Heading Home Day One

Headed out on Thursday Feb 28th at about 8:00 am! The weather was kind of cool, 58 deg and pretty much stayed there the entire day.  Winds out of the north made it cool and bad for gas mileage. Traffic was pretty light. Long drive today (at least for us) we arrived at Inks Lake State Park (west of Austin) at about 4:00 and 355 miles. 

the Hill Country is soooo pretty.  beautiful park, took a hike

 

Eric strapped the chiminea into the back seat!

hope we make it without breaking!

Campfire!!!  how long its been since we were able to have a wonderful camp fire?

What we will not miss when we get home:  the water, it left a film on everything.. the dust, it gets into everything, the wind, it was pretty consistent. the thorny bushes and trees.

We will miss: great Mexican food and some good BBQ. wearing shorts every day. Of course the refuge and state parks.  the beautiful birds. 

Last week of work

We began our final week of work at the Reveg area, thinning grasses and planting a few more flats. they are getting soooo big!  now its time to put them into plugs but we won’t be here!

 

Back over to the Visitor center to clean up brush, limbs etc…   seen a few animals today!

a marine toad:

A baby Great Horned Owl,                        a Mother Great Horned owl (not related)

  

no pictures of the nutria, raccoon and bobcat!  Although a very windy day it was nice to be out on the refuge. dew point this afternoon –2!  how can that be?  humidity at 12%..  cool front coming in.

Tuesday, the high winds dropped some trees on the trails, we could get most but not all.. had to call in the big guns for some like these:

lots of good bird sightings and pictures today:

2 baby Great horned owls:

this Gray hawk was posing:

then took off:

Little blue heron did not want to get its picture taken:

Party in our honor at site #4:  good food, good laughs good friends!

 

Festive cascarones are believed to date back to romantic Renaissance days when Italian gentlemen filled emptied eggshells with perfume or cologne and tossed them to women as a sign of affection. Nowadays, children "bump" the fragile eggs on the heads of others and make a wish. If the eggshell breaks and showers the recipient with confetti, it is said the wish will come true.

I brought a dozen eggs…  some people including me got bumped with the eggs.

Wednesday: our final day of work…  a few branches including this one had to be removed.

two sets of baby great horned owls (we did not see the 3rd set)

set one:

set two:

Bobcat pond is really getting full!

in Dec                                                                 today!

   

Hooded mergansers and a widgeon:

 

after work we packed up, put the flannel sheets on the bed and went for our final Mexican dinner:

hmmm… so so good…  gonna miss the food, beer, cheap margaritas, weather, people, new friends, ME TV, bakeries, A/C in the afternoon, heat in the evening, fresh shrimp, our trips to Mexico etc….  love it here in the valley but it is time to head home.  Tomorrow we hope to leave here early and get to Austin Tx.  We will keep an eye to the sky but hope to be home in a week.

Weekend with Brother Ray!

Well we have one week left in the valley and we are fortunate to be able to spend it with Eric’s big brother Ray from Houston! 

Our weather forecast for this week..            our weather forecast for Birchwood this week!

 

hmmm.. 90 here today, 26 in Birchwood! so why are we heading home so soon? Well, we are out of maple syrup.  Need to get home to make another batch, hope mother nature is good to us this season. 

We met up with Ray at his hotel in Pharr, then headed into Mexico.  Walked around a bit, had lunch and shopped. 

had to stop at to pay tax on alcohol!

Ray’s suite:                                                   and Bar:

 

We had such a great day, talking, eating and drinking..  We are so happy to share South Texas with him, although he lives in Houston he has not spent any time here in the valley.  we have a busy weekend scheduled.

Friday: headed to South Padre Island.  A bit cooler today, 70’s by the water, 80’s inland and very cloudy/foggy.  we started at Port Isabel at a few of the museums before heading over to the island.  we had to skip the lighthouse, it was closed because of lack of visibility. we were hoping to catch it on the way back but it was still overcast, maybe next time.

we did stop at:                                             for a drink on the beach. it was pretty windy!

 

Not too much to take pictures of since it was so overcast but we drove the island, stopped at a few places, had a late lunch at Dirty Al’s then drove home.  the traffic getting off of the island was horrible!  we had never seen traffic like that on the island or the bridge.  there was an event at the convention center, assuming that it let out when we were leaving.  Headed to Ray’s suite for the evening.  We were pretty full, but Rudy’s has smoked catfish on Fridays sooo.. Eric went to pick up something for us to nibble on, Brisket and catfish!

 

 

the catfish was out of this world!  it just melted in your mouth, was a bit too spicy for me but ooohhhhh sooo good!  the brisket was very good too. I really need to try smoking fish when we get home.  I said that 2 years ago but never got the chance, this year I jus have to do it!

Friday: we started out at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge.  Wanted to show Ray where we work. it was a bit cool on the tram ride.  it was very good, learned a lot and got to see an indigo snake!

Next was Smokin on the Rio.  Ray had to try judging and did the charro beans!

he taste tested 11 different entries!

we ate and ate and ate some more:

most was all good…  all of it was free..  the participants cook enough to share with everyone.  this one actually had a whole meal. but most just gave you a taste.  did not see anyone we knew!  afterwards we went to our favorite state park to walk off some of the BBQ before heading to Ray’s place to look at pictures of his trips to Chile, Peru and Easter Island.  beautiful pictures and great stories.

Sunday: we picked Ray up for Lunch at Torinos in Edinburg. 

Ray’s Margarita vs.. my bloody mary….

then off to the Museum of South Texas History.  great museum, not too big and very well laid out.

Back to Ray’s to watch the Academy awards..  what a fun weekend we had with Ray.