Second Week in Paradise

Happy Day!  I weighed this morning and the scale said 79.  I was so excited!  I know that's not a good weight for an adult woman but, hey, it meant I could have all the hamburgers and fries I wanted--not to mention sweet tea!  DOUGHNUTS!

 

Well, anyway, Mike and I had a good laugh over it before I got my true weight.   

 

This shrimper was out this morning while we were walking.  You can't see them, but there were hundreds of birds flying behind it and several dolphins swimming behind the boat. 

It's pretty to see the water against these breakers.

Another picture of the same shrimp boat.  At least you can see some of the birds flying behind it. 

 

This is our life right now.  We get up, have coffee and hit the beach.  We walk for two hours (sometimes more) and then we come back home and rest for a few minutes before exploring the beach or eating linner.  Today, Mike grilled some chicken and I steamed some veggies.  At least, we're eating better and getting lots of exercise.  Sometimes, we even walk around the streets of this island just looking at houses. 

These are the two houses at the end of our street.  Nice!  The beach is directly behind them.

I'm not losing weight yet but maybe I'm firming up.  My legs ought to be firming up anyway.  It's not that easy walking through all that sand sometimes and then some days there's a strong wind blowing against us while we're walking.  It must be doing some good somewhere, right?  Today, I took my shoes off on the way back for a little while and walked in the edge of the water.  It felt good.
The only day we took off from walking was Sunday. 

The people in this park are so nice.  We sat around together a few nights watching the cubs and Indians play ball. 

We're having fun in paradise. 

 

I'm not leaving!

I'm not leaving and you can't make me!  We pulled in here for a couple days which were even given to us free since Mike is a veteran.  Now we're staying a month.  This place is just too great.  We have the beach across the street and we can walk for miles on it--without even seeing another soul most times.

As we were walking along, we noticed we had company.  Several dolphins were playing.

These stingrays had washed up on the beach.

A fairly large jelly fish washed up on beach.

We could spend our winter here easily. 

There are about 1500 people who live here.  It's Louisiana's only inhabited barrier island. 

Also, we would like to say

to Dalton

 

 

Grand Isle, Lousiana Beach

 

Look how much beach we have to walk on.  We were on it three different times today and only once was there anyone else on it.  This evening almost dark about four or five joggers were out there. 

 

There is a grocery store and a few restaurants.  There's lots of rental properties and a few rv parks.  But there are not any souvenir shops and all that commercialized stuff.  There's not much traffic.  We can walk anywhere and don't have to worry about getting run over.  This park we're in only has 15 sites.  There are not 15 rv's here.  We sit around a camp fire at night in our lawn chairs and talk and laugh.  There are a few full timers in here and by full timers, I mean they live in their campers all the time but they do not live in this park.  This park does not have people who live here all the time.  There are some who spend their winters here.  Mike and I could totally do that.  We love this place from day one.  We are going to be staying here for a week now.  The low temperature is in the mid-70's and the high temperature is 80.  It feels great here.  There's a nice breeze blowing off the ocean all the time. 

 

 

Nice!

We may have found Paradise!

We are now at Grand Isle, Louisiana.  We are actually on an island in an rv park with only 15 sites.  Across the street is the beach.  We haven't yet seen it but were told it's huge.  We will know by tomorrow morning because I aim to be out walking on it in the morning.  We could see the water on the way here on both sides, but as we got to the rv park, the land on the side of the road with the beach, got higher (kind of a little hill) then you walk down onto the beach. 

This place is not commercialized yet.  There are lots of homes and several very small rv parks.  There's even a state park (which on the map looks like it's sitting out in the water).  We actually had planned on staying at the state park but couldn't get reservations until Monday, so called Grand Isle RV Park instead.  Glad we did!  At least we have full hookups here.  In the state park, we wouldn't have sewer.  We had planned to stay a couple days but may be here a week or so.  Actually, they gave the first two days to us free after we got here because Mike is a veteran.  That's an October special they have going on.  How nice is that!

This is where we are. 

