The Pelican Path Project

It was another beautiful day here on the Texas gulf coast. We went to a farmer's market this morning and then set out on a search for more of the painted pelicans. I googled "Seabrook pelicans" last night and found a website that talked about the Seabrook Pelican Path Project.

Our first stop was the Seabrook Visitor's Center where we picked up a map for the Pelican Path.

The pelicans are spread out all over the town and it was a lot of fun trying to find them all. Some of the pelicans were damaged in Hurriane Ike and are still being restored but we were able to find quite a few. There is a park that has five of them and most of the municipal buildings have a pelican in front. Here are some pictures of the ones we were able to find...

Seabrook is a very pretty little town, situated on Galveston Bay. I took a few other pictures as we walked around the town. This gazebo was in a park on the bay...

I liked this big house which was also right on the bay with a pond in front...

All of the homes were lovely in this quiet, little town. Many looked like the visitor's center with white picket fences and pretty gardens. I really liked these colorful birdhouses we saw in one of the yards...

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Have a great weekend!

Pelicans and Space

It has been hot here the past few days but I'm definitely not complaining. We went for a drive today to escape the heat in the motorhome and to see some of the local sights. A lot of businesses around Kemah and Seabrook have painted pelicans in front. I love how different areas have started doing that, like the crabs in Baltimore, ponies in Arizona, buffalo in South Dakota, etc. Here are some photos I snapped of  a few of the pelicans...

That last one was about a block away from the Johnson Space Center. The McDonald's near the Space Center doesn't have a pelican but they do have a giant astronaut on the roof...

We pulled into the space center and walked around the grounds for a while. They have some exhibits on the grounds, like this  space module...

and these T-38 Talons...

 We saw this space shuttle in the distance. I'm pretty sure it is just a replica but I thought it was pretty cool...

I know from reading the Facebook posts of my friends and family that they are having really cold weather back in Maryland. I wish I could send you all some of this hot weather. Of course, you could just come visit! We'll be in Kemah for another week and then we plan to start heading west. It has been unusually cold in the southwest this winter which is why we've stayed in this area longer than we had planned. The Texas gulf coast has been one of the warmest parts of the country this year. Come on down!

Galveston Island

We took a drive to Galveston Island Saturday and spent the afternoon at the beach. The island is a barrier island and includes the city of Galveston and several small beach towns. It was a beautiful day and we were surprised at how empty the beaches were. We drove the length of the island and even crossed a bridge to another, smaller island. You are allowed to drive on the beaches here so we took the Jeep onto the beach at one point. Most of today's pictures are from the beach...

We had a wonderful time at the beach and then drove the length of the island again back up to Galveston. Galveston is a beautiful city but it was pretty crowded so we didn't spend much time there. We did stop to take a few pictures. This is the seawall which was built after the 1900 hurricane...

The Galveston hurricane of 1900 was the deadliest natural disaster in US history. More than 6000 people were killed. There is a statue along the seawall dedicated to the victims of the hurricane...

We loved it there so much that we're thinking about staying at the Galveston Island State Park for a few days when we leave Kemah, depending on the weather. We'll definitely  head back there again before we leave this area, even if it's just for a few more day trips.

Thanks for stopping by!

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

Hello everybody! Sorry it has been so long since my last post. We moved into our new motorhome and spent some time at the dealership getting settled in and then moved backed to Baytown to spend the holidays. We love our new home and we had a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

The only downside has been the weather. It has rained almost every day for the past two weeks. We're thankful we got out of the van when we did because we would have gone crazy in it with this weather. In the new rig, it isn't so bad. It is very cozy and already feels like home. We've had lots of little projects to do around here so it has been kind of fun even. The temperature has been nice: mostly warm days and cool nights. We go for walks, and I ride my bike, whenever we get a break from the rain. This RV park is on a small bayou...

It was pretty Sunday so we traveled from Baytown to Kemah, Texas. It was a short trip but now we're in a very nice coastal area about 20 miles from Galveston. We we're planning to go to a park in Galveston but this wild weather made us a little nervous about being on a barrier island. Galveston doesn't have a very good track record for handling bad storms.

Yesterday afternoon, the sun came out and we had the chance to explore Kemah. There is a nice boardwalk here, right on Galveston Bay, so we spent the afternoon there. The temperature was in the high seventies and we really enjoyed walking along the boardwalk. It's was a nice mix of beautiful bay views, rides and boardwalk stuff and gardens...

 I took this photo for Toby and all the other "Angry Birds" fans...

 I'm on a quest to get a good picture of a Roseate Spoonbill. They are an odd, pink bird with a spoon-shaped bill that are native to this area. I saw two the other day in a cove on the bayou behind our site but couldn't get a good picture. I'm going to post this blurry one anyway in case I don't see them again. They were pretty far away and I had to crop this to even be able to see them in the picture...

