Maria and the kids swung by TX for a week-long visit before heading to AZ. It was wonderful to show them around and spend time with them!
Day 1: Houston Museum of Natural Science - embarking on our 1st day out and totaling 3-1/2 miles of walking, was this beautiful museum with a butterfly exhibit. It was a fun-filled day with LOTS of learning! Day 2: Space Center Houston - Since Mark used to work here, he was thrilled to show everything to the kiddos. It was another fun-filled day with 3 miles of walking. The highlights were the Apollo 5 Rocket and seeing the astronaut training facility. Day 3: Galveston Beach - Us 3-generations of ladies went to spend the day in Galveston.. Canal tour, beaching, and swimming. It was a hot but pretty awesome day! The highlight of this trip was seeing the dolphins in the canal! Day 4: Houston Zoo - Another 3-generation lady trip, it was a very hot day, but we enjoyed seeing all the animals at this beautiful zoo! The highlights? Bree being in such a silly mood! :-) Papa Mark was excited to show the kiddos his lab, and may as well get a home-school science lesson in while he's at it! The highlights, especially for the kids was the demonstration of lightning from the Tesla coil. Day 5: Houston Downtown Aquarium - This was a very small but nice aquarium with a few rides for the young kids. Highlight of this trip with the Shark Tunnel! Day 6: Kemah Boardwalk - halfway back toward Galveston, this boardwalk is a small amusement park on the water. Three of the larger rides were down that day, and I'm sure the highlight would have been the wooden roller coaster. However, since we didn't experience that, the highlight of our trip was the spiral ride to view the area. It was air conditioned on this 106 degree day! :-)
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It is always nice to take a break from the 'norm', and we've been looking forward to visiting Corpus Christi for quite a while. Our favorite area? Port Aransas, watching the wild dolphins playing in the bow wave of the ships. :-) Places we visited: Aransas National Wildlife Refuge: This refuge is known for the Whooping Cranes who migrate here in the winter. They were mostly gone when we visited, but we did end up seeing 7 of them from afar. Next year we hope to visit the Whooping Crane festival in February. South Texas Botanical Garden & Nature Center: With a $9 entry fee, this cute botanical garden was more of a unique walk than a garden. They do accept dogs, so we did this on a day we took Pica with us. They have a greenhouse of Orchids which was fabulous, but otherwise just a good excuse for a walk. They had 1 bird out, but the other 20 birds were put away for the day. OSO Bay Wetlands Preserve: Also dog friendly. We didn't see many birds here, but it was a beautiful walk with nicely groomed trails. About 3 miles here. Hans & Pat Suter Wildlife Refuge: A smaller refuge near the bay, Pica walked the boardwalk with us to see the bridge and bar area. About a mile walk, but the boardwalk is in need of repair and it was a bit scary to be on. Most of the time, we carried Pica in fear of her paws stepping on nails. Port Aransas (Dolphins & Pelicans): Oh my, this place is a MUST GO spot if you visit the area! I read that this was a hot-spot for dolphins, and it wasn't long until we found them swimming in the channel! It was pretty common to see them playing around boats, but the most amazing was to see them just play in the bow-wave of the large ships. After this ship arrived in the gulf, the dolphins would disappear for a while, then show up when another ship went by. Just like a bunch of teenagers 'catching their wave' all day.. :-) Texas Aquarium: Reviews on this place were not that great, but we went anyway. We had a good time, but it was way too busy to really enjoy the exhibits. At $35 each, I don't think we'll be back. U.S.S. Lexington: A retired air craft carrier that was involved in Pearl Harbor and World War II. It was commissioned for 40 years before it was finally retired and placed at Corpus Christi. I must say, this was absolutely BY FAR, the best ship tour we've ever had! After 3 hours, we still hadn't seen everything, and we were allowed to tour 6 different decks, the flight deck, the bridge, and LOTS more.. We would also recommend this ship visit if you're in the area, and is well worth the $17/$19 entrance fee. Sea Life Education Center: A small little building and a $9 entrance fee, this place is active in saving the sea turtles and releasing the babies in the summer. Their knowledge is amazing, and it was wonderful to see all the animals in their care. Padre Island: this island is a home to MANY birds, and has over 60 miles of drivable beach, most of which can be camped on. It was beautiful for a day trip, but we quickly learned that the beautiful photos we've seen online are not what the beach is like. We'll be keeping our RV off of this beach. We ended up grabbing a special trash bag from the visitor center and spent our time walking the beach and picking up garbage. Nope. we didn't even make a dent. We don't have to go back. Ever!
I'm calling this 'Animal Week' because I took so many shots of the animals in the park!
We also went to dinner with our new friends, and saw a gorgeous sunset! And of course.. The work.. Amongst our play and animal moments we are here to give of our time and talents to help BBSP in areas where they need the most. This week, it included power washing some buildings and cleaning signs! We also cleaned the observation tower, picked up garbage, emptied garbage barrels, cleaned picnic areas, cleaned out fire pits and grills, and checked bathrooms. In the middle of all that, we get a LOT of opportunities to speak with visitors about the area and the alligators! We love that a lot! I have descriptions with the photos. Enjoy! :-) Our official first week of work, and I must say, it was a bit more than I had expected. A lot of training, then bam! On work dutie at the end of the week! It's ok though, we were ready to begin doing the work we had dreamed of.
