Bird's Eye View - Estero Llano Grande State Park

We're still enjoying our son's visit to see us here in the Rio Grande Valley. On Blake's last day here, we took him back to the airport to catch his return flight. We often fly in and out of the airport in McAllen, but Blake found his best flight deal an hour's drive away in Harlingen, Texas. On the drive to the airport we stopped for delicious Delia's tamales, and then we all dropped in at the Estero Llano Grande state park.

We reserved the all-terrain wheel chair at the visitor center, and it proved to be a comfortable ride for Denisa's Mother to see the park as well. It was surprisingly easy to push this special chair all over the dirt trails, along the many ponds and lakes that make this park a great place to get a bird's eye view.

We found that four different Texas state parks have these all-terrain wheel chairs, and we used this one to make a three-mile loop around the park. The chairs are also made so that people can propel themselves along the trails, using the special hand pumping extensions.

We all had to try the wheel chair, and we were very impressed. Good job, Texas State Parks!

During all that hiking and pushing, Denisa was busy taking more bird's eye view pictures. She's a fan of the handsome ducks and water birds here at Estero Llano Grande State Park. 

She likes it that all the different kinds of ducks seem to be happy to share the same log for an afternoon nap.

She's said it before, but this is a picture of "getting your ducks in a row."

We met some serious birders that were overjoyed with the birds they were getting to see here at Estero Llano Grande State Park. They pointed out exciting finds like the black-crowned night heron.

They especially were excited to see the yellow-crowned night heron. As their name implies, these birds usually rest during the day, and then feed at night when there is less competition. The yellow-crowned night heron was listed as "endangered" in 1999, so it looks like we were very lucky to see several sleepy birds today.

The birders also pointed out this male anhinga with the interesting white plumage on his back.

If you're tired of all these bird's eye views, you'll be happy to know that this state park also has some scaly residents at alligator lake. The two resident gators were sunning on the shore this afternoon. The first was huge, and very obvious to find.

Eagle-eye Mark was the only one that spotted the second gator, with only the tip of its tail showing out of the brush.

But in the zoomed-in picture we could make out the entire body all the way to the gator's head hiding in the grass.

We don't know all the names of all the birds, but Denisa still likes taking pictures of these bird's eye views.

It was windy on Blake's last day in South Texas. Aside from this warm and windy day, he had picked a perfect weather week to visit us. While things were cold and icy back in Oklahoma, he was wearing shorts and enjoying the tropical temperatures and beautiful bougainvillea here in the tip of Texas.

The wind was blowing near the airport in Harlingen, when we stopped in for a picture with this famous statue. Denisa looks very small beside this real-sized replica of the Iwo Jima statue that can be found at the Arlington National Cemetery in Washington. 

That wind that is blowing the flag on the statue today is bringing us a change of weather that we aren't looking forward to. For now we'll reminisce on the warm weather and the bird's eye views at Estero Llano Grande State Park, and we'll save our cold weather story for another blog.

Bird's Eye View - Padre Island

Our son, Blake, spent most of his childhood making a family trip each winter to the Rio Grande Valley to visit his grandmother. On almost every trip, we made the drive to "The Island." So of course, we drove to Padre Island while he was visiting us this year. And of course, we took the obligatory pictures at the beach.

We didn't have a blue-sky day for a beach trip, but honestly the clouds kept it from being too hot. We have to include a picture of Mark and Blake together at the Gulf. They are the same height and the same shape!

Even though we had just visited Padre Island with a couple of 90-year-old women, it's a totally different adventure when visiting with a 29-year-old. We had a four-mile walk on the Gulf side of the island, where we got a bird's eye view of the water.

We had just read an article about trash that looks like a tangle of red or yellow electrical wires that is washing ashore. The article went on to say that it is not trash--it is actually sea whip. Sea whip is a soft coral that comes in a variety of colors. It was interesting that we saw a single strand of sea whip on our walk on the beach today. Yes, we would have assumed that was a strand of electrical wire if we hadn't just read that article.

Denisa took way too many pictures as we got a bird's eye view of the beach.

Besides our four-mile walk in the sand, we went to the Laguna Nature boardwalk on the bay side of the island. Known for its great bird sightings, we immediately found a very friendly white heron,

and a blue heron hanging out on the boardwalk.

But the real fun happened when the nature walk took us to the edge of the bay. We got a bird's eye view of this rich feeding ground among the shore trees where many water birds were enjoying the day.

It's here that we found a big flock of roseated spoonbill, with their  signature rose-colored wings . . .

and spoon-shaped bills. They were busy spooning up some yummy treats off the shallow floor of the bay.

