Port Isabel & South Padre Island, Texas

Yesterday we drove the motorhome the about 50 miles from Harlingen to Port Isabel, Texas.

We spent the night parked at Wal-Mart in Port Isabel because of its convenient location. Parked at the far edge of the parking lot made for a relatively quiet night’s sleep. We’ll move on this morning to Brownsville about 25 miles distant..

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

As always, i like to show the view from the dining room window…

It ended up being a full day exploring the local area. The Google Earth image below shows Port Isabel as PI and South Padre Island as SPI. The Rio Grande River enters the Gulf of Mexico from the lower left…

Because I took so many photos yesterday…in this Blog entry I’m going to show you only a couple from each location. To see the rest of the photos you will have to click the provided Picasa Web Album link.

First stop of the day was at the Port Isabel Historical Museum…

To see the other 18 photo I took at the Port Isabel Historical Museum, click this Picasa Web Album link…
https://picasaweb.google.com/110455945462646142273/PortIsabelHistoricalMuseumTexas

The second stop od the day was at the Treasures Of The Gulf Museum…

To see the other 21 photos I took at this museum, click this link…
https://picasaweb.google.com/110455945462646142273/TreasuresOfTheGulfMuseumPortIsabelTexas

Third stop was at the Port Isabel Lighthouse which provided a nice view of South Padre Island…

To see the other 7 photos, click this link…
https://picasaweb.google.com/110455945462646142273/PortIsabelLighthouseTexas

A combination ticket to all three museums for seniors was only $5, You can read about theses museums by clicking their website link…
http://portisabelmuseums.com/mopi/

After the lighthouse it was time for a late lunch at Joe’s Oyster House…

Where we both had…naturally…the delicious grilled shrimp plate for $8.95…

Now it was time to cross the Queen Isabela Causeway to South Padre Island. Here’s an aerial view I picked off of Google Earth…

You can read all about South Padre Island by clicking this Wikipedia link…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Padre_Island,_Texas

First stop  was at the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center…

To see the other 23 photos, click this link…
https://picasaweb.google.com/110455945462646142273/SouthPadreIslandBirdingNatureCenterTexas

You can read all about this place by clicking their website link…
http://spibirding.com/

Then we drove “up Island” to see the beaches…

To see the other 5 photos, click this link…
https://picasaweb.google.com/110455945462646142273/SouthPadreIslandTexas

Enjoying beautiful area locations is another joy of the full-time Rving lifestyle!!!

The red dot on the below map shows our approximate location in the State of Texas. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…
http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2013
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

LIFE’S A BEACH

When the weather gets rough, the tough think of summer. Not the weather wimp! He is miserable. Mostly because the woodstove chimney decided it needed a Chimney Sweep. One of those things I didn’t take care of during the summer. Maybe, because I was having a great time on the East Coast where I photographed these beaches.

This rocky, hidden beach is at Gay Head.  Many hidden spots like this one require a climb.

On Martha’s Vineyard, the beaches are friendlier, but not used very much in June.

The Western end of Martha’s vineyard has beaches, but people here seem more interested in clamming, sailing and fishing. But, its a beach.

Some people like to lie on the beach, relax and tan. Me?  I like to rock climb and then cool my toes, or clothes. The remoteness appeals to me as well.

Sun and sand has its fans.

Jim’s family spend a week or two at Rockyneck every year in Connecticut.

New Hampshire attracts sun lovers.

But, a beach is where you find it, no matter how rocky or small. These girls were taking advantage of every inch in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. Life’s a beach! Especially when snow is on the horizon.

WEST ISLAND, A PERFECT DAY

Every once in awhile, you experience a perfect day. The sky couldn’t be bluer, the weather more perfect, no stop lights, (none, so far on the island) or traffic jams; gorgeous scenery grabbing your eye at every turn and then you discover Larsen’s. I was standing at the refrigerator debating about the lobster rolls or stuffed scallops when a local came in and sort of pushed me aside and grabbed every last lobster roll for she and her friends. Wha!
This must be the place. And, it was!
But I’m ahead of  myself. First, the harbor at Menemsha. Its on the West side of the Island

It has a working fishing fleet and private boats as well.We walked the breakwater, smelled the ocean air, watched the birds, and surf. The sun, after rainy yesterday felt good.

This was one of many uncrowded beaches. I’m sure there will be more bikers and visitors on the weekend. This side of the island gets less visitors and less locals. Probably because the real estate here is divided into no less than 3 acre parcels, very expensive parcels.

We watched as this boater backed into his stall. His young son jumped off and tied off. Then the family disembarked. They were very friendly and nice to we tourist types with or cameras.

This gull actually posed for us. We saw it searching for tidbits on a boat that had recently come in.

This fish shanty begged “get out your easel and paint me”.

The fish shanties are weathered grey shingles but often have bright orange, red, yellow or blue doors. Jim was set to take my picture and a local woman offered to snap the two of us. Yes! Thank you!

One small harbor and it had five fish markets. At Menemsha, we stopped in and sampled the lobster bisque and clam chowder. The bisque had large chunks of claw meat in it, the best I’d ever tasted. Both were meaty superior tasting. It doesn’t get any better than this. Their fish tank held  a giant lobster nicknamed Lobsterzilla at 16 lbs. Estimated age 100 years. Its right claw was as big as my hand, only thicker.

It would be a sin to eat him methinks. We bought chowder and bisque to take home.
Then we poked our head into Larsens. Steamer clams for Jim. I tried a couple of oysters on the half shell, and one cherrystone clam, (I’d never eaten cherrystones before,) plus a stuffed scallop and a stuffed quahog. As we propped on the edge of a weathered box to eat our lunch, locals told us that Larsens has the best lobster in all new England. “Better than Maine. When we get here, we just toss everything and zap over here and get our first lobster. Nothing over a pound or a pound and 1/2, they advised.” The lady who took all the lobster rolls must have known. Yup! We were definitely in the right place. The refrigerator was refilled with lobster rolls but we were too full by then.  Hopefully time will allow a return to Larsens Fish Market.

Moving westward to Gay Head, we visited the cliffs and the Gay Head lighthouse. Nearly deserted beaches along the way and in every direction. Beautiful is sort of an inadequate word at times.

The light house light cycles every few seconds and I caught it on the red.

We left this spot to return home and found the prettiest spot on the island. This little inlet at Clam Cove north of Aquinnah.

This shallow little cove is perfect for small boats, children at play, kayaks, rafts and small craft. It rests the eyes to look at it. Except for the whiffs of chowder  in the car, reminding us of what we had waiting for us, we hated to return home. A perfect day.
For more pictures, I uploaded an album: http://picasaweb.google.com/1579penn/61110WestIslandMenemsha#