Can a couple of 20-something-year-olds find fun in a resort that is designed for the 55+ crowd? We put that question to the test when we were blessed with a visit from our 28-year-old son and his wife. We were very happy when Blake and Claire made plans to visit us during our stay in South Texas. The first day we found lots of fun in our stop for beach time at Padre Island.
We made that trip to the island early because the weather forecast was predicting the next couple days to be soggy. Just about the time we brag on our great weather, we get zapped with rain. We were just sad that it had to happen when we had guests. But we were glad that many of our planned activities were indoors. That would include a rousing game of card bingo. Over 60 people were playing, and we arrived just as the game was starting. Out of all those people, Claire got the second bingo of the night. That was fun! The very next game, Blake got a bingo. Since he was the first male to win, he became the king for the evening and got to wear the crown. That was really fun! (at least for his wife, Mother, and Grandmother who thought he looked very cute in his layered head gear.) We had three generations playing card bingo that night.
Mark was obviously beaming with pride to be sitting with royalty.
In the course of the evening, Claire would win again, and Mark also got a bingo. We took a picture of the three winners--taken by the loser. It costs five cents for each round of bingo, and their bags of nickels were mighty heavy with all their winnings. That was fun!
We ate our way through some home-cooked meals and some south Texas classics. We learned that if you want tamales from the most popular place in the valley you must order two weeks in advance during this time of year. Tamales are the preferred holiday meal for many of the hispanic families in our town, and Delia's makes the best! We were lucky to get a couple dozen tamales on the last day they were open to the public before the holiday-reserved tamales were made. That was fun!
Another indoor activity is pickleball. Claire has never played a racket sport, so we were really pleased that she did so well. We played twice, and that was fun! We also took them to play an indoor version of bean bag baseball that they had never experienced before. Another indoor game is table shuffleboard, and we played several times. The first game was won by the oldies--that would be Mark and Denisa.
But the second game was won by the youngies, who seemed to be having a lot of fun.
When we returned for the tie breaker, the youngies won a thrilling game that ended at 21-20. That was fun!
One of Blake's fondest memories of childhood trips to this park was riding bikes up and down the palm-lined streets. We got a break in the weather for a bike ride. That was fun!
We also went to the Friday night dance, where the oldies taught them a new dance and a new move or two. That was fun for a dancer like Claire. The next day we visited a couple clubs along the Rio Grande River, and did more dancing. We had so much fun we forgot to take pictures!
We also took them to the Pulga. That's the Spanish word for "flea" and we are out shopping for fleas at the flea market. It's another three-generation outing, as the people in our group at the Pulga ranged in age from 27 to 89.
It was a smaller-than-usual crowd at the pulga because of the rainy weather. But we still got to purchase the produce we were shopping for. We bought avocados for twenty cents each, pineapples for 50 cents, and oranges for a dime. A $1 bag of limes had more than twenty in it. Because we like to try new things, we also bought a papaya and a bag of rambutans. A rambutan is a hairy-looking fruit that hides an over-sized grape-like center that tastes a little like a pear. We love the produce bargains at the pulga! That was fun!
We also checked out the prepared food options, buying things like the "elota en vasa" and "espiral papas fritas." Most of the vendors speak only Spanish, so there's a lot of pointing and charades going on to place orders. The picture below is of our espiral papas fritas--also known as a tornado potato. That was fun!
One thing on Claire's bucket list was picking a piece of fruit directly from a citrus tree. The fruit harvest looks a little slim this year, with the fewest oranges we have seen on our trees. Most of this fruit won't ripen for another month or so, and the oranges on Denisa's mother's trees are still green. But we managed to find some orange oranges so Claire could pick her own fruit. That was fun!
We spent another evening boiling up the fresh shrimp that we purchased on our trip to Padre Island. It was yummy! We topped it off with a three-generation card game at Denisa's Mother's house. That was fun!
So we packed quite a bit of fun into a three day visit. We think that our son and daughter-in-law enjoyed hanging out with the senior citizens. So we guess that we can say that a couple of twenty-somethings can have a good time at a 55+ resort with the correct supervision from a couple parents that seem to always have fun. We love you and thank you for spending your precious vacation time to come see us!
We are excited because we have special visitors. Our youngest son and his wife flew in from Oklahoma City to see us here in South Texas!
Blake has been to the Rio Grande Valley many times as a child on family trips to visit his grandmother--Denisa's Mother. He wanted to share this place with his bride, and we're so glad they came to spend time with us! We picked them up at the McAllen airport, and decided to head straight to South Padre Island for the rest of the day.
It was a cloudy day at the beach, and the wind was chilly coming off the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. But we still had to have our barefoot walk down the beach.
They caught a super-early flight this morning, so we are a little surprised that they had the energy to be jumping on the sand dunes. From their jumping form, you might be able to guess which one is a graceful ballerina and which one is a geeky engineer.
Their alarm went off at 2:45 a.m. this morning, so they were understandably tired. A little nap in the sand felt good.
Mark caught a picture of the ocean to the horizon. But what's Denisa doing today on the beach?
