Sunday was a warm, but rainy, day, with temps reaching the mid-70s and the humidity exceeding that! We attended First Baptist Church of Rockport again. This week’s message was on forgiveness, on a personal level, as well corporate. The key verse is found in the Old Testament, where Solomon is asking God for forgiveness for the children of Israel, when they sin. God answered him with four conditions for forgiveness: 1) to humble yourself by admitting your sin; 2) praying to God, asking for forgiveness; 3) seeking God always in all things; and, 4) turning away from sinful behavior. True repentance is more than just rote talk; it’s a change in behavior. Following these four steps earnestly will bring about forgiveness, when we sin individually, as a group, or as a nation. II Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land.” As believers it’s our responsibility to follow these steps, leading to forgiveness, and to pray earnestly for ourselves, our family and friends, and for our country.
After church we usually have breakfast at Caroline’s Turtle Bay Café. This week she was so busy we couldn’t find a parking spot, so we ventured out of our comfort zone to Taqueria Puerto Vallarta, just down the road. While it was good, with home-made tortillas and scrambled eggs loaded with peppers and onions, nothing beats Caroline’s corned beef hash!
Monday was another warm day, but sunny. We walked along Fulton Beach Road for about an hour, enjoying the breeze off the water. Then, we relaxed for the remainder of the day. Dick did ride the motorcycle to Rockport’s Heritage District, to survey another RV park but he was unsuccessful. I stayed back at the trailer to read. Nice day.
Tuesday morning is my morning to attend the “Stitch and…” session at the clubhouse. This week 7 of us spent about 90 minutes, knitting, crocheting, beading, etc., and catching up on the latest park news. It’s such a good way to get connected to other ladies in the park, many of whom are full-timers like us, some who live here year-‘round, and some who are here for just a week or two. I’ve learned some special stitches from these gals, as well as some lessons on RVing!
Tuesday was also our first of four sessions at Rockport’s Bay Education Center, on Science On a Sphere®, covering planets, atmosphere, land and oceans. What a fabulous afternoon!
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| Sphere in the Education Center. Impressive, huh! |
This photo is of the Earth, called “The Big Blue Marble,” taken at the Education Center. This is what astronauts see as they look down on us from space. The shading is true color with the oceans shades of blue, the clouds white and the lands varying from green to brown. The brown areas are the sands of the deserts. Most of the information came from NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, which is attached to the Terra satellite 435 miles above Earth. The background image of the land and oceans was created using data from June through September of 2001. This couldn’t be done in a single day or even a week because on any given day clouds are blocking a significant portion of the surface. The cloud image is a composite of three days’ worth of data. (The first two days of data were collected in the visible wavelength and the third day was needed to get a view of the clouds over the poles using thermal infrared imagery.)
Our first session was on planets. Much of what we heard we already knew, but there were a few things that were new to us. We learned specific information on planets in our solar system, how planets differ in makeup and size, and temperature. We looked forward to the next three sessions!
As the week progressed, temperatures continued to climb, with no rain in the forecast. Wednesday was no different. The temperatures rose to the mid-70s again, but the cooling breeze off the water helped keep us sane! One would think that we’d be adapting to this warm weather, but for some reason the 70 degree weather feels a lot warmer here in Texas. Guess that shows that things are “bigger” (and hotter!) in Texas! Our second session at the Education Center was on atmosphere. In this session we learned how temperatures and wind currents help determine the location of hurricanes, tornadoes, etc., as well as the severity of weather.
Thursday brought warm temperatures early in the morning: 61 degrees by 7:30 a.m. We knew it was going to be another warm and humid day. We relaxed for most of the day, reading and meeting more folks as they walked by our site. That afternoon we attended our third session at the Education Center: land.
In this session images were displayed of the “big blue marble” and its land masses, both above the water and below. It was interesting to learn how many mountain ridges are below the surface of the ocean, and how the earth’s plates are continually moving to form new ridges. These moving plates also cause the earthquakes so prevalent today, including the Japan earthquake in 2011 and how it affected ocean currents worldwide.
We returned to the trailer to find that the power awning fuse had blown. I extended it that morning, so we couldn’t retract the awning. The rocker switch seems to be inoperable. Just a glitch in our RVing experience! We learned how to retract the awning manually, but it needs to be attended to before we hit the road in 3 weeks. Until it’s fixed we won’t be using the awning!
Friday’s temperatures soared to near 80 degrees. The wind was near 35 mph, but thankfully we were somewhat sheltered by the pin oaks in the park.
Friday was our last session at the Education Center, on oceans. We learned how water shapes our planet and nearly every aspect of our lives. Using data sets from a variety of sources, including NOAA and NASA, we were reminded that water is the driver of Earth's dynamic systems, the source of all life on the planet, and it underscores just how rare and precious Earth's fresh water resource is. The Earth is comprised of 71% water of which 3% is fresh. Of that 3% fresh water, 2% is inaccessible , and 1% is usable. What a precious resource!
Afterwards we trekked to the Aquarium at Rockport Harbor, which features theme-based aquariums providing views of jetties, oyster reefs, offshore rigs, and indigenous sea life. The main feature during our visit was of Morley, the honeycomb moray eel, currently on display. The honeycomb moray eel is the second largest moray eel to inhabit the Indo-Pacific oceans, and resides among the reef flats and slopes of the continental reefs. Their distribution ranges from The Red Sea and East Africa to Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea north to Japan and south to Australia.Honeycomb eels are known to reach lengths of 6 feet or more and live 25-30 years. Marley is approximately 11 years old and over 4 ½ feet in length, and is the only fish within this facility that is not native to the Gulf of Mexico. Quite impressive!
We rose Saturday to warmer temperatures in the morning, indicating that it was going to be a very warm day. Temperatures were near 80 that afternoon, with a nice breeze attempting to cool us off! We did a short bicycle ride around the park—it was just too warm to do much more. I made a wild rice casserole for dinner, one of Dick’s favorites. Thankfully, temps cooled to the low 60s during the night, allowing for good sleeping weather.
The following photos were taken of the parks around the Rockport Harbor. There are always things to see and photograph!
We hope this finds you well, and looking forward to the first day of Spring, Wednesday, March 20
.Happy Trails!
Dick and Gail
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