Gig 'Em

Galveston, TX  January 19 - 23, 2013

We headed over to Galveston Island on Saturday to visit with Andrew and see the island.  For those of you who don't know, he is attending Texas A & M Galveston studying Maritime Engineering.  He has just started his second semester and is doing fabulous making us very proud.  We stayed in a very quiet little RV park right on the bay with a tricky back-in spot, but luckily it had lots of room for me to maneuver.  Andrew came over as soon as we were settled and we went shopping for some of his favorite home-cooked meals.  Later in the evening he drove us around the island to show us the lights on Sea Wall Drive and his campus. 

The bay harbor view from Suni

On Sunday after touring his dorm and campus in the daylight we went to Sea Wolf park to tour the WWII submarine USS Cavalla and destroyer USS Stewart.  It was great fun touring the ships and letting Andrew explain all of the technical stuff.  I even received a compliment from a retired Navy officer on my hang and swing doorway moves.  It's amazing how small the corridors are in a submarine!  We wanted to see the tall ship Elissa at the Maritime museum, but it was out being repaired so we walked around the Strand district and drove around the old homes in the area.   We made an early dinner for Andrew as he was scheduled for the 8 pm to Midnight watch that night on the student training vessel.  His job is to keep the hooligans out and made rounds every hour.

Texas A & M Galveston Campus

 

                                      
                                                    The training vessel  - General Rudder

                                                                        USS Cavalla

                                                                        USS Stewart

 

Luckily Monday was a school holiday so he was able to sleep in.  We took the morning and drove the west side of the island.  It is really beautiful and we got a long beach walk in with the dogs with only two other people anywhere to be seen.  Andrew came over in the afternoon to play dominoes and have another home-cooked meal.  I also made my now famous peanut butter chocolate chip cookes for him to take back to the dorm.  He has lost the normal freshman 15 instead of gaining it so we were trying to fatten him up.  He went back early to work on physics homework with classmates - I am a proud mama.

                                                                   West beach walk

Who knew Galveston was so pretty!

 

Tuesday Andrew had classes so we took our bikes down to the Sea Wall and rode it's ten mile length down and back. Thank heavens the 20 miles was flat or we would have needed some of Lance's secret sauce. We stopped at Jimmy's on the Pier for an after ride beverage and snack - great food and view. Andrew was able to come over between classes for one last meal and a big hug good-bye! It was a great visit and I was sad to see it end. 

                                             Zoe's cousins in a neighboring house - so cute!

Coming soon..... Louisiana here we come; Lake Charles, Marksville, Houma and New Orleans.

School of Rocks

Rockport, TX  January 16 - 19, 2013

After our five weeks in Austin spending lots of time with our family and friends we are back on the road again.  The highlights of our stay include several fabulous meals with our old hood at the Bergs and the Crouches; Christmas with the kids; Christmas with the Nex's, and Adams; late-night card playing and tom-foolery with the Scheppners; celebrating Peg's birthday; a beautiful weekend at the Sterns ranch Violet Crown; and our two final book club meetings.  While the Berg's were celebrating Christmas in Colorado, Dave and Sarah graciously offered up their house and Christmas tree for us to use.  We had a beautiful dinner and outdoor fire.  Needless to say a good time was had by all and we will miss you guys during our travels.

Alex, Andrew and Jacob

Amanda and Zoe

                                                     Learning to drive a tractor with CP

                             Peg's birthday happy hour sponsored by Sarah, MaryKay and Melissa

We took off on January 15th as planned, but only made it as far as Georgetown where we had scheduled some much needed maintenance on Suni.  Much to our chagrin they were only able to fix two of the seven items needing attention - very frustrating!  We headed for Rockport on Wednesday the 16th to finally see the coastal homes and office of our friends the Baiz's.  Mark went out of his way to show us a grand time in the beautiful town of Rockport.  We hung out at his favorite haunt called Pop's Tavern and Peg got her fill of delicious, freshly caught Gulf oysters - the food and company were fabulous.  He drove us all over the area - we saw whooping cranes, the Lamar tree, Goose Island State park, George Strait's house on Allegro Key, and the friendly neighborhood farmer Fred that sold us a frozen pheasant!  Mark made sure we ate and drank like queens - oysters, burgers, steaks, and the best tamales ever!  We then headed over to Port Aransas where Mark's oil and gas drilling company office and rock and fossil museum are located.  Peg was schooled by Mark's  geologist Russell on how they find oil.  Russell has forgotten more about rocks and fossils than I ever knew.  He has a beautiful collection of minerals and fossils.  Many of the minerals he had I had never seen and many of the fossils he had I could never afford!  He had a 2 foot x 1 foot slab of limestone from Morocco that contained many fossilized shark teeth from a 65 million year old species that he is reconstructing the jaw of when he can sneak some time.  He showed me how and what tools he uses to painstakingly remove the embedded teeth.  I asked him how you go about finding oil and how that relates to the rocks and minerals below the surface.  Two hours later he had me reading Mud Logs!  Russell, you would have made a fabulous teacher.  Thank you so much for sharing your passion and knowledge. We finished our time with Mark back at the "Man Cave".  I would tell you more about our final evening there but what happens at the Man Cave stays at the man cave.  Mark, "frac" on dude! :)  We love you.

                                                             Pop's Tavern with Mark

                                1,000 yr old Coastal Oak,The Lamar Tree...15 connected trunks

                                                  Two endangered Whooping Cranes.

Coming soon... Galveston, TX and Texas A & M to see Andrew!