Sunday in Texas

Someone looked up what time the sun rises. We set our alarms, slept, then got up and drove to the beach so we could watch this miracle.

It was a wee bit chilly. Then - gasp - when we talked about going back to our home away from home, it was discovered that Padre and Madre failed to buy coffee at WalMart the night before. Ellis found *Dawn Donuts* and bought donuts and coffee. By the time we got back everyone was ravenous. Allen made coffee and Ellis made scrambled eggs with lots of cheese. We washed fruit, and dished up Ellis's specialty - yogurt, fruit and Reeses Pieces cut up in the yogurt. Orange juice poured, granola and an assortment of cold cereal set out and we had a breakfast fit for the king! 

We listened to Franklin Graham's Easter sermon from 2020 for our church service...

a message of hope for a hurting world. You can find it on YouTube. 

After everyone was through the shower, packed up, dishes washed, fridge emptied, van filled with our stuff, we walked down to the wharf and got tickets to go on a dolphin tour. Good thing we had jackets and sweatshirts along. It was cold and windy out there. The dolphins were always at the edge of our vision or popping out of the water when our backs were turned. There was other interesting, historical info the tour guide gave us and we chugged past Pelican Island ... the island we drove to for our late lunch after we got back to shore. 

First we walked back to the van then drove across a long bridge and put together our picnic lunch.

Ellis grilled steak and hamburgers for us. Sorry, I didn't get a picture of him on the other side of a small building, out of the wind.

There were plenty of sea gulls flying around. I remembered feeding sea gulls leftover minnows on our ride back to shore many long years ago when fishing on Lake of the Woods in northern MN.

There was fat and gristle cut off our steaks that I cut into small pieces - a plateful. We fed them to the gulls, throwing bits into the air, the gulls snatching them before they fell to the ground. Just like old times.

The thing about weekends like this is they go by too fast. Soon we packed everything up and started back to Beaumont. We checked the ferry again and it didn't seem too long to wait. There is a way to drive around, but if you can ride on a ferry who would do that?

              A group picture of all of us

The one thing I didn't take a picture of was all the beach houses on stilts that we passed as we drove along the gulf. Painted every color under the sun. Bright, cheery pinks, blues, peach, teal, many shades of orange and green and blue. I looked at them and thought about hurricane winds and giant waves of water swooshing in under the houses high on those stilts. In the spring sunshine they look happy without a care in the world. Maybe their owners paint them happy-go-lucky colors to keep from thinking about the hurricane season. I love to visit Galveston Texas but I don't think I'm brave enough to live here year round. I will fly back to MN and brave the cold and blizzards. Oops! I guess we have tornadoes and flooding in MN. And no happy-go-lucky paint on our houses.

               an old anchor on display 

Before we knew it we were back at the base, divying out the food and leaving things with Krysta and Allen to bring with them when they drive north. Last year we took some spices with us that caused airport security some concern.They had to test it to make sure we weren't bringing drugs back. 

On our way to Dallas Deanne drove so Ellis could sleep. I colored in my adult coloring book. We listened to Dea's playlist of songs and talked about the highlights of the weekend. We had an airbnb in Dallas, a short night of sleep and early morning flights to catch.

Who knows where another winter trip will take us. The base at Beaumont is being closed after four years of rebuilding. 

Maybe we will go to Timbuktu next year!