Our view on the way here.

Funny.  Single wide up on stilts.  Makes since though when you think of hurricanes.

 

The people in this park are so nice.  Right off, they invited us to join them around a campfire tonight.  Evidently, the residents contribute to a dinner and they all eat together then sit and talk around a large campfire.  It was late when we got here, so we just drove up the road for a light dinner of nachos and crawfish fritters.  Now, we're just chillin' in Paradise.

Duson, Lousiana

You're not going to believe this but we are  staying in an rv park called: 

It's great!  All the streets in here are like "Leap Frog", "Mystery Frog", and "Tadpole Lane".  We had to come here. 

 

Duson is a small place right next to Lafayette.  Tonight we went to a restaurant recommended by the office manager here--Randols. 

 

I had to come back and edit this.  We were both a little disappointed in our dinner.  Mike's fish was delicious.  I had some stuffed shrimp, which was really good, and a sampling of the shrimp etouffee, which was most disappointing.  It was very bland.  We had some in New Orleans a few years ago that was lip smacking good.  Then, we had some sweet potato pie which was very bland.  Our server took our order, brought our food and disappeared.  Another server saw we needed something to drink and took over.  A plus was that there was live zydeco music and lots of seniors dancing. 

One of the really great things about Louisiana is the food and music. 

There are lots of casinos here.  Actually there are a couple gas stations across the street with casinos in one end of them.  Weird!  But there are lots of cars there.

We are only here for one night and not sure where we will go tomorrow.  Tonight, we're just kicking back inside with a comedy movie since we have free cable here.  Sometimes we find an rv park with free cable hook up and free wi-fi and it's really nice. 

(Yawn)  I'm getting a little tired.

 

 

Moving to Houston

Yes, we have decided after weeks and weeks of discussion to relocate to Houston, Texas.  We have lived here in San Antonio long enough.  We are ready for greener pastures.  At least, when we move we don't have to hire a moving company BECAUSE WE JUST MOVE OUR HOUSE! 

Okay, I'm just kidding about weeks of discussion.  We decided last night where we're going.  We're gypsies. 

We had lunch at Benjamin's Kitchen.  This was recommended to us by our son-in-law, Jeffrey. 
He has to go to San Antonio quite a bit for business and he was right.  It was good.  The rice was the best I've had at a Mexican restaurant.  I'm not a rice person--Mike is.  This rice was brown rice and it had some veggies in it and had a great taste.  Thanks, Jeffrey, for the recommendation.

Yesterday, we pretty much stayed close to home base.  Once a week, we have to do that to take care of business like laundry or cleaning, you know, housework.  But we don't have yard work!  Yay!
(I loved mowing.  I downloaded audio books to my phone and mowed and listened.  I loved it.)

Well, gotta go.  We're having coffee and then on the road, again.

Catch you in Houston.

Remember the Alamo!

That's the Alamo behind us.  Mike wants to say that it has changed since 1972 when he was there to visit.   Back then, it was very small and the place was filled with hookers and druggies.  He was very disappointed.  Since then the Daughters of the Republic of Texas have made some great changes.  There was a model inside the museum that showed the original place when all the fighting was going on and it was huge.  It's a beautiful place to visit.  If ever in San Antonio, you must visit downtown and especially the Alamo. 

We got on a bus right outside our park and rode downtown.  We visited the Alamo, we walked the streets of San Antonio, we walked through a mall downtown and we took a river cruise.  It was a great day.  Then we got on a trolley and rode around town and walked the city again before getting back on a bus and going back to the park around 5:00 PM.  All in all, it was a great day. 

This tree was at the Alamo and it was huge.

I took this picture while on the river cruise.  These are this tree's roots coming up out of the ground.  I can not remember what type tree it was but they were plentiful.  In some places they had uprooted the sidewalk and the sidewalk had to be replaced, but in those instances, they built a bridge over the roots so they could continue to grow.  This river cruise was also in the middle of the mall we walked through.  Of course, it was outside but the river walk mall was awesome.  We had to cross the river over bridges to get to different parts of the mall.  This cruise was $10 a person but well worth the cost.

