On our way to San Marcos to see our grandson, Payton. He’s going to school there. Once we got settled we decorated our Christmas tree. Now our home on wheels for the next 5 to 6 months is comfy.

We caught up with Payton and went out to lunch and toured around town and made plans to get together the next day. Above the Texas Pie Company was next store to the BBQ place where we ate. I love the big pie on top of the roof.

Went shopping the next day with Payton for an early Christmas. We went to the outlet mall where he works at Banana Republic. After shirts, shoes and sweaters, We meet for dinner. It’s fun to spend time with just him. It was a quick two days. We are moving on to Port Aransas to spend the next two weeks and go fishing with Gerald and Mary Lynn.

It was an easy drive to Port Aransas. We had to take a ferry to get to the island. The ferry runs all the time, except bad weather like hurricanes. We had to wait for the big freighter to pass before we could go across. They have several ferries that go back and forth across the channel.

I love coast towns every one of them you will always find a big ole shark that you walk into to get to the store.

Gerald and Mary Lynn have been coming to Port Aransas since 1989. They love to fish here. Over the years they have developed many friendships.We stopped by a shop where their friend Bob builds boats. The boat above is a replica of a 1941  Scow. It is a wide flat boat . A Skipper and up to two others made up the crew and they would off load ships out in the Gulf. This one was being built 15 years ago in Galveston and was moved here and now 3 years later they are still working on it.

It’s 1:00 and time to go fishing,YAY!  Jim, Gerald and Mary Lynn are ready to go. Pelicans are everywhere. Jim and I call them the B52s of birds. As we head out into the Gulf the big freighters are coming in. Off the front of the ship the waves ahead of the bow are dolphins. They are so cool. Jumping and diving and out running the big ship.

It’s a beautiful day and everyone’s got their rods out. We’re gonna catch something. Jim is with a fellow we met signing up for the boat. His name is Chris. He just bought a motor home, sold his house and is full time.we found it interesting. Most people we have met usually RV for a little while then eventually sell their homes and go full time.   He had some interesting stories.

At the end of the day  Jim was the big fisherman.  He caught 8 including the one big one.Gerald caught a few. Mary Lynn and I just fed the fish.

The next day brought a change in the weather. Strong winds and rough waters. Jim and I decided to drive the beach and see what it was like. Diggity found the beach to be wonderful to walk. Doogie on the watch for birds to chase. These chairs and umbrella were one of three set up along the whole beach, which was miles long. Out to lunch and hang out with Gerald and Mary Lynn. It was a great day just to chill out

Windy was the best way to describe the next day. Again, not good for fishing.So it was off to the Marine museum. Above in the large picture is the skull of a SEI Whale. The skull weighs in at 350 lb. It is part of the baleen whales. It is the third largest of whales after the blue whale and the fin whale. What is interesting is baleen whales are very rare in the Western Gulf of Mexico. The vertebra was found off the coast of Alaska. It has been sent here and they are going to conduct a DNA test to find out what species. The long bone on the bottom is the jaw bone of a Fin Back whale. Found southwest of Galveston.  It’s 14′ long and 240 lbs.  In 1989 to 1990 an aerial survey only 1 Fin Back was counted out of 7,438 whales and dolphins. Fin whales are what we saw when we went whale watching in St.Andrews, New Brunswick this summer.

The museum was small but interesting. They are still trying to discover where these two strange species of marine life pictured above have come from.

Port Aransas is on Mustang Island. It got it’s name from the wild mustangs that lived on it. They came from shipwrecks and Spanish Expeditions. The island is one of 7 barrier islands along the Texas coast. Looking at the waves it is easy to see that fishing was not going to be great. However walks on the beach were awesome. Diggity found it easy on his toes so he could go a long distance. Doogie was able to run amok. He was now in charge of keeping the beach free of all birds. Gulls, grackles, sandpipers and herons were all barked to leave immediately.

Monday a calm breeze brought beautiful blue skies. We started on the sea wall near the ferries and soon moved out to the beach to surf fish. But wait Jim’s got something on his line. Oh man, it was just his imagination.

Surf fishing can be a lot more relaxing. As long as you stay out of the surf. There is a lot of core strength required to surf fish. Years ago a customer told me about a friend of his who came to visit him on the beach. The guy talked incessantly. My friend finally told him it was ok not to talk. They spent a lot of time enjoying the quiet on the beach after that.

Gerald and Jim were really getting into the surf. Staking out poles and feeding the fish a lot of shrimp and fish chunks. Doogie did his best to hang out with Gerald. Unfortunately when he would get to a sand bar and wave would come along and he quickly made his way back to shore via body surfing. A few catches for the day. Tomorrow the fishing should be great once again. We’ll try for more tomorrow.

We met John and Julie who are in the same RV park we are. They are from Ontario outside of Ottawa. There are about 5 RV’s in the park from Canada. We invited them to join us for surf fishing today. Everyone is out there in the surf. By golly the fish should be really frightened, we mean business.

Joe “Shorty” and Mary join us. They live here full time. Gerald and Mary Lynn have known them for many years.  Joe crews on boats in Port Aransas. Mary works at a convenience store.

A great day on the beach everyone had a marvelous time. The tide was coming in and we kept moving the trucks up and keeping the chairs from sinking in the sand.

Today was a cloudy chilly day. Joe had come to the pier and caught quite a few fish the day before. We decided to try it today. Well I finally caught a fish. It’s called a hard head and not good for eating. So that fish got tossed back. Mary Lynn kept catching small perch. Diggity decided once again sleeping in the truck was better than getting cold on the pier. However Doogie met everyone up and down the pier and made it his job to run as fast as he could from one end to the other. Especially if there were birds to be chased.

We decided to go to the jetty to see what was happening. Lots of people out fishing. Gerald says it is not his favorite place to fish. It is a real long jetty. Huge square granite rocks make up the jetty. Herons are everywhere and they have no fear. They are waiting for you to get a fish.

Tomorrow Gerald and Mary Lynn will be leaving to go back home. They will leave very early. Gerald is always up very early so it is easy for him. It’s been fun hanging out with them. Gerald gave us some fishing poles and tackle to use for the rest of the time we are here. Maybe we will also fish when we get to Baha later this winter. Out to dinner at Trout’s and get them home so they can get rested up for their journey home. Love you Gerald and Mary Lynn. We will do this again.