A trip to the big city

The title may be a bit misleading; however, Corpus Christi is the biggest city anywhere near by. Of course the waterfront was where we were heading and Corpus Christi has a beautiful marina and boardwalk overlooking the bay.

 I was drawn to take a picture of the appropriately designed lounging area below:

While taking that picture De Anne was, as always, drawn to the water and tried to make a get-a-way:

Looking back on the city:

Like many other harbors around the country a replica of the Nina, one of the ships of Columbus:

We (and by we, especially De Anne) are enjoying the 80's and sunshine of south Texas.

Around town

Our little town of Bayside (population 350) can be traversed easily by bike, and hugs the north side of Capano Bay.

 We paused at the city pier for a vista, and caught an air boat going by.

I have a new theory on the prevalence of pickup trucks in rural Texas. Everyone has dogs and the bed of a pickup is the ideal place to carry them - especially if you take them with you everywhere. 

Here in Bayside the number of dogs seems to equal people. As an added bonus the guy next door has a big coop for pigeons, who get an hour of exercise every afternoon flying a big loop repeatedly around the town. 

A woman down the street has 2 small dogs and 2 huge pigs in her yard. When De Anne goes by, the dogs race up to fence barking, followed by grunting pigs.  

It's Texas - live how you want to live!

Bayside

It has been a busy couple weeks and I have not had a chance to post before today.

Tristan and Kat had a formal wedding at the Omni in downtown Washington DC on Oct 22nd. Although they had a civil ceremony on June 10th, the day after Tristan graduated from his Master's program, she and her family wanted the full ceremony in a nice setting.

It was quite the event with 2 days of parties, gazebo wedding, and formal dinner and dance afterwards. My role was father of the groom, which entailed little responsibility, and also best man which added a bit more. I did run the aisle more than anyone else since I had to walk the mother of the groom (known on all other days as De Anne) then run back down the side to enter with Tristan. Afterwards I walked the Maid of Honor out then ran back up for De Anne. Don't worry - I made it look good! De Anne, of course, was stunning in a floor length, off the shoulder, slinky black and white gown. Even though I clean up well and was in a tux I am sure people were wondering what a woman like that was doing with an ugly brute like me.

 We did return to Virginia Beach where he and Kat now live while Tristan is stationed in Norfolk. All four of us returned from DC with matching colds.

 We took it easy knowing we were a few days away from a 1,600 mile cross-country trip. Alas, rest did not make us well, so De Anne and I crossed the country coughing and blowing and spreading germs from state to state. Should you hear news reports of wide spread illness across the southern states of America - you gentle reader will know the cause.

In Louisiana I spotted a billboard for an urgent care center at the next exit and made a command decision to stop. After $386.00 in doctor fees and dropping $120.00 at the Walmart across the street for various meds we continued our journey west. The doctor did give us both shots and a double dose of pills plus some liquid codeine to help us sleep. It made today's travel tolerable. I consider the $500.00 an investment in continued life.

 We are now in a cute cabin in Bayside Texas overlooking Copano Bay.

Beach days

Hurricane Matthew was a near miss, so after a couple days of hunkering down, sunny skies and calm conditions required us to catch up on our beach time.

 We walked the western side of the Chesapeake Bay where it meets the Atlantic. While enjoying the solitude of a beach almost to ourselves there were signs beach erosion.

 All ours:

This was formerly a path down to the beach. Now the last step is a drop off.

How about a million dollar beach home and your stairs down to the beach ends in mid air.

Yesterday we drove over to Virginia Beach to walk the boardwalk. At the mid-point this large sculptural rendition of Poseidon.

Water front property

It was a near miss with hurricane Matthew, but still a couple days of excitement.

A few brief power outages, high winds stripping leaves from the trees, and lots of torrential rain has left the street in front of our house more suitable for kayaking rather than driving. I had to discourage De Anne from launching her kayak off the driveway with horror stories of what might lurk in the waters.

We now fully appreciate the house sitting on high ground and the driveway that has a sharp upward slope,

8:00 am Sunday morning;

High tide

We are settled in Virginia Beach VA, or more specifically Chic's Beach near the Kellam Bridge/Tunnel. We are a block from the ocean and if predictions for Hurricane Matthew pan out that might be more than close enough.

 Although high winds, clouds, and the threat of rain discouraged us from a morning beach walk today, when we saw the high surf advisory we had to see for ourselves. Our first beach walk (sans pictures) on Saturday was benign. Gentle waves lapping a 10 to 20 yard wide stretch of sand.

 Pictures 1 and 2 were taken at high tide yesterday and pictures 3 and 4 are similar angles from today.

The next day

3 ferrys and 2 lighthouses

Our next stop for the month of October is Virginia Beach and we could have driven the whole way; but, what fun is that?

My intrepid wife plotted our course over land and water starting with the Cherry Point ferry. I sighed and then I rolled my eyes. She just smiled, because she knew which way we we going and the pictures below proved she was right.

 All of our worldly goods in one picture:

A one hour cross-island dash put us on the Cedar Island ferry. A $15 poor man's cruise of 2 1/2 hours to Ocracoke Island.

From the upper deck:

A storm chasing us the whole way:

The somewhat uninspiring Ocracoke lighthouse:

The third and final ferry of the day to Hatteras Island. Note all our goods still intact:

Ending the day on a high note - the magnificent Hatteras lighthouse: