Around Rockport and St Jo Island

Last Monday was a beautiful day, so we took a drive down the National Seashore to see what we could find on the beach. It was a day that the tide was going to be out for most of the day, so we hoped we might make it the 60-something miles to the end of the island. No such luck, though—the sand got too soft and deep at about the 22-mile mark for the Explorer to go any farther.

There were virtually NO shells, just a lot of debri that had been washed ashore by Hurricanes Dolly and Ike. Neither had actually made landfall in this area (Dolly came in south of here and Ike hit Galveston to the north), but both left a lot of junk on this part of the island. Oh, well--it's still a beach and we enjoyed walking in the sand and looking for the evasive shells.

Since Tuesday was also going to be in the 70's, we decided that would be a good day to take the Jetty Boat over to St. Jo Island. Our expectations for finding many treasures there weren't high after we had found so few shells on other beaches, but a trip to the private island of St. Jo is always fun. Bobby and Melba, Joe and Barbara, Roger and I loaded up early (well, about 9 a.m.) and took the ferry across to Port Aransas where we caught the 10:00 boat to the island.



We walked at least a couple of miles down the island, picking up a few shells along the way, but the only thing we found of any real interest to keep were a few small sand dollars.



We got back to the jetty awhile before time for the next boat back to Port Aransas and watched a bunch of dolphin play in the water. The dolphins topped off a gorgeous day at the beach and everyone had a great time! It's hard to see the dolphin between the two pelicans on the water, but Roger actually got a picture of one of them coming out of the water:

Weather the next few days wasn't all that good, but it left time to do some laundry on Wednesday and then on Thursday we made the 200-mile trip to Progresso, Mexico, to pick up some medicine that would otherwise require a prescription. Since I was out of my blood pressure meds and can't see a doctor until we get back to Arkansas in March, it was kind of a trip of necessity.

Yesterday was Super Bowl Sunday so we all took snacks to the activity room here at the park and some watched the game on the big-screen TV while others (including me) worked on a jigsaw puzzle and ATE! Not sure what the week will bring, but I'll be back soon to let you know what else we find to do.