We Really Are Still Around

It’s been a LONG time since I’ve posted.  Since my last blog we had left the Valley and spent three weeks in San Antonio visiting with my son, John and daughter-in-law, Erica.  We had a really nice visit but I think it would bore everybody to tell about what we ate every night or where we went to eat.  We all sat around in the evenings playing Farmville on Facebook and then playing Wii Bowling.  John kicked our butts every time but it was still fun.

We did manage to take in the San Antonio Rodeo while we were there too.  Now, we’ve never been to a rodeo before so we weren’t really sure what to expect.  I thought there would be like calf roping and bull riding but we didn’t see any of that.  It just looked like a county fair.  We looked at all the animals in their pens and visited all the craft booths.  I did purchase a new Cutco knife there to add to my collection.

We saw one thing though that was interesting.  The announcer would call out a number and the horse riders had to pick out three cows in the herd with that number on them and then herd them into a corral.  It was timed and whoever herded all three into the corral in the least amount of time was the winner.

We found out that our friends, Bob and Molly were staying in the area so we managed to fit in a visit with them.  Then they came to San Antonio for some shopping so we met them at the Riverwalk for some lunch.

We’re now in Rockport, Texas on the gulf coast.  They call this the “Coastal Bend”.   We spent the whole month of February here last year and it was cold most of the time.  The weather this time has been fantastic until today when it sort of drizzled all day.  We’ve been having potlucks and happy hours and just having a blast.  We have several friends here so that makes it fun.  A few of our friends have these little portable fire pits so we’ve had a weenie roast followed by the making of s’mores.

Saturday we decided to go to the Oyster Festival here.  The plan was to park at the old Walmart and take the shuttle.  When we got there the parking lot was packed and there was a huge line waiting for the shuttle.  There were actually two shuttles which held about ten people each.  We would have waited in line for a few hours to get on one of the shuttles so we got our parking money back and drove to the festival.  We found a parking spot and walked up to where the activities were.  What a joke again.  There were two big tents set up.  One had swap meet type crafts and the other had a band playing (very loud country music) and food.  Yep, you guessed it, LONG lines.  We seem to be seeing a pattern.  I think if we see something that says “Taste of Something” or “Something Festival” we’re either going to stay away or go on a weekday.

We left there and went to a restaurant to eat rather than wait in those lines.  Then we went in search of the whooping cranes that come here every winter.  We saw a few of them but they were way too far away to get a picture so we settled for this heron.

This afternoon a few of us went to the clubhouse where Molly taught us how to play a card game called Hand and Foot.  It was a fun game and I think we’re going to set up teams of the girls against the boys so we can kick their butts.

So, there you are.  All caught up!!  We plan on being here until the end of the month then we’ll head back up to San Antonio for a few weeks before heading to Salt Lake City for a month and then on into Canada.