The drought here in south/central Texas continues to be news. There’s been no rain of any kind in months. Crops are drying up in the fields; lawns and landscaping are dry and crispy; trees and bushes in the near distance are shimmering in so many heat waves that they appear to be floating in water. While we had a bit of a break for a week, heat indices are now back up to 105-110 degrees.
The weather channels are warning people to stay inside; warning that if we have to be outside, to take special precautions to avoid heat illnesses, and to avoid outdoor exercise if at all possible. We’ve heard that it’s the worst drought since the early 1900s.
Keeping Busy
Meanwhile we’ve kept really busy with Melissa and the boys. Fabiola is headed off to Mexico for a few weeks (she’s gone now) and is buying last minute gifts and school supplies for her friends and relatives, so Saturday we trailed Fabi and Melissa around Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, and Best Buy in Corpus Christi.
The shopping was followed up with a late dinner at a great Mexican fast food place. I had a chance to try to Agua de Jamaica for the first time – a drink made from dried hibiscus flowers. I’ve already looked up the recipe and we may try to make it on the road. Here in Texas we can buy packages of the dried hibiscus flowers; Fabi says to look near the dried peppers to find them, but other sources say to look near the coffee and tea section.
We had a triple-header movie day with Melissa on Sunday, throughout the day, complete with iced coffees, popcorn, and an array of candy bars; I teased Melissa, telling her it looked like the candy counter at the movie theaters. It was just what we needed – a full day to have some downtime.
Last week we went bowling in Aransas Pass with Melissa, the boys, and Melissa’s friend Veronica, had lunch, and spent an hour or so near the bridge at Gunn Brown harbor, watching the birds and checking out the tidal flats.
Melissa trumped us in the bowling scores, Chelsea came in second, and I came in third, much to my surprise (I’ve been bowling a grand total of three times in my life). What helped my score tremendously was getting two strikes – the only strikes in the group of six players. Oh well, if I can’t be skilled, I guess lucky will do!
Rialto Theater
After a great dinner at a Mexican restaurant, we walked over to the Rialto Theater in downtown Aransas Pass. The Rialto is currently a “performance and visual arts forum” in a renovated theater that dates back to 1937. After a fifty-four year run as a regular movie theater, it went quiet in 1991, and was revived in 2004 as a performance arts center.
The theater offers stage plays, an oldies movie club, various music performances, and a regular Tuesday night schedule of “Rialto Rhythms, open acoustic jam”. The Tuesday event is a chance for anyone musically inclined to get together with others and perform onstage in a very informal environment.
Andrew is a friend of Melissa’s who had joined us for dinner. Quite talented in a number of areas, he’s very musically accomplished. We’d had the idea that he would both sing and play the piano at the acoustic jam, so Andrew spent some time taking song ideas from us, and writing out lyrics from a song Melissa had requested. On arrival though, to our dismay, no piano was in sight.
Instead the evening featured a half dozen guys with guitars, ranging in age from late fifties to late seventies. Each performer took a turn at the microphone, rotating through one song at a time. Several of the performers were inexperienced, but all appeared to have written their own songs, and several performers were very, very good.
It reminded me of an evening from in the late sixties or early seventies, with the war protest songs, socially conscious attitudes, long hair, acoustic guitars, and bare feet or sandals on most of the guys. The big differences were the graying hair, wrinkles, and receding hairlines. The voices and passions and musical ability were still in evidence.
A stage play is currently running at the Rialto, with the stage set up as a living room, creating an intimate home-like environment. The theater holds only ninety-eight seats, so the audience sat close to the stage, adding to the feeling of accessibility to those onstage. All seven of us trooped into the theater a bit late, filling one whole row, and nearly doubling the existing audience.
For just over an hour we listened quietly, enjoying the voices and the guitar and enjoying “the scene”. Our only disappointment was not getting to hear Andrew play the piano.
Chelsea’s birthday
We still talk to Roger from Port Lavaca on a regular basis. One big excitement of the last week was having him come down on Thursday night to take us out to dinner for Chelsea’s birthday (Friday the 24th). After a cheese and crackers treat with Melissa, Roger, Chelsea and I wandered out to downtown Rockport, ending up for dinner at Charlotte Plummer’s.
It was wonderful to see Roger again; he looked great and we loved catching up on everything. After a casual relaxed dinner, Roger took us down to Port Aransas, driving through Aransas Pass and taking the ferry across. We wandered a bit aimlessly for an hour or two, just checking things out, ending up at home about midnight.
Chelsea’s birthday day was really memorable. Melissa had us all out of bed and off to Corpus Christi by 9:30 a.m. where we spent the day at the Texas State Aquarium. Melissa had an unexpected change of plans and had to leave us shortly after eleven, so we spent until four in the afternoon hanging out with the boys, Quentin and Robert.
The entry was a work of art in itself; it was a huge plexiglass set of arches with water cascading down, replicating a waterfall.
The exhibits and shows were awesome: Otter Creek, Dolphin Bay, Eagle Pass, the Wild Flight Theater, Islands of Steel (a huge tank with turtles, sharks, groupers, and a gazillion other fish), Amazon, Tortuga Cay, and Stingray Flats. We watched the otters play; we picked up hermit crabs; we touched stingrays; we examined the reptiles and birds in the Amazon exhibit; we watched the dolphins do amazing tricks; we watched the birds and raptors in flight in the Wildlife Show.
