odds and ends of Tx.

 See have seen a lot of road signs for Kolache, and I wanted to try one.  They are fried pies.  Oh don't get me wrong they are good but my gosh big road signs for a fried pie.  This is Texas I guess.

 Can I just say Texas is really windy.  So far every one we have stayed it has been windy.  But, when it isn't windy the mosquitos come out so I say let it blow.

 At a Catholic school I saw these benches along side of their playing field.  I wonder what the opposing teams benches say.

 How long has it been since you have seen a telephone booth?  This one sits on the corner of This Way and Parking Way.

This street corner was hard to find.  Went to the library and asked for directions to get to this corner.  The librarian and helpers said " you this way" then she laughed "and when you get here you go that way" and she laughed again. We do this all the time when giving directions but here in Lake Jackson it is funny because This Way and That Way are really street names. The streets are all curved because the guy who laid out the town didn't ever want to see the end of the road.  I was lost all the time.  Really

 OK grandkids, grandpa is eating his seafood gumbo on your beach of last summer. We enjoyed the memories we have of that time.  Thanks Kiddos.

 Lots of big ships going in and out.  Little tug boats pushing those big ships.

 This is a submarine sitting in the parking lot of a souvenir shop.

 I told myself that this is "my church" this morning.  Beautiful picture.  I mean the sky just opened up and let the sun shine come through.

 Bringing our home across to the island on a ferry.  I was scarred that we wouldn't fit.  It is a two lanes on each side.  We took up both lanes on our side with two cars setting next to each other in front of us and behind us.  Phil saw Dolphins.  I didn't.  I wasn't looking.

 Beautiful sunset from the beach over the sand dunes.  I might add that the sun sets in the North here

Big waves, but not for surfing I don't think.  Water to cold maybe.

Becki this is the best stop sign I have ever see.  Of course, dad doesn't stop here.

I love the "pictures" in the sand.  The lines the sea animals make, the water wave lines, the holes the crabs, ghost crabs etc make.

Fishing

This is a fun fishing boat for tourists wanting to go out and have the experience .

These are the serious fisher man and women.  They have quite a set up. A wagon with coolers, buckets, bait, net and several poles.

 While we were eating we watched these boats come in with their catch.  Most of them brought in clams.  They were in gunny sacks, they stacked them on pallets and a fork lift picked them up and took the sacks about 1/2 block away to a place that processed them.

This is the road in front of the process building.  It is a road of shells.  Of course it smelled, what are you thinking.

 Kids may never go in the water again.  This is a Man of War Jelly Fish.  Really pretty but they do hurt ya.  We saw literally hundreds of them on the beach. Big to little.  When they have high winds here they are blown in and die.  Can't begin to tell you how many we could see in a small area.

Here you go Cambree here are the Dolphins having fun in front of a HUGE oil ship coming into the docks. Fun to watch them.

Trash on the beach, but interesting trash I thought.

When we first got down here we noticed a lot of young girls here.  They were girl scouts out for the weekend on a scouting camp out. (in RV's not tents).  One day they had a ' clean the beach' day.  So yea for the Girl Scouts.

Birds of Texas

Add caption

When I did laundrey I was never alone this small wren like bird would set in the tree across from the  laundry room and watch me.

These birds would always follow a heavy rain seeking out food.  Look at those dangerous beeks. I was setting on my couch watching them.

We were sitting inside 5 Guys eating a salad (haha) where I started watching all these birds flying in and landing on the over head wire.  Look how spaced out they are.  One would fly in and land and the others would all move over to make room.  It reminded me that we all have our "personal space".  I was fascinated by this.

F

Along with the birds we enjoyed watching these bee keepers.  There were like 5 people all dressed in white with masks on they were smoking out the bees.  They were loading the boxes onto trailers and taking them away some where.  May I just say we couldn't open our car windows the bees were buzzing all around us.

Oh my gosh we thought we had found a flock of flamingos.  Started taking pictures and then realized they really were not.  These are Spoon Billed something.  They were pink bodies with white heads.  They were pretty neat looking .

 

Saw a lot of flocks flying all the time.

When the waves were so high and brought in all the sea weed the sea gulls were thick.  But they were so much fun to watch.  There little babies move so fast over the sand.

We were waiting at the dock for a fishing boat to come in with there catch for the day and this brown pelican was setting on the pier post (as they do).  I moved in to take a picture.  He just sat there posing for me.  He would keep turning so I could get different sides of him.  I was excited that I could get so close.  But, I am sure he is so use to people.

Here I think he is saying "are you through yet, I am getting hungry and ready to fly on".

Phil has signed on to go out on the fishing boat and he hopes he catches some fish so he doesn't waste his money.  Me I am kinda hoping he only catches a few.  Our freezer will only hold so much.  The catch of the day when we were watching was Red Snapper.  I was not impressed.

Hmmmm maybe we could have a fish fry for our Easter Family Dinner.

Trees and Plants of Texas

Just liked the trees lining the yard.. This old live oak tree was huge and had a limb (on the right) near the ground.  Wouldn't a picnic under this tree be great.

 So tiny and fragile looking. Yellow and Pink blossoms on same stem.

 This is for Michelle. You would have just loved this tree. The picture below is me standing underneath the tree and looking up at the sky.  I was amazed.  The trunk was hollow and so they put cement in it I guess to try to preserve it. 

 Can you see the "porch swing" hanging on the branch. Can't you just see sitting and swinging watching the water.  Actually they had it hanging facing away from the water.  Why ? Moss blowing in the wind.  Oh My.

 I just thought this was a very narley looking tree.

 

 These two pictures above are of trees that are wind swept.  It was so hard to get the real effect of it on film, so I hope you can see how they are growing naturally as the wind blew them.  There was a bay across the street. I just was so stunned by these.

These vines are growing on the sand dunes where we are camped.  It is called a Railroad Vine, Becki would just love these, there roots grow very deep (to get to the water) and they have been known to go 14" in one day. They are important here to hold the sand/soil.