This week has been a fairly busy week.  Monday at the office we had to get the invitations out for our Appreciation Dinner for today (sunday).  The owner in Arizona had decided to treat all the residents to a dinner.  Our property managers were cooking, delivering and serving the meal.  The managers here, Debbie and Rick, only had to plan, organize and have the hall ready for the food when they came.  So last Monday we had to print over 300 invitations and stuff them all in the mail boxes.   All the residents had to sign up at the activity office for the early sitting….11:30….or the later sitting…..1:30…..   All of the employees and the Workampers were required to work with the setting up of the tables and serving the meal.   So we new it would be a busy weekend.

Also on Saturday, yesterday, was also the craft sale.  I wanted to have a table and display my bricks.  So all week I have been busy finishing the ones I had started.  I ended up with around 12 of them. I also experimented with putting gems around 2 clay flowerpot rims and grouted them.  They turned out really nice.  Friday the wind started up and became stronger and stronger.  The wind was over 30 miles an hour sustained, with gust over 40.   We have had a 12 x 12 awning by the trailer.  It has blown over so many times.   We keep putting it back up.  the frame around the top was so bent out of shape, Rich got 2 lengths of PVC pipe to support it.  It has been strapped down on all 4 corners.  All my craft stuff has been under the canopy along with my tables.   Well Friday nite it finally bite the dust…..Hahaha….Its last Hurrah…..I came home from the store and 1 leg had been twisted off of the frame….I put it back and readjusted the straps.  Several hours later 2 legs gave out…..Now it was barely standing on 2 legs…..So at last we let it rest…..lol….Down it came….Its life is at an end….Oh Well…

So Saturday morning I climbed under to get the rest of my bricks out and found that 2 had hit the concrete.   One survived but the other has some shattered pieces.   Now I will have to do some repair work.  So I brought all my bricks up to the hall for the craft sale and had a good time….I sold 4.  That is really pretty good as the sale was only for 2 hours.

We also had a display table of the Eastgate Woodcarvers.  We had a Woodcarvers Show in town several weeks ago, and our club entered 4 items and we all won Blue Ribbons…..EVEN ME…..lol….Imagine that.

I had made a set of intertwining hearts….In the Picture you can see the block of wood I started with and then the finished hearts.

These Cowboy Boot Earring are made by one of our seasoned Woodcarver “Willy” Williams.

This cross is a very interesting piece.  Such intricate carving to accomplish this.

Heres some other items carved by Barb….I love her Duck Pond, and her paint brushes

So today is Sunday and it was the Appreciation Dinner.  I had wanted to decorate as no one seems to do much of that.   What is the cheapest thing to do?   Of Course Balloons.   lol…….  Debbie bought a big bag of balloons to blow up.  I blew most of them up at home and brought 2 huge garbage bags filled up with balloons on the golf cart up to the hall.  Lynn the Activity girl, met me at the office at 9 so we could get them ready.   We tied them in clusters of 2 apiece to a piece of  yarn to make streamers.   Church was in the hall till 10 am. so after they were done we put balloons at all the windows, at the serving window …..in the entry way….inside and out….lol…..Looked rather nice….Well the Dinner went well……It went off like clock work…..We served Sloppy Joes, Baked Beans, pickles, chips, and cake.  In between the 2 sittings, we had to wash down the tables and set up silverware and cake again.  We served over 300 people….We had the Karaoke couple from the park playing music and singing.. ..Everyone had a good time.    We all cleaned up, put the tables and chairs back in place. and was home before 4:30…..But so so tired  After it was all over, I realized, I didn’t even take any pictures….I was to busy.  Darn………So tomorrow we have the DAY OFF………….YEaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa….

So that was our week…..lol…

We were in a Restaurant last week and seen this Beautiful Table and Flower Arrangement….I thought it was just so SO BEAUTIFUL…..

Something you don’t see up North……………..

Today, Rich and I went with Cici and Larry, back to Padre Island again.  This time we are going to take a 4 hour boat ride down to Brownsville, to the Boat Scrapping Yard.  We have been hearing all about this boat ride and about the Navy boats in the yards for Scrapping.  The aircraft carrier that just arrived in January, was the USS. Constellation.

We arrived around 11:15….Their was this cute little shop in Port Isabel with all kinds of Wooden Pelicans outside.  Cici needed one…lol…”YES  needed one”….for the latest craft project.  We stopped and us girls went in…lol…Cici found a really cute Pelican and I found some Bamboo wind chimes really cheap.   I needed some more.  I have nice neighbors. They like chimes….lol…at least so far…. We arrived at the boat dock around 11:45.  We bought our tickets and finally boarded our boat.

We were really far back in line, so we just stayed on the main floor instead of going to the top.  It really was the best place to be cause we was able to watch our chef cook our dinner.  The sky was cloudy but it was still a pretty day.  Seen a dolphin but they weren’t very active.  As we cruised towards Brownsville, the cook started the dinner.  In the middle of the boat, he had a propane turkey fryer.  He filled it with water, then put in a huge spice packet.  He added the juice of at least 3 lemons.

Once the water started boiling he put in 5 large ziplock bags of sliced potatoes and some onions.  Later he floated 4 huge bags of corn, and then 4 huge bags of sliced up Brats, then he put everything separately in large stainless serving pans.  After he took out the potatoes, he dumped in huge bags of shrimp and boiled them….

All of this was being done as we cruised through the Port area.

Check out this plate….Potatoes, Brats, Corn, Bun, and Huge Shrimp…We had all the trimmings….seafood sauce or ketchup…whatever needed…and               All the drinks you wanted during the trip…… soda, water or beer….”Lots of beer”..