She's doing what she does at beaches all across the country. She's picking up pretty shells and then using them to leave behind a local message.
Denisa chose that word because we are at South Padre Island today. But we have learned in our Spanish class that the word "padre" also means "father." So it seemed appropriate that Mark would pose with Denisa's shells today.
When we visit the island, we often drive to the end of the road. Padre Island extends 113 miles from its southern tip (where we are today) to its northern tip near Corpus Christi. Most of those miles aren't accessible to motor vehicles because there is no road. A few miles north of town the road is drifted over by sand. We drove that short distance to show Claire the official end of the road.
At the end of the road we also caught sight of a para-glider zipping across the sky in his giant-fan-powered flight.
He wasn't the only thing in the air this morning. We also spotted a flock of pelicans making a low flight straight overhead while we were at the beach. It was our wildlife picture of the day.
Since our guests haven't had a meal in hours, our next stop needed to be lunch. We tried a new-to-us restaurant on the bay side of the island.
This is the brightly painted "Painted Marlin," and we are glad to see that the clouds are breaking up. Our outdoor table is now bathed in sunlight.
We don't usually take food pictures, but our table was so full of yummy sea food lunch specials that Denisa couldn't resist. That's a shrimp mango wrap, shrimp stir fry, shrimp cakes, blackened mahi fish tacos, and an appetizer of avocado fries.
With its purple cabbage, bright orange carrots, and deep fried noodles, the stir-fry was as pretty as a picture.
Moments after we got up from our chairs, the resident birds were quick to swoop in to inspect for leftovers. While they didn't bother us while we were eating, we had six birds at our table while we were still gathering our things.
Another stop that we always make is to the South Padre Island Visitor Center. They have a semi-permanent sand castle outside, and we have watched it change over the years. This one was built in 2018, and then glazed with a layer of elmer's glue and water to protect it from the elements. We see some signs of aging, but it still makes a good back-drop for a picture.
This holiday season we also get a special treat. A temporary sand village is open free to the public, and we are appropriately welcomed to come see the creations that have been totally formed from sand. Instead of a snowman, they celebrate Christmas with a sandman here on the island.
Instead of Santa, we called this guy "Sand-ta."
It's interesting to look closely at the detail that makes the textures of this holiday icon.
We are also reminded that besides celebrating Christmas, the New Year is not far behind. It looks like 2019 is rolling around to 2020 on this sandy clock guarded by the New Year's baby.
Before we left Padre Island, we had to check out a couple of the souvenir shops that line the main drag. It was a shopping mistake, as Blake and Claire were almost eaten by a shark as we entered this shop. As you can tell from their poses, they were certainly frightened!
We made our last stop at our favorite fresh fish market in Port Isabel to buy a couple pounds of large gulf shrimp that were caught earlier that day. That will make some deliciously fresh shrimp cocktail tomorrow.
It's always fun to return to Padre Island, a place we have visited many times. But it is especially fun to return to Padre Island with people we love. We brought our son here almost every year since he was a baby. It was nice for us to see it through the eyes of our daughter-in-law, who has never been here before. We are blessed by their visit as we wander the wonders of one of the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico one more time.
When we moved out of our house over five years ago, we got rid of most of our "stuff." But we kept a small box of Christmas decorations that we carry around with us all year round. Instead of three nativity sets, we kept only the smallest one. And we kept only the smallest of other decorations to sprinkle around the motor home.
Instead of taking days to decorate our big house, it only takes minutes to decorate our motor home. We spent some time shopping and wrapping, and now those presents are taking up another space on the dash. Years ago we quit buying gifts for each other, so all these will be delivered to dear ones in person this year.
We don't have any Christmas lights outside, but Mark helped Denisa's Mom hang lights at her house in the park.
The only part of our traditional Christmas workload that has increased since we retired, is sending out Christmas cards. We are glad that our list of friends continues to grow. Below is a picture of the Christmas card that we mailed out this year. We took the picture on Thanksgiving morning, when the ground in Oklahoma was covered with snow and the temperature was in the low twenties. Those smiles are literally frozen on our faces. We picked this picture because our granddaughter had the sweetest smile in it. It wasn't until later that we realized that her hair covers half of Mark's face. Now you know the most important person in the picture.
We mailed an annual letter with it that described our travel year up north to the wonders of the Canadian Rockies. It also mentioned our snorkeling trip to the wonders under the sea at St. John Island. God's wonders are obviously deep and wide in our travels! But the greatest wonder of all is the gift of God's son sent to earth with the plan for our salvation. We hope you have a very merry CHRISTmas as you enjoy your own version of wandering the wonders of Christmas this year!
As full-time RVers, we have many options for places to spend the winter months. We've found that those different places have positives and negatives. Some people head to the deserts of Arizona, where cactus and sand are the main view out the RV window. Some flock to Florida, where the areas with the views of the ocean or the gulf are the most crowded and most expensive. We also hear that the traffic there is crazy. Others go further south for an international experience in Mexico, but that conjures up safety concerns in recent years. Here in south Texas we can get a little of all three. Cactus grows well here in our RV park--maybe too well. Overhead gutters must be checked regularly. . .
or you can have a good-sized prickly pear cactus growing in your gutter over the summer.