Denisa loves the pink reflection in the water as we got these great bird's eye views.

If you look closely at the roseated spoonbill pictures, you'll also see lots of other water birds, like handsome ducks and this white ibis.

We also enjoyed the bird's eye view of these black skimmers flying down to skim their over-sized bills through the water. Their lower mandible is longer than the upper, allowing them to skim their prey out of the water as they fly over.

We got a front row seat to get a bird's eye view of several of the water birds hanging out in the bay.

Meanwhile, the Roseated Spoonbills have tired of snacking in the water, and they are flapping their big pink wings for a clumsy landing in the top of one of the trees on the shore.

We're not sure why the whole flock flocked to the top of that little tree, but it gave us another interesting bird's eye view.

Denisa could have stayed all day, watching all the antics of the gulls and ducks and ibis and spoonbills and herons and . . .

But we had other stops to make on the island. This is home to the Sea Turtle Rescue center, and we found painted turtle statues all over Padre Island.

We also took Blake by the sand sculpture display that we had enjoyed with our older companions a couple weeks ago. This Christmas-themed "Joy to the World" sand statue had wonderful details that fit right into this island theme.

Since Denisa enjoys picking up sea shells, you might guess that she also enjoys the details of the "sand shells" that make up the base of the mermaid's display. 

No trip to Padre would be complete without a stop at Dairy Queen. We ate our ice cream while walking along the bay to get another bird's eye view of the pelicans and gulls that call this island home.

We stopped through Port Isabell for fish tacos. Because Denisa is a sucker for a good lighthouse, we also made a stop here on our way home.

We had another great day on Padre with Blake, getting a bird's eye view of the island's feathery residents.

Keeping a Twenty-something Entertained in a 55+ Park

We were so excited to get news that our youngest son, Blake, was flying in to see us here in South Texas! He was able to visit us because he still has good antibodies from when he and his wife had Covid in November. They know they have Covid antibodies because they have given blood and plasma ever since, and they are still getting good antibody numbers each time they are tested. Blake's wife teaches at a university, and she couldn't get off to make this trip south for some much-needed warmth and sunshine with Blake. We worried a little that we wouldn't be able to keep an active twenty-something young man properly entertained here in a resort designed for the 55+ crowd.

The normal activities, like Friday night dances and other musical entertainment several  evenings each week, are cancelled for the season because of Covid restrictions. But our activity office is working hard to provide activities that can be done outside and socially distanced. A scavenger hunt fits both of those criteria. Armed with 5 pages of pictures taken around the park, we went looking for the colorful things that people put in their front yards.

We're glad that Denisa's Mother has that new shiny three-wheel bike. We took turns riding it along with our other two bikes so the three of us could do the scavenger hunt together. We found all but one of the scavenger hunt items in 50 minutes. We also got some good exercise as we rode down every street in our park.

Another day, the activity office set up a 7-stop poker run. We borrowed that three-wheel trike again to make the ride and gather a playing card at each of those stops. We also gathered snacks and/or drinks at each stop. We enjoyed ice cream, pretzels, pop corn, cookies, rice krispies . . . It was a delicious ride that culminated in an outdoor hot dog lunch and entertainment. Too bad Blake's poker hand of two pairs didn't hold up to win one of the cash prizes.

We had absolutely beautiful weather while Blake was visiting. We enjoyed days with temperatures in the 70s and 80s while they were fighting ice and snow back at his home in Oklahoma City. He enjoyed being able to bike and then hike in shorts and a t-shirt through the state park just three miles from us.

Even though we have been to this state park many times, we had never noticed these interesting white things hanging on tree branches in one section of the park.

We're not sure why these little white snails are hanging on the trees at the very dry Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park.

For more exercise, we played pickleball and shuffleboard. Then we spent evenings cooking up meals and playing games at Mema's house. We're obviously behind in getting this blog published, because Blake was here on Super Bowl Sunday. Because we were enjoying such beautiful weather, he wanted to watch the game on our outside television. We rarely use this fourth television in our tiny home, so it was nice to put it to good use this day. One of our neighbors made sure that we had the proper plates for our pre-game nachos.

Blake should always remember the year he watched the Superbowl outside while sitting under an orange tree.

The sun went down on the day, and the hopes of the Kansas City Chiefs winning another Superbowl. Blake probably won't remember the mediocre football game, but we hope he'll always remember another fun trip to the Rio Grande Valley. We do think we kept our twenty-something son entertained in this 55+ park. And that doesn't even count a couple road trips that we made while he was visiting. But we'll blog about those next time.