Day 12 Texas Vacation Xmas 2011

Another beautiful day shaping up outside our Airstream at the KOA Kampground here on South Padre Island.

We had some breakfast and then Karen headed off in search of souvenirs for her family members.  No souvenir shopping for me, I took it easy around the KOA enjoying the warmth and sunshine and trying not to think about having to head back to Ontario in a few days.

When Karen returned we ate our lunch then at 1:30pm we walked over to Pier 19 where we met the “Osprey”



We are going on the Dolphin Watch / Sea Life Safari.

While we were waiting to board, the Black Dragon Pirate Ship came in close to the pier and fired off its cannon.



We left the pier at 2:00pm and headed out into the Laguna Madre where a crew member dropped a drag net over the stern of the boat and then 10 minutes later brought it back aboard.   We caught a few things and were shown what was caught.



This is a porcupine puffer fish.

  

And this is a saltwater catfish.

 

We weren't allowed to handle this one as they are very dangerous.  They have 3 long sharp barbs that will pierce right through your hand if you don’t know how to handle these.  On the fishing charter boats they don’t let you bring them aboard if you catch one, that is how dangerous they are.  The crew member threw it back after briefly showing it to us and talking about it.

There were several other types of fish caught, but I was being distracted by the photo opportunities that the seagulls were presenting as they followed us just off the stern, so I left the talk and went astern to take pictures of the seagulls instead.

  

After taking seagull photos, I went to the bow of the boat and found Karen out on the bowsprit watching for dolphins.



And it wasn’t too long before she said “there’s some”
  

I quickly discovered that it is a whole lot easier taking photos of large and slow Humpback Whales than it is of much smaller and quicker Dolphins.  But I did get some good shots.  You will have to look on my FLICKR site if you want to see all of the dolphin photos and videos.

  

We watched the dolphins for about an hour, then the Captain took us out into the Gulf of Mexico.  We left the Laguna Madre and sailed between the Isla Blanca Jetties out into the Gulf of Mexico.
We have never seen South Padre Island from out in the Gulf, so it was very interesting to see another perspective of the Island.

On the jetty there is a statue of El Cristo de los Pescadores, which translates to Christ of the Fishermen.

 

This is the view of South Padre Island as we head out into the Gulf of Mexico.

 

At the very end of the jetty, the waves are sending spray high into the air.

 

We are in some pretty big rollers as we pass from behind the shelter of the jetty, but we get a nice view of South Padre Island.

 

As we head back to Pier 19, we pass several shrimping boats (called Shrimpers) that are heading out to catch shrimp.

  

We even saw the shrimper that our friend Paul McNamara owns.

  

Back at the KOA after our afternoon cruise I got the bbq lit and cooked us a steak with potatoes and onions for dinner.

 

While I was doing that, Karen walked over to the sunset deck to capture some more sunset photos.

  

That brings to a close another beautiful day in paradise.



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