Across from the Alamo are many businesses with rides inside and maze of mirrors, Ridleys Believe it or Not, and different shops with souvenirs.  (In case you take your children with you.)  There are many restaurants around for whatever you have a desire for. 

We had a great time today.  We learned a lot, walked a lot and just had fun.  Even riding the bus was fun.  It cost us $2.75 a piece for an all day ticket.  We were able to get on any trolley or bus and go anywhere we wanted to all day for only $5.50.  The parking downtown was anywhere from $5.00 to $15.00 (that we saw).  The bus picked us up at the rv park and delivered us back.  How cool is that!

The River Walk cruise. 

Tomorrow, I believe we'll try a restaurant recommended by one of our sons-in-law. 

Right now, our feet are tired and we're putting them up. 

Jeremiah was a bullfrog. 

Mountains, mountains, mountains. . .

. . on the road to San Antonio, Texas.  

As we got closer, we discovered the top-knot was rocks.

Crazy, beautiful scenery!  I can't tell you how many times we both said "WOW!" at the same time coming up or going down a hill.  The scenery changes so fast sometimes.  We'll be riding along with this: 

Then, the scenery changes to lots of grass and trees.  It truly has been an eye opener experience driving west from home.  We've been through all the southern states now, so maybe in the summer, we can hit some of the northern states. 

It was quite a boring ride across Texas.  Do you realize how long it takes to drive across Texas?  We love Mary Beth, Jacob, and Christopher but I couldn't live here.  It's too hot! 

While we're driving across this boring desert, Mike is making up songs: (Sung to the tune of any country song)

"I got my new cell phone. I'm just as happy as can be.
You can't take it away 'cause I'm taking a new selfie.
Oh yeah, I'm gonna send you a text with a picture of me."

By 2:00, we were settled in San Antonio, Texas.  It is HOT here.  (Mike may not realize it but I think the heat is getting to him too.  Remember, the song?)

There are oil wells everywhere.  Why are we buying oil from other countries?
We drove through some towns that sound like they would be fun to visit and explore.  But this girl is ready to get out of Texas!  I can't breathe here.  I'm keeping a low grade headache.  My sinuses are blocked.  It's too hot to go walking.  (Sorry for the complaining.)  The state is beautiful and we have only seen parts of it and a lot of that was from I-40 or I-10. 

We will be here in San Antonio for the next three nights.  This is a huge city.  There is nothing you could ever need that couldn't be found here. 

I didn't take this picture.  I just like the looks of cities at night.
We are in an rv park on the east side of the city called River Walk RV Park.  It's a little more expensive than we usually pay.  But three nights are still cheaper than a hotel room.  This place is huge. 

We haven't gotten out to explore yet so there's no telling what we will find.  Of course, we will check out the Alamo but who knows what else. 

For now, I'm going to hang you up now (as Malorie used to say on the phone).

Chalk the Block

 

Saturday, we took the boys (Jacob and Chris) downtown El Paso for an event they call "Chalk the Block".  It was too neat.  They let anyone who cares to, draw on the sidewalks, roadway, walls of buildings, you name it.  And they do!  There were several squares taped off that were reserved for real local artists. 

      

Some of our favorites.  Hard to believe it's all chalk. 

 

      

 

Complete with a fire-breathing dragon. 

Jacob, Pa, and Chris.  Three handsome men.  Jacob graduated this past year and Chris is a sophomore in high school.  Chris is now 6 feet tall.  WOW!  We do have beautiful grandchildren!  We have enjoyed running around with these guys for a few days. 

Another view of the dragon

This was in the middle of the park.

That great wall between the United States and Mexico.  Yep, just a big fence.  Whoooo!

I realize this is not a good picture but it was night time and it's the best I could do.  All these lights are Mexico.  From the U.S. side, this is what Mexico looks like at night--millions and millions of lights.  It's amazing to see. 

Love you guys!