Friday, 23 Mar 2012 - SPI

Our own little piece of heaven

Beautiful beach shells in every colour of the rainbow

The little Sandpipers are so cute..and fast

I wonder if Interior Decorator's come to the beach for colour schemes. They should!

It's been a busy week (remember, 'busy' has a whole different meaning for us) and now that the mega-hordes of Spring Breakers have left, things are returning to normal. There's still a few bunches partying but not anywhere in the numbers of last week. As entertaining as the kids were, it's nice to have some peace and quiet in the hood. Next week is the Easter holiday in Mexico and many of them own places here so it will be busy with families.

The beaches have been packed on the weekends. There are some Spring Breakers but it's most Mexican families who come with tents and barbeques who come for the day. We were at the North end beach last Sunday and it was mile after mile of cars parked beside one another down the beach. The kids all go in the water, despite the chilly temperature and hundreds of radios playing traditional Mexican music are blasting. I tried to nap but the deep base music was even reverberating through the sand and there was no question of having a sleep. However, yesterday was a different matter....Wayne and I literally had the beach to ourselves although we had driven probably 10 miles down. It's like being on a desert island when all you can see around you are sand dunes and ocean and nothing else. The shells in that area are so numerous and from previous big storms or hurricanes, can be found 100 ft from the water. I could spend hours taking photos of all the different shapes and colours.

There's a sense of 'hurry' on the island and we've decided that it's all the Winter Texans trying to get all those things done on their list of 'things to do' before they get home. We are no different. Earlier this week we went to visit Dianne and Will Joudrey, friends of ours from Winnipeg, who bought a place in Weslaco, about 1 hr from us. We had 2 days of long happy hours, tremendous meals and lots of laughs. Poor Will was really suffering with a cold but trouper that he, wouldn't give in and ends up getting the 'Host of the Year' award. We walked across the bridge to Progresso, Mexico and I got some of those beautiful Mexican flower pots that I never had room to bring home before. The garden is going to look quite spectacular this year...for a number of reasons...and I was so excited to finally get them. Dianne even put me onto the 7 ft lighted palm tree I've been looking for over the past 5 hrs so all in all, it was quite a successful couple of days. Mind you, packing to go home may turn out to be a bit more challenging than packing to come here.

We've been trying to spend at least a good portion of every day at the beach. We are down to our last week and given the crappy weather we had in Feb, we have some tanning time to catch up on. Because there is always a breeze at the beach, it's easy to get burned so we slather ourselves really well before we go down. I know Wayne is very brown and I sometimes don't recognize myself in the mirror so I guess I'm tanned as well. We were at the beach this afternoon and I saw a couple standing by the water's edge. She dumped a bag of pink rose petals in the water and they stood there with their arms around another for a long while, watching the petals come in and go back out in the waves. It was clearly in remembrance of someone and I found it very touching. It can't help but make you think about all the people you miss having in your life.

Everyone talks to everyone here. Today Wayne was 'renovating' a big, beautiful alligator sculpted by the kids from sand and this woman came over to ask about it.  Within 5 minutes she had moved her, and her sister's towel over beside our chairs and proceeded to give me her life story. Wayne took off...bugger....and for the next hour I did not see that woman take a breath. Every story included the phrase "to make a long story short" until I was just about ready to poke a needle in my eye. As soon as Wayne came back I said we had to go and get ready for dinner so made an escape. Very nice people (her sister actually knew that Ottawa was the capital of Canada) but took 'friendly conversation' to a whole new level.

The bird migration south has just about finished and we will be long gone before they start the return trip in Apr-May. I've been to a couple of bird sanctuaries in the last week and there's not much to be seen. Because of the drought conditions in Texas, many of the birds went a bit further south this year.

We've been Skyping  with the family quite a bit and I can see some changes in the kids but I'm sure I'll be amazed when we finally get our hands on them. Gillian can sing her 'ABCs' and Tori is talking a blue streak..."Lookit my toes, Papa". It's all about Papa! Ty seems to be taller each time we see him. We'll head to Toronto from here and see that gang for a couple of days and then head for Ottawa and a very busy Spring ahead...leading up to a new baby girl in June. Lord, life is good!

We just got home from Gabriella's...the best Italian restaurant in the world...and I'm too full to go to the movie to see Hunger Games. The clothes are really starting to get tight and now I have first hand knowledge of what a 'muffin top' is all about. I know that's why my back is bothering me; extra weight and sitting in a beach chair too much. However, it will all end soon enough.

That life on SPI this week. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the nice weather stays long enough for us to see it when we get home. Keep in mind that we need some April showers for May flowers..but not too much! Until next time, take care and love and hugs to all.