More at Mustang

Yesterday we attended Bay Area Fellowship in Corpus, which is a church of about 8000.  It's basically like going to a Sunday morning rock concert and then hearing God's word.  It's an awesome church where God is moving as the people reach out.
We got a few more pictures of activities around Corpus and Mustang Isle.

 On the USS Lexington.

18 m above the water felt sketchy.

 Of all the planes onboard, we liked the Tomcat best.

 James is looking back to ask Janna to bank hard to the left and Jake to let up on the throttle.

 Not everyone takes their posts seriously.

Tori's Socials test.

Janna's math assignment.

James' math lesson.

Sometimes it's difficult to keep your student awake for a whole lesson.

A good place for windy past times.

We made some great new friends here.  We got to take Jada the Collie for a walk almost everyday.  Her owners, Paul and Ginger, loved seeing the kids have fun with her.

Shrimping

We borrowed Paul's shrimp digger to get a bunch for the fishermen.  We got pretty efficient and soon packed about 70 shrimp down the beach with a big smile, and then learned the rules.

We could have 20 each if we were fishing, which we had no intention of doing, thus rendering our shrimps worth $10 each in fines emphasizing the need for us to offload the goods quickly.  I called to one fisherman who was quite hard of hearing, "Would you care to fill up your shrimp stocks?"  As I was finishing my query I slipped on the black scum of the rocks, tumbling sideways and scattering over half of my illegal catch on the rocks.  James jumped to the rescue!  We hurriedly picked up all we could, gave away all the handfuls we could and then put the rest back on the sand to burrow their ways back to safety.  There are less nerve racking ways to feel like you just saved $700.

 Two views from the deck at the restrooms.

 Chase and Robyn are helping make sure the moat works.

Ken and James are gearing up with whatever they can find to go fishing.

On Saturday we were given permission to use a church parking lot to host a car wash...

The kids raised $172 in 3 hours and tithed back to the church.

That's all for now.  We sure like it when you post a comment if you get the chance.

Choke Canyon and Mustang Island State Parks

We headed South for warmer weather.  So far we've gotten rain with the balmy 16 C days, and as cold as 8 C during the day!  It's supposed to get better this week.

Choke Canyon.

This is the first place in 6 months that we actually set out our hammock and swing chair.  It was beautiful, with large sites and a paved walkway right to the showers.

 This manmade lake is the site of the largest ESPN bass fishing competitions.  The largest to be pulled out was almost 22 lb.  The county is Callaham.  If your family has lived here 15 years and you graduate at their only school, the county pays for up to an 8 year university full ride.  It's all ranches and oil here, and one of the ranches is Nolan Ryan's.  Apparently he and some other high rollers will be at the annual kids stock show auction on Jan 22, where the grand champ will go for around $180 000.  We may drop in to watch, but I'm not bidding.  You don't even get to keep the COW!

Clouds are better in real life.

Now South and to the Gulf of Mexico near Corpus Christi, Tx.

Karate Kids At Mustang

 This sea sponge has done its last syphoning.

 Trophy Catfish

From this Jetty you can see an oil rig out there.  We counted 10 of the over 300 in the Gulf.

 You can smile, but you might get wet standing here.

This Sandhill Crane is appropriately posed in front of the sand hills that separate our campsite from the beach.

The real Mc Coy Pufferfish

This little guy was washed up along with a lot of Portugese Man O Wars.  They get pushed into the shore with really turbulent waters sometimes.  The jellyfish were up to 25 cm across, and had tentacles that were usually balled up, but some stretched out to almost 2 m. long.  Tori picked one up but I didn't have the camera at the time.  Blowing sand seems to bury them in a matter of hours.

On Thursday night, 4 young guys (20's) were very fortunate to get away with their lives.  Their 16 foot aluminum boat capsized on what they called 10 foot waves about 1 km straight out from here in the dark.  They were in the water about 1 hour, but got no hypothermia.  Friends of ours took them into their motorhome for warming up with some hot chocolate.  Their boat washed up on this shore by 8:00 pm, shortly after they got to shore.  One of  them had been under the flipped boat for a moment as it started to sink.  I'd say if you've got wits enough to get out of that situation, you  should have wits enough not to get into it in the first place.  I'm glad God had his hand on them.

  

The Alamo

We got to see the Alamo at San Antonio.  It's a good place to learn about why Texas had six flags.  Spain, France, Spain again, Mexico, Republic of Texas ( which is why it's still called the Lone Star State ), United States, Confederate States, and again United States.  Word is Mexico is gearing up to take another run at it.  

It was so nice to be with family for the New Year.  We really appreciated our niece in Houston, and my sister, Gaydene and her family for coming down to be with us.  We had a wonderful time together, and on Thursday they left to head back to Edmonton. 

 Davey Crokett was here

The Alamo was a fortified church

Don't fall forward!

Don't fall to the right.

 The river walk was closed for cleaning.  We got to see what millions don't get to see.......... because they don't want to.   Very cool dump trucks though.

 Bill and Gaydene treated us to supper at Mi Tierras, the most famous restaurant in town, open always.

 On Wednesday we went to the Natural Bridge Caverns North of San Antonio.

 Down 180 ft you get some gorgeous limestone formations

See a dog?

Gotta have a sunset every now and then.

Heading South to try to get warmer.  It's supposed to freeze two nights in a row coming up Monday.

Texas New Year

We descended upon my niece and nephew's place in Houston along with my sister, Gaydene and her family.  Trevor and Jodi were most gracious hosts, and had 25 people for dinner on New Years eve.

Trevor had this great idea to go paintballing.  Who you may not know are Danielle, Trevor, Emily, Abigail ( who we didn't let play because she would have an unfair advantage being such a small target ), and Bill - the reluctant, who played so we could get a group rate.

 We're pumped....

We're psyched.....

We're ready......

 ....We're seriously bruised and we don't trust anyone.  I'm not smiling here, I'm wincing.
Whatever people tell you, a paintball hit from inside of five feet really stings, and the bruise lasts for 9 days and counting.

Now it was time for some golf.

 Jade, Emily and Janna vs Trevor, Jake, James and I in a best ball 9 holes.

 We used 4 or five of Jake's  putts and one T shot, and we shot par!.....

 but the girls were up for the challenge and they beat us by two strokes.

Paintball hurts way more than losing at golf.

We have the opportunity to attend Lakewood church with Pastor Joel Ostien.  This is the largest church in America.  I got to visit with a grounds administrator, and he's one of the 3000 people on staff at the church.  So far we're not really planning on going there, but it would be kind of cool to worship with over 12 000 others at once. Tori did go with Bill and Gaydene and assures me there were about 15 000 in attendance at the middle morning service.  She said it didn't really feel like a church because it was a huge stadium and they were near the top.  She did enjoy it though and there was one song she knew.

On a completely different note, Herc needed a new window, and when you know Trevor, you can find out where to get the job done well for $120 plus tax.   I tella you what....WoW!