San Antonio visit

On a nice day we met Joe's sister & brother-in-law, Patty and Larry and they took us on a tour of the Alamo and the Riverwalk in San Antonio. We started at the Alamo which is in downtown San Antonio. We were not allowed to take pictures in the Alamo so no pics, but we had a nice tour with lots of history.

We then walked to the Riverwalk and had lunch at Joe's Crab Shack. We did not sit outside on the patio as the wind was still pretty chilly. After lunch we took a boat-raft-gondola ride(whatever it is called) all around the waterways. It was an interesting tour of the city. Now I see why everyone talks about the Riverwalk in San Antonio. I thought it was very nice and a definite a must see. We did not get a chance to do any shopping as we left the dogs in the car. We might come back to the Riverwalk later this week to do some shopping, actually window shopping as we don't have anyplace to put anything extra in the 5th wheel.

Believe it or not, we came all the way to New Braunfels, TX to meet Don & Kay McDermed from the Gray Wolves chapter of FCRV out of Colorado Springs. It is a small world we live in!!

GEO Caching in New Braunfels Texas

Sunday the 21st, the weather was sunny and warm with high well into the 70's. We walked along a nature trail in Panther Canyon which is a part of Landa Park and Open Space. We also went GEO Caching along the trail in the canyon. The trail was easy and along a dry drainage gully, the terrain off the trail to the caches was difcult.

This first picture is Kyoto helping me check out one of the caches.

The second picture is Sandi, Osaka, & Kyoto taking a photo oop along the dry creek bed.

Sand Dollars

A sand dollar that we found while walking along the beach on Padre Island. There were a lot of broken sand dollars washed up after a high tide. This is the largest and most complete one I found.

We are now inland at New Braunfels which is outside of San Antonio. New Braunfels is a area with a lot of German immigrants there are a lot of German shops, bakeries and restaurants.

Corpus Christi

While here in Corpus Christi we have had two days of rain. This was when there was snow in Dallas and all 49 States. The rain has stopped and we had a warm Valentines Day.

There is a fishing pier located close to the campground and we saw some Blue Herons.

We were also able to visit Padre Island and Mustang Island State Park. The beach was closed to campers and RVs because of high winds and high tides.

Portuguese Man of War

Another discovery found on South Padre Island

Portuguese Man-of-War Physalia physalis

Anyone unfamiliar with the biology of the venomous Portuguese man-of-war would likely mistake it for a jellyfish. Not only is it not a jellyfish, it's not even an "it," but a "they." The Portuguese man-of-war is a siphonophore, an animal made up of a colony of organisms working together.

Portuguese Man-of-Wars, Portuguese Man-of-War Pictures, Portuguese Man-of-War Fact... The man-of-war comprises four separate polyps. It gets its name from the uppermost polyp, a gas-filled bladder, or pneumatophore, which sits above the water and somewhat resembles an old warship at full sail. Man-of-wars are also known as bluebottles for the purple-blue color of their pneumatophores. The tentacles are the man-of-war's second organism. These long, thin tendrils can extend 165 feet (50 meters) in length below the surface, although 30 feet (10 meters) is more the average. They are covered in venom-filled nematocysts used to paralyze and kill fish and other small creatures. For humans, a man-of-war sting is excruciatingly painful, but rarely deadly. But beware—even dead man-of-wars washed up on shore can deliver a sting.
Muscles in the tentacles draw prey up to a polyp containing the gastrozooids or digestive organisms. A fourth polyp contains the reproductive organisms. Man-of-wars are found, sometimes in groups of 1,000 or more, floating in warm waters throughout the
world's oceans. They have no independent means of propulsion and either drift on the currents or catch the wind with their pneumatophores. To avoid threats on the surface, they can deflate their air bags and briefly submerge.

© 1996-2010 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.
Portuguese Man-of-Wars, Portuguese Man-of-War Pictures, Portuguese Man-of-War Fact...
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/portuguese-man-of-war/ 2/11/2010

What is this print in the sand?

What animal made this foot print in the sand?









I am sooo glad that I am not in Denver putting up with all the snow and cold right now.


It finally got up to 71 degrees for a couple of days in Brownsville and 73 on South Padre Island. Joe actually started wearing shorts, but I need temps in the 80’s before I can do that. We visited South Padre Island two days. The first day we walked the beach and surf and did some geocaching too. We checked out RV’s parked on the beach dry camping and some with solar panels or wind turbins. The sand was pretty hard packed, but both of us have serious reservations about parking our 5th wheel out there. I doubt we will ever park out there. The second day we had lunch at “Dirty Al’s”, a restaurant recommended by my neighbors Susan & Harley, which turned out to be very good and very popular just as they said. And we walked the beach again.

Oh I forgot, Kyoto tasted her first saltwater and she did not like it.

I definitely feel guilty.
I just know I should be at work somewhere. Time will change that I guess.






Did you figure out what the print in the sand was? It’s a 9½ lb long haired minature dachshund leached to a 210 lb man trying to pull him along with all her might.

Our next stop is Corpus Christi, TX.

Guess where it was 68 degrees today

Brownsville, TX

I was wearing a sweater on top of my clothes and of course Joe was wearing nothing on top of his clothes. We spent the day just wandering around the city to see what was where.

This campground that we are staying in has lots and lots of trees, such as palms, pines and deciduous trees, so there is lots of shade. Everyone we saw today stopped to talk to us and the most common thought was this is the coldest winter Brownsville has seen in the last 8 years. ???
Most of the people here are definitely snow birds. They spend the winters starting in Nov. or Dec. thru Apr. or May here every year. What is amazing to me is the mobile homes mixed in with the RV's. We are at the Breeze Lake RV Campground, they have a web site at the following link: http://www.breezelakervcampground.com/.

Tomorrow we will check out South Padre Island which is not far from this campground that we are staying at.

Later,
Sandi & Joe