Upon returning to Austin, we picked up Tigger from the hotel we parked it at and had a busy afternoon getting organized. We discovered a leak somewhere in the roof over Doug’s bed so much our bedding was damp for sleeping that night.
Next morning Doug had a meeting with his former boss whom he had turned down the contract with last month. He has offered Doug a little work this week and then possibly some remote stuff over the next few months. Works for us!
The weather when we got here was around 70F/20C and sunny. Now this is more like it. Tuesday it almost hit 80F!
Thursday we headed south to San Antonio where it was again warm and sunny. We took in the history of the Alama, walked the downtown area, especially the River Walk which is very nicely down with greenery, side walk cafes, shops and lots of places to sit. They offer river taxis as well as “cruises”, neither of which we partook of. We enjoyed drinks and dinner at a riverside table and we serenaded by Mexican bands around us, with even some restaurant patrons doing the singing and paying the band to play the music for them to do so.
Friday we drove back towards the Gulf and through Corpus Christi. We stopped to walk along the city’s waterfront boardwalk but it was quite windy. It is nicely done and there are few marinas and parks along it. Saturday took us to Padre Island to the National Seashore. It was wonderful. It had warmed up considerably and we drove and parked on the beach for the night. We did a lot of beach walking after checking out the Visitor’s Centre. Sunday we awoke to clearer skies and it was warm enough for shorts and t-shirts; lots of walking that day. The sand was nice; the beach was gently sloped with no development. Padre Island is apparently the world’s largest non-developed barrier island. Let’s hope it stays that way. They have about 5 breeds of turtles that nest here and lots of shore birds. We had a large heron who “protected” the stretch of the beach we camped on. On one of our hikes we took a bag along and picked up a full bag of rubbish that floats onto the beach. The motto here is “take out more than you bring in”. We liked that.
We had been advised by the rangers that gale force winds were expected that night so it was recommended not to spend Sunday night on the beach so we heeded that advice. We enjoyed the day and got out of dodge heading north through Mustang island before heading inland.
Then it was back to a much cooler Austin for some working, repair jobs and the like. We had had some big rains and discovered a couple of leaking spots which Doug hopefully has finally plugged. The weather here can be crazy; 80 one day 40 the next. As we had a couple of almost freezing nights, we did use some hotel points and slept indoors a couple of nights before it became bearable again.
The weekend of the 7th became beautiful and warm and we took advantage and spent late Saturday afternoon, evening and Sunday morning downtown checking out some sights we’d never seen ie the Capitol Building and historic buildings, the club scene on 6th Street and the trail along the river on Sunday morning.
Tuesday the 10th saw us off to Toronto to see Joshua, Alyx and the grand babies – so missing them and looking forward to seeing them.
