Port Aransas
Another winter, another trip to Port Aransas. I accidentally went through Nixon again this time, but a trip to Nixon is always a pleasure anyway.
The nice thing about Port Aransas at this time of year is that it’s so empty. The beach is huge and surprisingly clean for a place like this (that is, a dump). There are lots of northern-midwesterner old people around for birds and warm weather and all-you-can-eat pizza buffets, but they’re not at the beach much.
Spent five and a half hours on the Lexington with Christopher. While eating lunch (on the ship) we figured that that was probably at least the fifteenth visit. This time was important because they just recently moved a couple of WWII-era 5″ gun turrets from an old destroyer being junked in Brownsville up the intracoastal waterway to Corpus. During the war (in other words, as originally built) the ship had four such turrets on board. They were removed after the war during a major refit in the early 50’s.
There’s a restaurant here called “Shells” that’s about the size of a typical garden shed. We went there for dinner on Wednesday, and the food was surprisingly, almost shockingly in fact, great. It’s like somebody who really knows how to cook went slightly crazy and set up shop cooking for retirees and weirdos like us.
The kids can spend arbitrary amounts of time at the beach. Pat and Allie worked hard to rescue a number if imperiled “beach roaches”, which looked like ordinary roaches to me. The built little habitats for them.
We’re headed for The Gaff today, and I’ll report back on how the place is doing. We’re too early in the year for the belt sander races.
The Gaff update
Well The Gaff does not disappoint. We had to park around back because the city had dug a giant trench across the front parking lot. That meant we got to see the famous Pirate Day Gaff float.
It’s a beautiful day and yet nobody’s eating on the outdoor patio. Warm sun, cool breeze.
Allie and Pat and Christopher all worked on the ceiling tile we bought.
We were lucky to get a table right in front of the racing belt sanders of The Gaff. The sanders won’t be competing again until April.
