Final post from Port Aransas  - Corpus Christi      and other road trips

The blue dot is where our home is on Mustang Island.  To go to the mainland you can cross on a ferry to Aransas Pass or go down the island and cross on the big bridge into Corpus Christi.  Once we went to San Jose island.  I talked about it in the last post but I called it St. Joe's which is what everyone calls it.  It is the place with the best seashells.  You also have to pay to take the boat over to that island so we only went once as it was 15.00 each.

The ferry service here is excellent.  We usually get right on and across within a few minutes.

The next pictures are from Corpus Christi

These are from our tour of the air craft carrier the USS Lexington

The next ones are from a day trip we took in to drive along the coast and look at how the rich people live.  LOL  also beautiful parks along the water.  We stopped at Oleander Point in Cole Park and walked around enjoying the scenery and the sunny day.

The next photos are from the South Texas Botanical garden

                   nice of the monarch to pose for me, right outside of the butterfly house

                                                                        Panama rose

                                       Indigo spires salvia

                   There were a ton of little lizards all over this fence and all different kinds.

                                             this has to be the cutest little flower ever

        see - he does love the botanical garden.  ;)

There are nice ponds there as well, you can walk around and look at the birds.  the white one is actually an immature little blue heron and the other is a loggerhead shrike.  Both of these I had never seen before.

The next pictures are from north of Port Aransas
in the Rockport area

 bay leaf tree in the garden of the mansion  -   who knew bay leaves grew on trees??  not me

  

               this is called a beauty berry.  i have never seen such a beatiful berry - so purple

 looks kind of spooky in a way

view looking out from the front of the mansion.  This 4 story building was built by Col. G W Fulton overlooking Aransas Bay in 1874.  It is of historical importance to the area as it is one of the earliest second empire style buildings still in existence.  The home featured the most up-to-date conveniences for the times.  It had indoor plumbing, gas lighting and central heating.  The home has quite a history of owners and has survived many hurricanes.  Hurricane Harvey did some damage to one part of the roof which they are still working on.  We stayed quite a while talking with the docents who were just adorable and obviously in love with this house.

We spent a few hours driving along the sea shore and looking at the homes and along piers watching the fishermen.  The live oak trees are so interesting and spooky if you ask me.

One day we went to Goose Island State Park

         hard to imagine a 1000 year old tree - could not even get it all in the  picture

 It was a super good day to be able to get a look at these whooping cranes as well.  There is a National wildlife Refuge near Austwell, TX where the majority of them spend the winter.  We went to take a boat tour but they did not have enough people to run the tour.  As luck would have it the tour only runs Tuesdays and the next 2 Tuesdays are Christmas and New Year.  I was super disappointed but seeing the whoopers on Goose Island was awesome.

 There were a lot of the live oak in this area.  Between them and the many vultures, it was - YUP - spooky!!

This is a Carolina wolfberry.  We see them everywhere we go.  They have pretty purple blossoms and lovely red berries.  Whooping cranes depend on them to regain energy after their long migration to Aransas for the winter.

                no problem finding enough wind for your kite here   That is actually only 2 kites.

 that water was not there the day before.

              the day before the cars pulled right up to the rocks

 we saw some of the biggest waves and erosion of sand in the last couple of days.

We have had a definite change in weather the last few days.  It has cooled down 20 degrees and we have very strong winds.  There was a system  in eastern and central Texas bringing tornadoes. The areas in New Mexico and northern AZ got snow and freezing conditions making travel very dangerous.  
We sure did notice a difference at the beach.  There was a super high tide and lots of beach area washed away along the breakwater.

 This morning we were sitting having our morning coffee when Don looked out our front window with the binoculars and said there are a lot more birds out there than usual-  and there's the pink ones.   We grabbed our jackets and the camera and binoculars and drove over to a road we thought would get us closer to the ponds.  It is an area that is brackish water in between the island and the ocean. It had more water in it than usual as well and a lot more birds.
Don sat in the car while I wandered around in empty lots trying to get a closer view .  A fellow pulled up in his car and I was worried he was gonna tell me to get off his property.  Instead, he says, come to my house and stand on my balcony, you'll get a better view.  So we went to his beautiful house, up 2 stories and out onto a deck that backs these ponds.  Turns out he leads bird walks and works with the Port A Nature Preserve.  He set up his scope and helped me identify a lot of the birds. While we were standing there a lady that works at the ARK which is a marine rehab centre, and her husband (professional wildlife photographer) came over.  
I was , oh crap, this must be a dream.
As we got to talking she said that the banded pelican I saw was one of theirs.  She talked about the many pelicans pouches they sew up etc.  I could have stayed and talked to all of them all  day. 

  https://youtu.be/MMEhNkP4SUo
I made that you tube out of the video I took on the balcony.  It's the same as the one at the top of the post which I added in the wrong spot.  What an absolutely amazing experience.  Bird people are really the best!! 

 sunset from behind our house.  This is the area the birds were in. It is an area that was charlies Pasture nature reserve.  There are a lot of bird towers and there were paths all in that you could walk in.  It was all destroyed by the hurricane and not re built yet.

                 She snaps selfies by the sea shore.

On that note we say goodbye to the island.  It has been an amazing, almost surreal experience that I will never forget.