Day 12 Texas Vacation Xmas 2008

Today is Wednesday December 31, 2008

This is our last full day on South Padre Island. We awoke to a foggy morning on the Island and decided that we would go to Denny’s for breakfast. I was craving some bacon and eggs rather than cereal and waffles that are offered by the hotel.

We spent the morning packing up and loading the car. I went to the gas station and filled the car with gas. After lunch we headed back out to the Birding and Wildlife Center for one last visit. Every time we have visited the center, we have discovered new birds that we had not seen before. Today was no exception. The first bird we saw was an Osprey.

Next we saw these gulls lined up on the railing of the boardwalk, then we saw a flock of Roseate Spoonbills. It is pretty obvious why they call these birds Spoonbills.

Then we watched the Brown Pelicans diving for fish.

We went to the IGA for a few groceries, pop, sandwich meat, bread etc for the drive home tomorrow. We went down to the beach for one last walk and we found someone had built some interesting sand castles.

Although it is New Years Eve, we are asleep early because we have to get up early. Once again as I look at the weather back home, I can see that a winter storm will be moving in and should hit Ontario by Sunday, so I would like to get an early start in the morning and try to get as far north as we can so that we can try to arrive home on Saturday afternoon or evening. We did wake up at midnight when we heard the loud fireworks display over the bay and we went out to the back balcony of the hotel to watch the display. Happy New Year.

To see all of our photos from today, you can see them on our FLICKR site.

Day 11 Texas Vacation Xmas 2008

Today is Tuesday December 30, 2008

Today we were up early and had breakfast downstairs, then around 9:30 am we drove out to the beach at the end of the road. Karen is going to look for more sea shells and I am going to practice flying my kite.

After about an hour, we headed back to the hotel and did a final load of laundry so that we would have enough clean clothes to get us back home. We are due to leave here in a couple of days to head back North to the cold winter of Ontario.

Later in the afternoon we went out to the Birding and Wildlife Center to see if we can find any birds that we have not seen yet. While we were there, I saw some kites that were much fancier than mine. When I get better with mine and learn some tricks, I will have to upgrade to one of these kites.

We did find some birds that we had not seen yet. A Blue-winged Teal, a Killdeer and a Long Billed Curlew.

A Tri Colored Heron, a Red Head Duck keeping an eye on the Tri Colored Heron and a White Ibis.

A Laughing Gull and a Marbled Godwit.

After we got back from the Wildlife Center we wandered down to the end of our street to the Laguna Madre to watch the sun set. Too many clouds, but still pretty.

To see all of our photos from today you can see them on my FLICKR site.

Day 10 Texas Vacation Xmas 2008

Today is Monday December 29, 2008

We thought today we should head over the causeway to the mainland and check out a few things in Port Isabel. After lunch we headed out. We had noticed this neat souvenir shop with a big shark as part of the buildings design so we stopped here to take some photos and we found some good deals inside. Appropriately the stores name is Jaws

We drove over the causeway to the mainland and our first stop is the Point Isabel Lighthouse. We had a tour of the lighthouse and climbed to the top.

Then we went to the Harris Sea Castle Gift Shop. We found some good deals here and the outside facade of the building is very unique.

Even the Radio Shack store has a neat statue of dolphins.

After arriving back at the hotel, we went for a walk along the beach and took some photos of birds that we encountered.

A Redish Egret and some Seagulls

To see all of our photos from today, you can click on the link to my FLICKR site.

Day 9 Texas Vacation Xmas 2008

Today is Sunday December 28 2008

We got up early enough this morning to beat the weekend hotel guests down to the lobby and had our breakfast. It was a quiet day for us though, nothing of significance to write about and I only took 4 photos today. We wandered down to the beach to have a walk and look for sea shells. Here are the 4 photos.

A picture of the Christmas Tree in the lobby of the hotel

A couple of pictures of a neat mural painted on a business near our hotel.

And a bird on our balcony railing.

Day 8 Texas Vacation Xmas 2008

Today is Saturday December 27, 2008

The day started out by heading to Denny’s for breakfast. We went downstairs to the lobby but being a Saturday, the hotel is full and so is the breakfast/lobby room. After breakfast we came back to the hotel and relaxed. I enjoy sitting out on the balcony reading emails and uploading photos to my Flickr Site. I am also researching on the internet how to control and fly my new kite. I can also keep an eye on what is happening in and around the hotel complex. Karen is doing some laundry and then we are going to go out to the Birding and Wildlife Center again and see what other types of birds and wildlife we can find.

Here I am hard at work.

At the Wildlife Center we found a Great Blue Heron, a Long Billed Curlew and a Sandpiper

A Snowy Egret, a bunch of Ducks and White Pelicans, and some Great Egrets.

We then headed over to the Sea Turtle Rescue Center to see some sea turtles. It was very informative with lots of sea turtles to look at. I didn’t know there were so many types, I thought a sea turtle was just that. We took lots of photos, but they didn’t turn out all that great. Shooting through glass and water at a moving target does not produce good results. Take a look at the website if you want to know more about this sea turtle rescue center.

At the end of the afternoon we took a drive out to the end of the road to Beach Access #7 so that Karen could look for more shells and so that I could practice flying my kite and putting to practice some of what I had read online about doing some basic stunts.

It is quite windy, perhaps too windy, but I am going to give this a try anyways. Here I am checking the kite to make sure I have it put together properly, then you can see me flying the kite and the last photo, the kite is so high I am concerned that it may melt from the heat of the sun.

I actually feel like I know what I am doing now after an hour of flying my kite. I can now bring it down and land it when I want it to come down as opposed to smashing it uncontrolled into the sand. The trick is much like sailing, you head the kite into the wind where it loses power and then you can bring it down in a controlled manner. I also learnt to fly the kite in figure eights and in large circles.

To see all of our photos from today, you can click on the link to my FLICKR site.