Treasures found on the Texas beaches

Butterfly shells found intact on the Texas beaches. 

There were too many to pick up all of them!!!!

My collection of Texas butterfly shells...we spent lots of time 

walking the beaches and searching for treasures during our week on the 

Texas coast - Gulf of Mexico

Meeting up with long time friends

      While we were on Galveston Island, long time friends of ours from Ohio caught up with us there at the state park campground. They are doing a trip similar to what we are doing in the Southwest this year. They are both seasoned sailors (our former dock mates at Sandusky Harbor Marina on Lake Erie) and we made several cruising trips with them on the Great Lakes and  a trip to the Bahamas together. They came on down to Mustang Island to join us there as well. We have really enjoyed sightseeing the area together and doing dinners together while catching up.  I am sure our paths will cross again on this trip to the Southwest.

Galveston Island, Texas

Sunrise over the Gulf of Mexico at Galveston Island 

from our campsite.

We visited Johnson Space Center Houston and took the tour.

New Orleans

                                            One of the many streetcars in New Orleans

                                           
                                            St. Louis Cathedral at Jackson Square in the French Quarter

We just could not walk past Cafe Du Monde without stopping for 

some French donuts and a beverage every day.

Mardi Gras decorations were on many of the buildings 

in the French Quarter.

One of the famous parks

Street musicians were everywhere...

We did watch one of the parades in the French Quarter - the

 Krewe of Corks Parade complete with bottles of wine and 

lots of beads. 

Making Tracks through the South

      We left Gulf Shores and headed for Mobile, AL to visit an old friend of Mark's.  It was wonderful to see Tom again after 11 years. We had a wonderful visit with Tom and his wife before we headed on West to New Orleans.

      We seem to be on the Mardi Gras Express train  this trip - everywhere we have stopped in the South has been celebrating since January.  We always thought the Mardi Gras celebration was just the 5 days before Ash Wednesday - well, not anymore. Gulf Shores was hosting parades and activities the last week of January, Mobile (the real home of Mardi Gras) the first week of Feb. and of course Mardi Gras central is now New Orleans. We spent a couple of days in New Orleans sightseeing in the French Quarter, St. Louis Cathedral, Bourbon Street, the old cemeteries, Canal Street, French Market, City Park, and of course we made daily trips to Cafe Du Monde for beignets and we also tried fresh made pralines. We loved the creole and cajun food as well. We also made a stop at the New Orleans School of Cooking store to pick up some of my favorite seasonings to take home.

      Then we headed on to Texas - Galveston Island on the coast. The island is very commercialized and built up island.   We enjoyed the historical district and the old homes and buildings. We found a great used bookstore here, so Mark could pick up some more books for the trip.

     From Galvaston Island we headed 215 miles south to Mustang Island for a couple of days. Nice state park campgrounds located at both Galveston and Mustang Island located on the beaches. While visiting Mustang Island we also explored North Padre Island  and the Padre Island National Seashore. Mustang Island and North Padre Island  are more wide open with natural settings and wildlife. We also crossed over the bridge to see Corpus Christi.

      This weekend we will head for San Antonio for a couple of days.  We are definitely loving the warmer weather and sunshine down here.

                                           Our site at the state park - very nice park

                                           One of several beach walkways in the park and the Gulf

                                             On one of our many beach walks

                                            Oil rig close to shore in the Gulf of Mexico

                                            The National Museum of Aviation in Pensacola, FL      

                                                      Pensacola Lighthouse - still in working order
                                                        located in Pensacola Naval Air Station Base.

On the Road Again - Southwest Trip 2015

On the Road Again...Southwest Trip 2015

      We finally managed to get ourselves out of Indianapolis on Monday, January 26. We drive to a campground south of Nashville to spend the night - there were exactly 6 units in the campground. We were back on the road Tuesday morning at first light  headed for Gulf Shores, Alabama. We have reservations for one week here at the state park which turns out to be a very nice place. They have 496 campsites here with lots of amenities available. The weather has also been better than we expected it to be for January.  

     We have spent our days sightseeing and exploring the area.  We made a trip  to visit Fort Morgan, built in 1833 on the western tip of Fort Morgan Peninsula-guarding the eastern side of the entrance to Mobile Bay. There are also large oil drilling wells offshore there that are easy to see from the fort area. We had no idea that the oil wells were so close to shore in this area. You can not see them from the beach in Gulf Shores which is nice. You can see Dauphin Island  which is located on the Western side of the Mobile Bay entrance with Fort Gaines.

 

     We also made a trip to Pensacola to see the National Naval Air Museum on Naval Air Station Pensacola. This is a must see air museum- right up there with the one at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH. On our way back to Gulf Shores we stopped at the famous Flora-Bama - one of the last great American Roadhouses, home of the annual mullet Toss Festival, the Gulf Coast's greatest beach party . We have also taken daily beach walks on the large beautiful beach here and hiked on the trails here daily. We seem to spend every day outside doing something which we love. We have eaten at several good local seafood restaurants and all of the seafood has been delicious. 

      We will visit with an high school friend of Mark's in Mobile before we head on West to New Orleans.