Day 12-Saturday, 10 Jan 09-San Antonio to S.Padre Island, Texas

Holy moly…….we pulled in to Harlingen, Texas for lunch and the temperature was nearly 80 degrees. By the time we reached South Padre Island and hour later, people were scrambling to bring in awnings and put away lawn chairs as the wind had really come up and the temperature had dropped to below 60 degrees. Last night in San Antonio I was kicking off the covers…tonight I’ll have the heater on!
The weather is supposed to heat up again Monday, which is when we had planned on leaving the island but if it warms up considerably, I’d like to stay a couple of more days and spend some time at the beach. We have to decide where we will go from here. We are still looking for that ‘great’ place where we can potentially stay for 2 weeks but haven’t found it yet. The weather is more and more unpredictable but in the end, we aren’t shoveling snow or wearing winter coats (yet).
Dianne & Wil had brought some pickerel fish fillets with them so we had a communal dinner of fish, fresh corn, salad, baked potatoes, and carrots and it was delicious. Wayne would eat more fish…I’m just lousing at cooking it and when it turns out soggy or greasy, it just puts me off and I don’t eat it for months. When it’s cooked properly, I love it and Dianne pan fried it so nicely.
Unless it’s raining or really miserable, we want to drive down to the beach for a stroll. The island was not hit by Hurricane Ike but Dolly went through and did all the damage. Pictures on the internet showed the beach filled with garbage from the mainland but blogs on the web indicated that it was being cleaned up quickly. We’ll see tomorrow. I know Wil & Dianne have to head to Florida to meet their kids for a family trip to Disneyland but I’d like to take some photos of the area that I didn’t get to last time…or screwed up last time and want a second chance.
Texas has hundreds of wildlife refuge areas and because it is on the main path for bird migration, there are lots of areas to view wildlife…I just need the weather to cooperate a little more. I’m just not tough—or motivated—enough to go out in cruddy weather and wait for that ‘perfect’ shot. I do know that I’m getting anxious to do some photography though—it’s one of the reasons I love coming south.
Hope all is well at home. I notice that the bus strike is still on but didn’t see anything on the Citizen website that talked about the amount of snow Ottawa’s had so not sure if it’s better or worse than last year. Let us know so we can commiserate, if only superficially!
Until next time, love and hugs to all. xx