Well, that's all for today. I hope to have some pictures of Galveston soon and possibly the Johnson Space Center. There are several wildlife refuges in this area that we want to visit, too. Hopefully we'll get some pretty days so we can get out and explore and have something interesting to post in the blog. We're happy, though, and really enjoying our new home. Thanks for stopping by!

A Walk In The Park

Not much happening here the past few days. We're just waiting for Wednesday so we can move into our new home. We hung out at the park yesterday and watched movies and football and read. It was a nice relaxing day but not a lot of opportunities for blog-worthy pictures. I took a couple of walks around the RV park to see if I could find anything interesting.

I took a photo of our van and Jeep because it is starting to hit home to me that our travel days in the van are just about over. It's been a good little motorhome and has taken us to some amazing places the past five years. I'll be sad to say good-bye to it...

My morning walk took me to a field right outside the park with some pretty horses...

...and a pond inside the park that has had a heron sitting on a pipe every time we've driven or walked past. I almost thought it was fake but I finally saw it move yesterday. It reminds me of the heron that was always in the pond outside our condo...

Last night, we walked around the park to look at all the Christmas decorations. The light displays didn't photograph well but I did get a couple of nice shots of some of the decorative pieces. Some people really go all out-even in an RV park. I love that...

We brought some Christmas lights with us so we might do something simple in our new rig. I'm still not sure where we'll be for Christmas. If we haven't sold the van by then we'll probably still be in the Houston vicinity but we hope to at least be on the outskirts in a more remote setting. We're looking at Lake Conroe, the Sam Houston Forest or maybe even Galveston. Wherever we are, I'm sure it will be fun.

I hope all your holiday plans are going well. Thanks again for stopping by.

Texas Update

As most of you know from my Facebook posts, we've been in Texas for the past two weeks, buying a motorhome and getting the Jeep inspected, titled, etc. We left the Livingston area yesterday and moved to Spring, Tx near the dealership where we are getting our motorhome. We went in this morning and finished signing all the papers. We'll be taking possession of it Wednesday and will probably stay in their lot a night or two to get use to things and make sure everything works

I finally have an afternoon free so I thought I'd update the blog with some random pictures from Livingston since that's technically my new hometown. We were downtown yesterday and I snapped a few pictures of the water tower, movie theater and courthouse ...

It's a pretty typical small Texas town. I liked it. I really liked the park we were in. That was in Onalaska, Tx. I posted a picture from there the other day but here are two more. The first is another shot of the lake and the second is this weird playground they had that I think is some kind of water sprinkler park. I thought it was cool looking...

I've been debating about how many pictures of the new motorhome I want to post on the blog. I think I'll wait until we are in it and have some nice pictures of the exterior in a pretty setting and post them on Facebook. It's very pretty and we're super-excited about it so here is a preview shot of the interior...

Our (tentative) plan is to return to this park next weekend since it is so close to the dealership. That way, our first drive is a short one and we're still nearby if we need to get something checked. Then we plan to head to a state park or Corps of Engineer campground. We're very anxious to get out of the Houston area and into a more natural setting and there are several parks not too far from here that should be perfect. I love researching parks and routes so this is the fun stuff.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Hello From Texas

I'm sorry I haven't updated the blog in a while. We've been in Texas for over a week and it is very nice here but we've been busy shopping for a motorhome and taking care of residency issues. We haven't done much sightseeing or picture taking. Most of today's pictures came from the RV parks we have stayed in.

This past week, we were in Baytown, Texas. We stayed at a very pretty park that had the nicest people working there. Actually, everyone we've met in Texas so far has been super-friendly. I didn't take many pictures in the park but I did snap this one photo of the palm trees around the swimming pool...

We've had gorgeous weather. It has hit 80 degrees almost every day with bright blue skies...

Today was a travel day. We moved about a hundred miles north to Onalaska, Texas. I thought we were in Ohio at one point because we passed through both Cleveland and Dayton on our way here. We're staying at a park on Lake Livingston. It has a nice sandy beach leading up to the lake...

I didn't build that sand castle in the foreground. I did walk down and stick my feet in the lake and I was surprised by how warm it was. No one was swimming but I'm seriously considering it if it stays this warm over the next few days.

We came to this area to take care of some business in Livingston, Tx. Livingston is our new home town. This is where our mail forwarding service is located and where we will get our licenses and register to vote. We should officially be Texans by the end of the week.

The big news is we bought a motorhome Friday! It's very nice and pretty much exactly what we were looking for. It should be ready for us to move into in about a week. We're very happy and relieved to find a motorhome so perfect for us so quickly. I am so glad we will be in it by Christmas. We didn't know where we were going to put a tree in the van.

Thanks again for stopping by. Our travels should get more interesting when we finish all this stuff and get back on the road in our new home. Stay tuned...