Looks a lot like Spring

First day of warmer weather and the birds are busy building their nests. We have one building a nest in the ladder on the back of our rig.

Delivering another twig.


Nest is slowly progressing.


Guarding the new found home.

Texas Prison Museum, Huntsville, Texas

Texas is home to many prisons. It has the highest execution rate of any of the other 50 states. When they say, "Don't mess with Texas" that could really apply to those who break the laws punishable by execution. The museum is located in Huntsville, Texas. The cost to tour the musem is $4 for adults. The Huntsville Prison began a rodeo program for the inmates and was so successful that it opened to the public and sometimes would have thousands of people viewing the rodeo. Top name entertainers would also perform during the rodeo. Huntsville was the location for "Old Sparky" where 361 inmates paid for their crimes with their lives. The first lethal injection also took place at Huntsville in 1982. Huntsville was the Carrasco siege took place. There is an exhibit the shows the guards weapons. One exhibit shows how inventive the inmates were at making games, another shows weapons that inmates made. Gary and I enjoyed touring the museum.


Imagine what it took to make this. Some of the inmates had lots of artistic talent.


This guitar was made out of match sticks. No mention of how many or how long it took the inmate to make this.


What a beautiful gun. Some think it was on Bonnie's lap when they were ambushed by the cops.


Old Sparky.

You can see more photos of the museum by clicking on our traveling links on the right.

Tribute to Courage

This tribute to Sam Houston is located in Huntsville, Texas. It is the world's tallest statue. It is 60' tall and stands on a 10' sunset granite base.

A day at the beach

What a beautiful day to be at the beach. We were entertained by lots of pelicans who were feeding on some kind of fish that were in close to shore. We also got to see a few ships coming or going through the ship channel. I think I could go to the beach every day. I enjoyed visiting with the ladies and watching the birds so much that I did not even have time to take out my book.


A few of these pelicans have managed to catch a fish and now are busy swallowing it.


This pelican is diving down to get his lunch.


This ship goes out to work on the platforms in the gulf. The long poles are used to prop up the platform to give the workers stability.


Shimp boat headed out for the day.

South Texas Botanical Gardens

While the guys went fishing, again, Jan and I took a wonderful trip into Corpus Christi to see the Botanical Gardens. We really enjoyed seeing all the flowers; however, we wished we knew exactly what flower we were viewing. There were not little stakes to tell us what each flower was. There was a nice rose garden, however, the roses were not blooming yet. The Gardens are in the process of building a butterfly house. That will be interesting to see. They did have a Butterfly garden, but not many butterflies were present. There was also a Gator Lake, but luckly, Jan and I did not run into any gaters. We really enjoyed the Orchid House. The cost of our tour was $5 for adult and $4 for seniors. This is a place that I will return to.


I managed to catch this butterfly spreading his wings.



Can you spot the grasshopper?


There were lots of buys bees in the garden. These bees were trying to get some sweet stuff from the hummingbird feeder.


This was my favorite orchid. For more pictures of orchids click here.

Great day for big fish

The wind finally died down and we went fishing. Gary caught a sea trout that was 18 1/4" long. He also caught some small red fish. We really enjoyed our day out on the water.

The beginning of a long fight to land a black drum.

Gary hooked one not long after Jan.


Jan landed her black drum after fighting it for about 35 minutes. The fish measured about 33".


This was all we got to see of Gary's fish. He fought his for about 45 minutes, but it broke the line before he could get it close to the boat.

Birding in Aransas Pass and Port Aransas

Jan and I went looking for birds, but there were not many out and about. Too windy. However, we did have a great day.

Birding, Aransas Pass, Port Aransas, Texas

Heron building nest.


Heron


Alligator


My, does that sun ever feel great.

First day fishing in Aransas Pass

Gary had a great time. He caught a large black drum. Thanks to Wes for the pictures.


Now that's a fish.


Have to return it to the sea as it is too big to keep.


Wes caught a big one too.

Lake Medina, Thousand Trails, Lakehills, Texas

We enjoyed this campground very much. We were here from Feb 13-19. Gary was able to put the porte-bote in the water 2 days. One day he hooked a fish that swam under the boat and broke his line. Gary says it was a large fish.


Gary getting ready to put the porte-bote together.


There were lots of deer at this campground


One day we had ducks on the right and deer on the left of the motorhome.

National Museum of the Pacific War

During our stay at Lake Medina, we decided to drive to Fredericksburg and tour the National Museum of the Pacific War which is home of the Admiral Nimitz Museum. The Museum consists of five sections, the Admiral Nimitz Museum, the National Museum of the Pacific War George Bush Gallery, the Vetrans walk of honor and memorial walls, Japanese Garden of Peace, and the Pacific Combat Zone. The cost of the tour was $7 per adult. They do give discounts to vets and senior citizens. The George Bush Gallery is currently 20,000 sq. feet; however, this section will be closed June 1-Dec 7 of 09 as they are adding onto the museum. We really enjoyed our day and will go back to see all the additions.


The home of the Admiral Nimitz Museum used to be a hotel owned by the Nimiz family.


Midshipman Nimitz with his grandfather.


This is a link from the anchor chain of the USS Nimitz

George Bush Gallery

Wow!!! what great displays in the George Bush Gallery. This is a huge area. They are currently adding more. Gary and I are planning on returning to see the display again sometime next year or in the years following. The order of the displays with the information contained is also great. We could have spent hours here.


This display depicts the raid on Toyoko. This is a B-25 on the deck of the USS Hornet, getting ready to take off as part of Doolittle's Raid.


This is part of the USS Hornet.

These belonged to a survivor of the Battle of Midway.



What a display. This depicts the Japanese attempt to launch midget subs from the deck of a regular sub.