Feliz Domingo Everyone!

Yesterday, I talked a bit about the first couple of days on vacation and how interesting our experience was compared to other trips. Today, I thought I’d cover the rest of the week in a compressed way, peppered with some of our great conversations we had all week.

Every night, no matter what we did all day, we came together on our front porch, balcony, whatever you want to call it, and spent time talking together about tons of different things. “Solving the world’s problems”, our own problems, or what we did that day and what we observed. I loved it, except for the fact that we sat for a long period of time in chairs that felt comfortable until the next day when you realized your back hurt. Oh well.

Tuesday, the guys had scheduled golf, so Becky and I planned to go visit St Jo Island for two hours, eat lunch, and do some shopping. What a fun day we had! It was a first for Becky, but then again, so was Port Aransas! Due to the approaching storm (we were as yet unaware of) the beach was different. No shells at all, waves higher than normal, and the trash continues to pile up with no one to clean it. I am so sad about that and wish someone would think up a way to clean it up before it’s too late. The turtles eat that trash and die. People just seem to care about themselves and having fun, they don’t think about what they are doing to the environment 😔

On St Jo there are no trash cans and no cleaning services. No amenities, you take what you need and hope you didn’t make your bag too heavy. No restrooms. Nothing but jetty and beach for miles. So you go prepared for however long you want to stay. Some bring wagons with their stuff and set up for all day. We never go but for a couple of hours because we don’t want to get burned, and usually, we have other plans anyway. So Becky and did just that, exploring for shells and seed pods, cool driftwood, or some other treasures. But the pickings were slim. Usually, some of the biggest shells I’ve ever found were located there. This day…nothing. Whether that is because of Harvey or the new storm approaching, I have no idea. I spent most of my time there in the water. Then we gathered up and ran to the dock to make sure we didn’t miss the ferry boat because if you do, you’re stuck for another two hours.

The beach at St Jo, a turtle sighting in the jetty, waiting for the boat, our delicious lunch!

Let me just say, we splurged and cared not a wit about diets when we went to lunch! But first, Becky was delighted to see a turtle or two in the jetty, and had fun looking for shells among the granite stones…albeit carefully. That’s her looking up as I snapped the above pic. Everyone lines up to board the boat, sometimes waiting there as long as 15 minutes prior. I will have to ask the resident expert (Connie) what I have here, I am hoping I have seed pods and not junk. PLus a couple of cool pieces of driftwood, that is all I found.

My treasures

On the menu at Mac Daddy’s was sausage and pickles with stone ground mustard and an adult root beer float for me. Becky had the brisket nachos made with brisket, home made potato chips, bbq sauce and queso…yummy! Plus she had her own root beer float sans the adult part. 😉 We had to eat outside due to Covid restrictions making the inside dining area fill up too fast, but it wasn’t bad under the shade of the roof. Our food was so good and filling, we had to take the leftovers home, then we headed out to shop. We were determined to find bathing suits that fit, looked cute, and would withstand the rough waves. We succeeded but it took several hours. Becky went crazy and bought a suit, dresses, shorts, and lounge pants. I stressed over how much my suit was and only bout that. Normally part of the appeal of going to Port A is getting an affordable bathing suit, but times have changed and to get one that fits right and looks good, you never get the cheap ones. Seems they are designed for the young girls who don’t care about “letting it all hang out”. I’m too old and out of shape for that. I need the unattractive bits covered and the girls kept secure so the waves don’t leave me standing there naked. 🤣🤣

Maybe I’ll take pictures of my purchases and put them here.

The cute dress Becky bought me, and my bathing suit.

Back to the porch talks, Christopher continues to amaze me with his wisdom and his positive outlook, despite the constant negativity we are bombarded with daily these days. He grounds me and reminds me to be positive and grateful even when I want to complain about something. He reminded me, hey, you are on vacation, let your worries and stress go! He’s so right! No matter the problem, I should not have complained because, hey, I wasn’t at home, they weren’t at work, and we were still having fun. It would be easy to gripe about the higher cost for the week, the small rental, the beach restrictions etc. but we were there, in our “happy place” so I need to shut up and be thankful is basically what he was saying and he is absolutely correct.

During our shopping trip, I took Becky over to the famous candy shop, Winston’s I believe, and she went nuts there too, lol! That girl loves her truffles! The shop is an island institution, it’s been there forever and they make their own fudge, taffy and other tasty confections. I got a few samples of sugar free chocolate and some sf gummy bears. Becky loaded up on truffles of each flavor, some sour gummies for Chris, and I don’t know what else, but her total was around $30!! Oh yes, I bought Dave some sugar babies (the guy has lots of retro candy as well). He has old memorabilia all around the shop walls, and as a new feature, a caged (dead) rattlesnake with it’s history he calls “Jake the Snake” haha. It was crowded, so we made our purchases and took them home so they wouldn’t melt, then went back to shopping.

I believe that is the night we went to The Crazy Cajun for dinner. It was not as much fun as when Stephanie, Christina and I went, but I enjoyed it very much. We had 4 “Hungry Cajuns”, there were no crawfish available, so it was mainly shrimp, crab legs and the vegetables and sausage that go into the boil. Unfortunately, they put the shrimp in at the same time as the potatoes, making them difficult to peel and rather rubbery. Too much money for so little seafood, but we ate til we were full and that’s what matters, right?! Becky was hysterical, not wasting one tiny bit of her crab legs, she was determined to get it all out and devour it in a neat little pile of crab meat. As for me, I did the usual thing, murdered my crab legs and had it all over me, lol, then filled up on sausage, corn, and what shrimp I could stomach. All washed down with a tasty apple cider.

Stay tuned for tomorrow when I see (almost) the sunrise on the beach, Dave and I take a ride to Corpus, and we go to the beach. Thursday was the fishing trip, and Friday we had to pack and leave due to Hanna quickly approaching. I’ll fill in all the details manana. 😉

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