So far so good
Trip Start
Dec 01, 2011
1
Trip End
Feb 01, 2012
Corpus Christi, Texas
Sunday, January 15, 2012
This year's trip to Texas started with Thanksgiving dinner, with my older son Christoph, daughter-in-law Mona and three beautiful granddaughters. Katherine baked a wonderful pie, Isabella made autumn leaf table decorations, and Emma kept us entertained with her off the wall imagination. A few weeks later, Isabella made the top 25 in the 3K running event at the US Track and Field Junior Olympics in Myrtle Beach, SC. She and her dad returned home in time to see Katherine and Emma dancing in the Nutcracker. I also got to visit with good friends, Eileen Roberts in Las Cruces, NM and Kippy Massey, who moved last year from Corpus to near Denton, TX, north of Dallas. In between I did the walking tour of historic downtown Abilene, TX. It's an old railroad town, and the restored station is great, but the best attraction is this beautifully restored old movie palace.
I have been keeping pretty busy this year helping out with the training of new volunteers for the VITA program (volunteer tax assistance), but here there is always time to watch the fabulous sunrises from my window on Corpus Christi Bay. I've made it to most of my favorite birding spots and was happy to see the great kiskadees have returned after last year's February freeze drove them away.
Karen and I did the Volkswalk on the new north end of the San Antonio RiverWalk with our WAI traveling companion Janet Carley. After a great lunch at the Guenther House in the King William district, we drove back to Corpus. For the rest of the week we took the grand tour of town, did another Volkswalk around the downtown Corpus Christi Bayfront, visited Padre Island National Seashore, and drove down Mustang Island to Port Aransas and the Rockport/Fulton area.
On New Year's day I participated in Walk the Bridge, with 150 hardy souls who walked across the Harbor Bridge (US 181) and back. The bridge spans 620 feet of water, crossing the Nueces River, and the vertical clearance for shipping is 138 feet! That's a tall ship. I used to walk the bridge on my own all the time, but the sidewalks have been closed for the last few years due to a huge construction project. The police open the sidewalks once a month for the Bridge Walk folks. The walk covers around 2.5 to 3 miles and it's the steepest hill (some say the only hill) in town. The views are fabulous in all directions.
A surprise treat in January was the concert by Soul Aviv, who I would describe as a Jewish Gospel singing group. They have taken traditional songs and some they have written themselves, and set them to gospel, motown, Memphis blues and other interesting beats. Their voices are terrific and they harmonize beautifully. Bought two of their CDs and have been playing them ever since. Check them out at http://www.soulaviv.com/.
One of the great things about the small-town friendly Corpus Christi is that it's only two hours from San Antonio, one of my favorite cities. On a recent trip I did the Volkswalk around the San Antonio Missions National Historic Park. It was hard to get a good shot of Mission San Juan because it is under construction right now. A huge project is restoring several of the missions, as well as reconnecting them with the natural course of the San Antonio river.
Next blog entry will be from my Walking Adventure in India Feb. 4-19.
Comments
Thank you for sharing as always :)
Absolutely breathtaking pics with wondeful commentary.....thanks again for taking me along!
So...when and where is the next trip?