Christmas

We spent Christmas with our niece, Jana and her family.  Tom's sister, Brenda and her husband, Carl were also there with us at the Leeper home.

Three generations

Texas Santa, a ceramic piece made by Jana.

December 15 through 22, we parked in Janie's (Tom's niece) driveway.  We had a great visit.  We even got to meet our great niece, Tara, who flew from somewhere in Ohio to spend Christmas with her mom and dad.

Behind Gary and Janies home was a green belt with a wonderful trail that ran for 12 miles.  We rode on it a couple of times. 

Fredricksburg, Texas

One day we went in to Fredricksburg, a cute German town, with Janie and Tara and we had lunch at a marvelous German restaurant.

December 17, 2015

San Antonio, Texas

We spent the day in San Antonio, at the Alamo and the River Walk.

The Alamo

The Alamo

The Alamo

The San Antonio River Walk is such an incredible place!  I hadn't even heard of it before this trip. The River Walk is a network of walkways along the banks of the San Antonio River, one story beneath the streets of downtown San Antonio.  Lined by shops, restaurants and landscaping, the River Walk winds and loops under bridges, (both vehicle and foot bridges) as two parallel sidewalks, on either shore, connecting the major tourist attractions including the Alamo.

December 21, 2016

Our great niece, Tara Bergeron, took us back to River Walk to see it at night with the Christmas lights lit.

 Beautiful  Christmas lights reflected in the San
Antonio River.

December 9 - 15

We spent the week of December 9 - 15 at the Mustang Island State Park.  We went into Corpus Christi to visit the Botanical Gardens, the South Texas Aquarium and the aircraft carrier Lexington. We spent one afternoon at the Padre Island National Seashore riding our bikes on the beach.

Mustang Island

Our route from Galveston Island to Mustang Island.

Campsite on Mustang Island.  We didn't see any mustangs.

Fog.  It was strange a couple of mornings that there was fog, 

and wind, and yet it was warm!

Snoozing on one foot.

Terns on the beach

Island sunset 

We went aboard the air-craft carrier Lexington in Corpus Christi.

Guess who.

I found this gorgeous lightening whelk shell on the beach right where
we boarded the Lexington.  Hermie was very good at hiding inside the
shell.  I had no idea that there was somebody in there,  The shell
was a bit crusty so I soaked it in hot soapy water and scrubbed it.  It
kept moving around to different places and even showed up on the bottom
step of the motor-home. Finally I saw his little legs.  I felt so bad for
all the abuse I gave him.  Yes, he's blowing bubbles. He seemed very much alive
when we sent him back to the ocean.  I hope he makes it.

Corpus Christi waterfront and marina.

Outdoor cafes abound in Corpus Christi.  We had seafood gumbo.

There was a community nearby the Galveston Island State Park where we were camped called Jamaica Beach.  I thought it was pretty cool because all of the water channels that were made there and how some of the homes were built over the water.  Pretty much all the homes it the area had the living quarters on the second level and the ground level was used as a garage or a boathouse.  This is for protection against storms and storm surges.

The channels of Jamaica Beach

Homes on stilts.

More Galveston

The Texas Seaport Museum and the 1877 sailing vessel, the Ellisa.

The Ellisa and The Boardwalk

We took a long bike ride on the seawall.  It went right along the coast and went for miles and miles.  The seawall was built shortly after the big hurricane in 1900, to protect the city.

The seawall looking west.

The seawall looking east.

We spent an evening on the Pleasure Pier

December 7, 2015

The Bishop's Palace

The Bishop's Palace is an ornate 19,082 sq ft Victorian style house built between 1887 and 1893 in Galveston.  The home is estimated to have cost $250,000 at the time.  Today its value is estimated at over $5.5 million. Thank goodness they allowed photography inside this place, I took about a gazillion pics.