Perhaps our favorite was the Islands of Steel. The tank had a section where we could sit on the floor, right up next to the tank, and watch the fish swim slowly by. We spent several hours altogether sitting quietly and watching, with an unparalleled opportunity to study the fish. They swam really close to us, separated only by a few inches of thick plexiglass.
Melissa caught up with us by four. She was still in the mode of celebrating Chelsea’s birthday, so we headed out for frozen custard (just like ice cream) at their favorite place, the Custard Shop in Corpus Christi. It’s one of those places that has a variety of flavors, where customers can mix and match flavors and toppings. Chelsea and I each stretched our boundaries by trying candied jalapeno custard and chocolate raspberry torte. It was delicious…
H.E.B. (stands for H.E. Butt, the founder of the store) is a large chain of stores in Texas and northern Mexico. With a strong environmental aspect, they have a heavy focus on organic and whole foods, and give 5% of their annual pretax profits to charity. The stores are amazing anyway, but Melissa brought us to a particularly amazing store known as H.E.B. Plus!
The store is just huge, and at first glance appears to be a combination of Wal-Mart, Whole Foods, and a huge chain grocery store. We were astounded at the quality and variety and extent of foods. We wandered through the various departments, tasting cheeses, wines, and a freshly prepared poached salmon with an elegant green salad. We were tickled when Chelsea got carded (asked for identification to prove she was over twenty-one) for the wine tasting (about a half ounce each) on her 25th birthday.
We finished up the evening with dinner at the Golden Corral. We’d met former classmates of Melissa’s at H.E.B, Luke, Daryela, and Daryela’s cousin Sandra. All in all, it was truly a memorable birthday for Chelsea.
More events and fun
This week we saw The Ugly Truth in theaters in Corpus Christi, then attended a pizza night for Melissa’s International Students group at Texas A&M in Corpus Christi (Chelsea and I played Monopoly with the boys), followed up by a few hours at the Texas House of Rock (a bar) in downtown Corpus.
One of Melissa’s long time friends is a part owner of the House of Rock. In recent years they’ve completely revamped the look and reputation of the place, and in a plan to increase business on Wednesdays, they are offering any beer in stock at $2.50. Since they carry nearly eighty different brands of imported beer, that’s quite a deal! Chelsea tried a Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale while I drank a Young’s Double Chocolate Ale.
We loved Casey, the owner; if you are ever in downtown Corpus Christi, be sure to stop by the House of Rock and try an imported beer. If you’re not into beer, they have Jagermeister on tap and a full bar.
Thursday night Daryela got tickets to the Hooks baseball game at Whataburger Stadium in Corpus Christi. The Hooks team is a minor league team that is a feeder for the Houston Astros. We spent maybe half the game following Daryela, Melissa, and Luke around the stadium, but it gave us a chance to see the whole place. We ended up in seats right behind the catcher, so we got a good view of the action for the last few innings.
Chelsea was really pleased because it was her first major sports event ever (not counting the bike racing at the Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984 when she was only ten days old). We’re happy to report that the Hooks won, 5-3.
Chelsea’s carrot cake
We’ve had a particularly great recipe for carrot cake that I got from a close friend in the Czech Republic back in 1995, and we used it for many years as a special birthday cake. Chelsea loves the cake so much that she made a point of copying out the recipe from the cookbook before we packed it into storage. Needless to say, it’s been a challenge to make the carrot cake since we’ve been on the road.
Chelsea hit the big time this week though. Melissa stopped by the store and bought the ingredients necessary for the cake, so Chelsea and the boys spent time the other day making the carrot cake. It’s absolutely delicious, and each piece we eat brings back lots of good memories from over the years.
Being closer to Mexico
We’ve been really interested in how things are changing the closer we get to Mexico. After Corpus Christi is Kingsville, then it’s a straight shot right down to Brownsville, which is a border town.
Spanish is spoken everywhere; Mexican fast food places and Mexican restaurants are everywhere; Mexican food products are widely available in the grocery stores; and we see a huge number of Mexicans and Americans of recent Mexican descent. It’s been a wonderful opportunity for us to get a feeling for the country and the language, and get into the spirit of being in another country.
Heading to Port Lavaca and home
We’ve had some big changes the last few days; we are headed back to Port Lavaca tomorrow night to stay with Roger for the week, then we are headed back to Houston. From Houston we are either catching a ride with a friend to New Orleans, then catching a ride back to Southeast Florida on a Craigslist rideshare; or we’ll catch a rideshare right from Houston.
We’ve got two Houston-South Florida possibilities now, but that can change. One possibility would put us into Orlando, and we’d need to catch another ride from there.
We are headed back home for the next eight weeks or so because we need to further downsize, and Alex needs some help with the house. Chelsea will be responsible for taking care of the house and downsizing issues while I write. Our goal is to have the book(s) finished before we head out, and have the temperatures at more ride-able levels.
We will head back to Corpus Christi, and ride from there into Mexico, making it to the Yucatan at a great time of the year. We’re feeling really good about our plans, and feeling wonderful about seeing our family again. We haven’t seen them for well over a year and half.
Melissa and the boys have headed out tonight to Austin, then tomorrow they’ll be going to San Antonio. Chelsea and I are staying here to do laundry, clean, and get ready to head out ourselves.
Signing off from Rockport TX…