Being the Host on Duty (HOD) means we are on call from 8am-10pm. We take counts in the morning, answer questions as needed, get the mail, and just drive through the campground and day use areas a few times during the day to make sure everything is going well. Today we also chose to do a little more work that needed to get done before next weekend! Mark offered to detail their van, so before long he had a list 6-days long! I checked all the bathrooms (someone else cleans them), then I flipped the small reservations signs, checked in the dining hall reservation, and cleaned up the day use area that had sand & chalk all over. Fun fun.. So besides having problems with the radio, we had a good first HOD day, and confident enough that we can do this job. The days we're not HOD, we make occasional runs when needed to take of our designated area, which is one day use area (40 acre lake), and the overflow campsites. We also pick up garbage whenever we see it, and talk with visitors. That part is a blast!! So here are some pics from week 1. I just can't get over these trees! Oh yes... and a new camera is on order, so expect some awesome shots coming soon! (I hope).. :-) We are all nestled in to our home for 3 months. We have our uniforms, assignments, and have started training already. We are really going to love this place! What I’m especially excited about? Holding the baby alligators and showing them to visitors!!
Brazos Bend is one of top visited state parks in Texas, with 5000+ acres, a variety of ecosystems, 37 miles of trails, 13 miles of horse trails, Nature center, ranger programs, with 73 modern campsites and 13 primitive tenting sites. They are home to many varieties of birds, 25 varieties of mammals, and 21 species of reptiles. The most common to this park is the American Alligator (which I might add are less aggressive than the crocodile). We are volunteering as park hosts during our stay here, and will also help the rangers with a variety of tasks as needed. We are very excited about this opportunity, and very thankful that Rob & Helen told us about the TX state park volunteer program. After visiting cousins, we spent a warm day in St. Louis. We toured the free Zoo, and toured the Budweiser plant; only because I love the horses!
The Zoo itself is spectacular! It is very well designed, and I especially loved the monkey area that has been built in a way where the people walk through their exhibit. The Budweiser plant tour was fair, only because we didn't get to actually touch the horses. It was pretty cool to see the bottling facility and how they made it. Thanks to Maria and Bree's excitement for raising their Monarch 'Parker', she got us interested into raising a few of our own. We found a few eggs and small cats, and began. I tell you what, there is a LOT to learn, but OH, so VERY fun! I have the description on each of the photos.
A piece of info. It is illegal to cross state lines with any kind of monarch in any stage. For that reason, we have to make sure we do this process only in MI while we're here. They will all be released by the end of August so they stay in their home area. We have been wanting to stay here for a while. At the last minute though, we decided to reserve an electric site instead of depending on an open spot at a dispersed campground. Mostly because we're larger. We're glad we did, as it got pretty cold at night, so we were able to use our fireplace to keep warm instead of propane.
The site at Energy Lake Campground was awesome! Site 7 gave us a 100 degree view of the lake. Site #9 would be best if you're interested. It's for larger rigs, and provides a GREAT view of the lake at the top of the hill. We visited the Nature Center Zoo during our stay, and their animals were all found on the peninsula and are being rehabilitated or are injured and cannot be released. Stay Details: Energy Lake Campground - North/east side on Land Between the Lakes, Kentucky. There are a LOT of areas on the peninsula that are dispersed camping, but only 3 campgrounds that are more modern with electric and water. This being one of them. Out site was #7, but if we stay here again we will reserve #9. All on this loop have beautiful views of the lake, and the campground has spacious, well cared for sites. Since City of Rocks is a really dark campground, we took advantage of that and had some fun with the telescope. It was a cold evening (34 degrees), but no breeze so it was doable. During the telescope setup, an owl came to visit in a nearby tree! So, we aimed the telescope at him. How pretty!
Before heading out for the day of sightseeing, Mark filled in as Docent for one tour because they were short-handed. It gave me an opportunity to take some photos of him doing what he LOVES to do; teaching others. Here are some photos of Mark's tour and some beautiful views of Sedona. Honanki Heritage Site is Palatki's sister site. However, the archeologists have only found proof of the Sinagua people being there and no prior archaic people like they did at Palatki. Even though the archeologists documented over 1200 pictograph images, they do not study it anymore because of all the graffiti has covered up much of the history in a few short years. You can still see the pictographs and the dwelling very well, but because of this, the site is open to visitors without a docent and no reservations are required. Here are photos of Honanki Heritage Site.... The Chapel of the Holy Cross has been an icon of Sedona since 1956. It has been on our "to-see" list for a while, and it does indeed have a gorgeous view of the valley and nearby mountains! If you plan a visit here, know that the parking spots are pretty small. Last but not least, is some extra photos around Palatki. Some views from the grotto, along with sunset views and some animals we caught on our night camera. It was a Mule Deer and Hooded Skunk.
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