in San Antonio when I left as well as on the bridge going over to the islands.  I have a picture showing the black sky to the north towards mainland but the island was beautiful weather up until close to 5 p.m.    I packed up and went one direction to try to get off of the beach... another thing about this beach... very few places to get on and off... I was quickly running out of beach and still could not find an out... the beach was getting narrower due to the tide coming in.  There were others still there so I figured I was ok but my car is not 4 wheel drive like their  trucks and I was not looking forward to driving in the water.  I finally turned around and asked some people where the next exit was and which way to go to get off the beach the quickest.  The told me to turn around and I was almost there to marker 99.  I was at 88.  Not sure how far between the markers but not very far so I was fine.  At the harbour where you take the ferry back to mainland there were houses on stilts.  The bottom of the house is above the roof of the SUV parked in front.  Must be for flooding I guess.

Me just as I arrived

Beach as far as you can see

Lots of seaweed and hotel

New Chair with Towel Margaret gave to me

New Chair See leg at top - when you recline it all of the way down to lay down then you put that leg down to support it .  It is a low beach chair so your legs just go straight out on the sand.

All day we could see and hear the storm but the beach was beautiful.

Houses on stilts at the harbour

Harbour that you can see while waiting for ferry

Dolphins

More dolphins

Windmills