Bay View RV Resort, Rockport, Texas - January 6-12, 2013

Winter has not yet left the Coastal Bend of Texas! Temperatures dropped to the low to mid-30s the first part of the week. The following photos were taken Tuesday morning, when we had "solid water" falling for a few minutes. The wind was blowing, too. Brrrr! We are so ready for warmer temperatures and sunshine! Thankfully it warm to the 50s by later in the day, but we could sure use consistently warm temps!

The clubhouse was stripped of all the Christmas decorations on Monday, and lunch was provided for those of us who participated. So many strands of lights! It looks so bare now. We also took the opportunity to clean out and organize the clubhouse activities office. Tuesday morning I attended the weekly session of "stitch and b..."; that afternoon we trekked to the clubhouse along with Bob and Sharon, Gary and Pam, and Steve and Marty to play yet another few games of Pegs and Jokers. (These were the final games for Gary and Pam, as they were leaving Rockport Wednesday morning, heading to Harlingen, Texas for a couple of days, and then on to Tucson.) Standings: women 16: men 6. Woot-woot! Afterwards we all headed to Panjo Pizza in Rockport for dinner. What fun, and what a fun group of people! We will certainly miss Gary and Pam, and hope to see them again down the road.

Dick spent quite a bit of time working on the resort software issues this week. He's making great progress, and more requests keep mounting up.

Pegs and Jokers seems to be the game of the moment. We played again with Bob and Sharon on Wednesday afternoon, this time adding friend Robin (from Ohio) to the mix. Since we were unevenly matched, we all played for ourselves. (Drum roll please...) I won! We stayed for happy hour and a great dinner of scalloped potatoes and ham followed by cherry crisp and ice cream. Yum-yum!

Thursday we woke to 63 degrees and fog. It stayed that way pretty much the entire day, but we did walk along Fulton Beach Road--so quiet and peaceful.

Blue heron and egret on one of the private piers.

Summer for us Winter Texans finally arrived on Friday, continuing through Saturday. Temperatures ranged from the mid-60s to the low 80s over both days, with sunshine and light breezes. Ahhhh... It's much more pleasant to walk along the water when it's warm with light wind.

We noticed this buzzard on one of our walks this week.

This egret wasn't too happy we interrupted
its fishing expedition in one of the lagoons!

Blue Heron in field near the
Fulton Beach Road where we walk.

One of our RV park friends, Carol (from Minnesota) takes advantage of the beautiful weather to kayak along the waterfront on Fulton Beach Road, while her husband Bob waits patiently at their truck for her return.

We took advantage of the weather on Saturday with, at long last, a motorcycle ride to Lamar Texas, just across the Copano Bay Bridge. We stopped at two old churches, dating back to the Civil War.

The first church is the Schoenstatt Chapel, located along Copano Bay. This small Catholic shrine is an exact replica of the original shrine in Schoenstatt, Germany, which is the center and "power station" of a Catholic religious movement of renewal. The shrine is located on a tree-shrouded hill overlooking the bay, and offers pilgrims a quiet spot in which to pray, meditate, and reflect. Schoenstatt, when translated from German, means beautiful place, and indeed it is.
*Taken in part from http://schoenstatt-texas.org/

The Schoenstatt Chapel,
exterior and interior. It's so small, only
6 pews on either side.

These 2 photos were taken on the grounds of
the Schoenstatt Chapel. Beautiful!

The second is also a Catholic church, the Stella Maris, or "Our Lady of the Sea." Now located next to the old Lamar Cemetery, it is the first recorded church in Aransas County, Texas, and is reported to be the oldest building still in existence here. The original building was located on the Schoenstatt property in Lamar, and moved to its present location in 1986. Seth Ballou, recognized as the earliest settler of Lamar, spearheaded the construction of the church with the help of his slave, Moses Ballou, and many Lamar settlers. It is interesting to note that the exterior of the chapel was made of shellcrete, a cement of burned shell ashes, sand, crushed shells and water. Twice during the Civil War the Union Navy shelled Stella Maris from Aransas Bay but the chapel received little damage. The Civil War, and the arrival of the railroad to Rockport in the 1870s, slowly sealed the fate of Lamar. By 1915 the post office had closed and then the hurricane of 1919 hit, severely damaging Stella Maris. Major repairs were made, and in 1931 the chapel was rebuilt. The stained glass windows were installed, and cedar shingles replaced the original zinc slate roof. An apartment was added to the back of the building, for the Diocese of Corpus Christi to use for recreation and as a retreat center. From the 1950s until it was moved in 1986, the Schoenstatt Sisters were the caretakers of the chapel. In 2005 the chapel became the property of the Diocese of Corpus Christi, and it is currently being used as a parish church for the Lamar community. Unfortunately the church was locked so we were unable to see inside. The grounds were beautifully kept.

Then, we headed to Goose Island State Park to get information on the park, its fees, and birding schedules. There are tons of birds native to this area, as well as birds that migrate here for the winter, such as the whooping cranes that travel thousands of miles every year from the wetlands of Wood Buffalo National Park in northern Canada to the Coastal Bend of Texas. At nearly 5 feet tall, whooping cranes are the tallest birds in North America. They have a wingspan of 7 1/2 feet. It's difficult to see in this photo, but the cranes are white with rust colored patches on the top and back of their heads. They have yellow eyes and long, black legs and bills. Although their primary wing feathers are black, they're only visible in flight. They're amazing!

Sunday morning we attended First Baptist Church, and were blessed by the ministry of the Nelons, a family and gospel singing group, who were in Rockport for the annual Gospel Fest. From the state of Florida, the Nelons have been together for over three decades, and have been nominated for numerous awards, including the Grammy. Pastor Jones then brought the message from John 3, where Jesus met with Nicodemus, a high ranking Jewish religious leader. Pastor reminded us that, like Nicodemus, just saying we believe doesn't mean we have a saving faith in Jesus. It's one thing to believe that Jesus will save you, but another thing to have your sin forgiven and be transformed and given a new life by the power of God. Good stuff. Here's the link to his sermon for this week:  http://www.sermon.net/fbcrockport

After church we decided to have breakfast at home rather than eat out as we usually do. So after eating we took a walk along Fulton Beach Road before we met friends at the clubhouse for ice cream and yes, another rousing afternoon of Pegs and Jokers. While walking, we noticed almost 40 boats in the bay, lined up. Don't know if there was a fishing contest or if the fish were just biting there!

Then, we introduced Bill and Carol (from Arkansas) to the game, and spent about 4 hours playing, with Bob and Sharon and Steve and Karen. The guys shook us to the roots, by beating the gals 2:0. Good thing we have many days of playing ahead of us, eh, gals! We won't go down without a fight!

Rather than me cooking at that late hour, we decided to get burgers at What-a-burger in downtown Rockport. Yum! Then, home to pack, as I'm heading out tomorrow morning, with about a dozen women from the RV park, to Coushatta, LA for three days at a resort and casino. Should be fun. I'll be bringing along my knitting and a good book in case luck isn't with me...ha! More on the trip next week.

Until then, stay well and strong. We'll be in touch!
Hugs,
RJ and Gail

(Here's one of our little pals that are constantly scurrying around our yard and on our rooftop!)