October 5, 2014

The End of a Wonderful Weekend 

at South Padre Island

October 5, 2014

We slept until almost 8:00 this morning, on our last morning at the island for now.  We packed and got ready to leave the hotel.  Always, we take too much luggage, or the wrong things and not what we really need.   We admire people who can travel with one small carry-on piece of luggage.  I think our problem is too many years of traveling in our motor home where we could take it all with us, including the kitchen sink.

We decided against a walk on the beach since we were going to try to see the sand sculptures that we had missed going to the previous day.  Most of the activities at the sand sculptures were set to start at 10:00 so we went early just to see them and then leave.  We stopped at a donut shop on the way at 9:05.  They had 12 donuts left and were apparently not making any more.  Being almost sold out of donuts at 9:05 on a Sunday morning when several activities were taking place on the island seems like poor planning.  We declined the few that were left and went back to the convenience store.  The ones that were left mostly had nuts all over them and I am not big on nuts on my donuts. 

The art work on the sand sculptures was amazing, but some of it was pretty bizarre.  We wandered around for a while and then left as the crowd was growing for the free lessons in sand sculpting.  Since we were in the area, we went to the Convention Center to look for birds and I saw several in the trees, but they were small warblers and American Redstarts and they were quicker than I was.  I did catch a couple of photos of one of them.

This Northern Parula played in the tree above me until I finally was able to get a couple of photos of him.  He is fast!

As we left the Convention Center, we saw some parachute jumpers landing just across from where we were.  They appeared to be landing just north of the sand sculptures.  Notice that there are two guys on this chute.

 From there, we went to San Benito to a great Bar-B-Q place and beat the Sunday crowd.  The food and the service were excellent.  Harlingen was our next destination, but we only found one of the places open that we were looking for.  The one that was open was their new Cracker Barrel and it was busy.  I had seen something at the Cracker Barrel where David and I had eaten in San Antonio, that I wanted Ron to see. 

Ron selected the next stop and that was the Texas Travel Bureau in Harlingen.  He wanted me to have maps in my car so next time I got lost, I could find out where I was and where I needed to go.  I have some in my car, but I was in my Mom's car and didn't find any maps last Sunday when I was lost in Grapevine/Arlington/Lewisville, etc. 

Butterflies flitted through their flower garden at the Tourist Center, enjoying the lovely blooms.  I stayed outside watching the butterflies and let Ron select maps.  I did go help for a few minutes.

Many plants were in bloom at the Tourist Center.  These oleanders were such a delicate pink.

We returned to Brownsville and stopped at Michael's for an item I needed, but they were sold out of them.  At home we unloaded the car and I caught up on blogs and Ron watched football games on TV.  It was a nice weekend.