This beautiful cactus is over six-feet tall and doing well in the desert-like conditions of the Rio Grande Valley. The spider spinning an intricate web among the cactus arms is doing even better. He's a little blurry, but looking very content in the center of the picture below.
To get water views, it takes around 1.5 hours to be on South Padre Island. We can also get the international experience in a day-trip by crossing the border into Mexico with a drive of less than an hour.
This past weekend we got another international experience when we took Denisa's Mother to the International Food Festival. It's held every year at St. George Orthodox Church, not too far away in Pharr, Texas.
We ate the food before we remembered to take a picture of our plates. The three of us shared the pastitsio, and spanakopita from Greece, holubtsi and vareniki from the Ukraine, and bierocks from Germany. If you are impressed with Denisa's correct spelling of all these words she can't even pronounce, just know that she took pictures of the signs on the wall that described each of the foods available for sale.
For dessert we finished up with Greek baklava and galaktoboureko. It was a tasty touch of food from around the world. It was a beautiful blue-sky day, so we also enjoyed the rest of the outdoor exhibits--especially those manned by the master gardeners' booth. We never cease to be amazed with God's wonder of the monarch butterfly. That ugly caterpillar wraps up in a green marble-looking chrysalis with its dainty gold detailing.
After approximately 2 weeks, that caterpillar becomes a beautiful monarch butterfly. The wings on this one are still wrinkled and wet from just emerging out of that cramped chrysalis. That's another of God's wonders!
We must say that the traffic to get to the festival was terrible. It was a Saturday close to Christmas, and everyone was driving some place! We would often have to wait through more than one cycle to get through stop lights, and road construction on the expressway some times brought that fastest artery to a stand-still. Denisa's Mother has been coming to the Rio Grande Valley for over 30 years, and she remembers when Mission, McAllen, Pharr, Donna and Weslaco were little towns. Now they have grown together into one large metropolitan area linked by an expressway that needs more lanes to handle all the traffic. The good news is that we have all the big box stores and national restaurant chains nearby. The bad news is that the traffic often makes that short trip seem like a long one.
To make that trip seem even longer, we broke the record high temperature for this date by 8 degrees! The record high was 85 degrees, and we came in at a stifling 93 that Saturday. Considering that the average for December's high temperatures is in the very pleasant low 70's, we are way above average right now. To all our friends freezing up north, we apologize for complaining about the heat.
We started this blog with the question of how we decide where to spend the winter months. It's not just about cactus, oceans, or international experiences. The main reason we are here is to spend time with Denisa's Mother. South Texas is where she has wintered for over 30 years. In the five years that we have spent time here at Bentsen Grove Resort, we have also met more people that we look forward to seeing every winter. So to answer the question, "How do we decide where to spend the winter months?" we answer that it is a personal choice. Personally, we decided based on the persons we love.
Because we are making longer drives in our trip south this year, we are more mindful of the weather on our travel days. When we saw days of wind and rain in the forecast, we decided to head down the road at a faster pace. In fact, we traveled more than six hours on our last day--close to record for us. That drive took us through some fog . . .
and into the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas. We're always excited to see that first palm tree! When we get further south, we find them growing even in the highway median. When we start seeing green grass and leaves on trees, we know that we are getting close.
We rolled into our parking spot in Mission, Texas, at the Bentsen Grove Resort on a hot afternoon. The temperature got all the way up to 91 degrees as we were setting up the motor home for its home for the next couple months. That's a little warm for December!
Those temperatures are close to twenty degrees higher than average. We much prefer the 70s, which is the average for this time of year in the Rio Grande Valley. As we survey our little orchard around our camping site, we don't see very many oranges on the trees this year. Perhaps something happened this summer to keep the fruit from setting on like usual?
Much of the citrus fruit doesn't ripen until January. But we managed to find a few ripe grapefruit, and we bought a sack of local tangerines. So we have our bowl of citrus on the window sill like usual. We don't remember ever buying tangerines before this year.
It's good to be walking down the palm-lined streets that we are so familiar with. This is our sixth winter to return to Bentsen Grove Resort for part of the winter.
The reason that we have come to this park for six winters is because Denisa's Mother has come here for 35 winters. Ever since Betty retired, she has wintered at Bentsen Grove. So staying here allows us to spend more time with her. That would include going to a "Welcome Winter Texan" party complete with a photo booth with interesting head gear.
We visited the photo booth more than once, trying on a couple more hats. The party also included a meal, and a live concert with a dance floor. What fun!
We jumped right into the activities that we enjoy at this park. We were playing pickleball at the indoor (and importantly air-conditioned) court, and line dancing with some great instructors by the next day. It's so nice to be greeted with hugs and hand shakes by so many friends that we have made over those years. Yes, we have arrived for a couple months of fun here in the Rio Grande Valley!
