Monday, 5 Mar 2012 - SPI

Wayne in his 'lounge' chair (look at that beach!)

Her Imperial Highness Gail Wells & consort (Graham)

I really AM on this holiday as well.

First and foremost, Happy Birthday to my sweet baby brother Colin. I know exactly how old he is but won't say it in case he's trying to pretend he's a few years younger! It seems as though I've always 'mothered' him and now that he's a Grandfather, I guess I can stop.

This was the kind of day that makes me fall in love with this island over and over again. The sun came out yesterday..just in time for the first shift of the kids arriving for Spring Break..and the sun shone right through today. Yesterday we went to the worst Flea Market (for WASPs) in the world...the best Flea Market in the world for Mexicans. It was all piles and piles and racks of used clothing and worse junk but many Mexicans drive across the border to shop here as it's cheap and they just can't afford to buy it at home. The guys did stop at the Burlington Coat Factory so we could cruise around there for a bit so the afternoon wasn't a total loss. We had been up early to go to church for 8 am so after Skyping with Colin, Jen and Gillian, we headed for Pizza Hut and were then not long in going to bed.

We'd already decided that this was going to be a beach day so we packed up and had a few glorious hours on the beach, flying our kites, reading, eating lunch and yes, even having a glass of wine. Life is pretty tough here!

A significant number of the Winter Texans have left--many of them who live closer to the town centre just cannot cope with the sheer number of Spring Break kids that will be arriving en masse next week. We live almost at the furthest end of town so don't see or hear them too much except for loud mufflers on muscle cars speeding down the highway at the end of the street, normally followed by police sirens. It will be crazy here though...at some points traffic coming over to SPI on the bridge is totally backed up and the police stop cars from coming over until more leave the island. I think we will go over the bridge one night later this week and stock up on groceries for the following week so we don't get caught up in that jam. Fortunately, we are content to walk down to the end of our street to the beach or up the beach to Wanna Wanna for a drink instead of trying to navigate our way around town so I don't think any of that will have much affect on us. Gail and Graham are here until next Monday and I expect the weekend here will be pretty wild. Fortunately they fly out early in the morning so the traffic won't affect us getting them to the airport. The kids might party all night but they sleep half the day.

Got to Skype with Kim tonight and see our babies. Lord, they are growing so fast. We will go around that way on our trip home and we are looking forward to seeing them all.

That was our day on South Padre Island and a darn good one it was! Hope all is well with everyone at home. Until next time, love and hugs to all. xx