As we were heading down the channel towards Brownsville the first thing we came upon was the Shrimp Boat Basin….Port of Brownsville is the Shrimp Capital of the world.  The Basin holds around 250 shrimp boats and neighboring Port Isabel has 200 boats.

Most boats are out to sea for 50 to 60 days at a time during peak fishing season.  A boat holds 10,000-20,000 galloons of diesel fuel.  One of the boats in the picture had sunk and was tied to the one next to it.  lol.  Many of them had fallen into derelict stages.   You could see parts of the harbor that were taken care of and parts that was falling apart with time.  We left the basin and went on down to the shipyard.

They looked like huge ships in the distance, like………….. Ghost Ships…………..  But as you cruised closer, you could see they were just huge rusted, empty hulls of steel.  Some still in one piece, many being dismantled and ripped apart piece by piece from bow to stern.  We passed 2 old cruise ships, 1 half ripped apart already. So so sad.  I looked to see if I could find out the names of them but couldn’t, but can you imagine all the good times the people had on them.  The music , the food and the gaiety that rang through their halls.   And above all, if they could talk………The ports that they had visited.

Some cargo ships, but the most impressive was the 3 aircraft carriers.

This is a close up of one of the carriers as it is being ripped apart.  You can see the interior doors that use to hustle and bustle with officers.  It is so sad that these vast ships cannot be saved somehow.  Their is so much history that has happened on these decks.   So many men have lost their lives and so many still live to remember the times on board.  Do a look up on Google on these 3 carriers and you will see some of the events in history that they served in.  Just amazing.

The Port of Brownsville is home to five of the nations largest Ship-breaking companies.  Navy officials recently awarded the nation’s largest ship-breaking contract to a Brownsville company, commissioned to dismantle the USS Constellation which just arrived in January of this year .  This is the third big military ship-breaking contract to come to the port this year.

The USS Forrestal, the U.S. Navy’s first supercarrier, arrived in Brownsville in February 2014, and  The USS Saratoga, a Lexington-class aircraft carrier, arrived on September 12th 2014. 

When the ships are taken out of commission, they are stripped down of all mechanics and valuables .   They have to be towed to Brownsville and arrive as just a shell of steel.  The companys strip anything else that may be of value and sell it.  They have an Ebay site as well as a local store.  The steel is cut up and recycled to be used again.  There are many more ships in navel graveyards waiting for this same last trip of Death………

He took us all around the ships and then headed back up the channel.

The channel is 17 miles long with a depth of 42 feet.  It is also the largest oil platform production site in America.

We cruised on back up to Port Isabel and cruised around their oil platform.

This platform has been towed in from the ocean for repairs.  The ship is now obsolete and is not used anymore.  It is being stored their for only $6000 a month.  The guide said its been their for around 7 years.  lol  Must be pocket change for them.

Then we entered an area where the beautiful homes were located on coves.  Each home had a dock at its back door…..Now how awesome is that…and Expensive?….lol….Finally we headed across the bay to Padre Island.

He made one more stop.  Cruised into the boat channel under the large span of the Causeway Bridge.  Two days after 9/11, a barge hit the bridge and took out a span…..It was kept low profile as it was a bad time in the country and it might be thought of as another attack….but it just was an awful accident. They had the bridge repaired with in several months.

Finally we headed back to Dock.  What a GREAT AFTERNOON it had been.  We didn’t have a very good seat to hear the guide on the PA system.  Actually I don’t think anyone did.   Something they need to fix.   We missed a lot of the details, but never the less. I took 118 photos….wow…Its hard to narrow them done to just a few.

Great Trip.        Great Food.       Wonderful Crew.      Good Company.

This is my view of Albatross Lane, looking down the street.  Maybe not really that pretty of a sight, but sure different than a normal Street in town.  But all these Rvs, are from different parts of the Mid West and Canada.  All have come down here to escape the cold and snow.  You would be amazed at how many Canadian neighbors we have.  Everyone is so SO FRIENDLY…..As soon as a new RV pulls in, they are welcomed to the neighborhood.  Our time here is almost half over.  In another month, the RVs will be begin to pull out and head north back to their summer home.  By April this area in the picture will be nothing but empty, barren 18×40 concrete pads.  Albatross Lane will be empty once again.  We have 7 streets just like this for just the seasonal Rvers….Each street contains 20 to 24 campers.   Then all the park units and mobile homes….Some of them are permanent and some also seasonal.

This is my view looking out my living room window to my neighbors.  lol  ..We all have a nice concrete patio area, and some grass also.  Right by my window is my shepherd hook.  Some of you will recognize my wind chimes from my front porch.  lol   Just had to take them with us.  And of course the silverware wind chimes also.  We made sure the whole neighborhood liked them as sometimes things do offend other people.  Sure didn’t want that.  lol  So now we can still hear the beautiful deep sound of the wind chimes as we watch tv and as we go to sleep at nite.  So so soothing …

The Craft classes started several weeks ago.  My neighbor LauriBeth is the head of it.  We all decided to do my mosaic bricks first, so that has been the project for the last 2 weeks. We glue glass gems and glass pieces onto bricks and then grout and seal them.  They can be used in the garden for decoration, or inside as doorstops or even bookends.  Some of the girls were so excited, they went and bought some of their own gems.  Others used my supplies.

One of the last things I did, as we left last November was, pack my craft tote.  I only allotted myself one tote because of space and weight issues.  I put in it a variety of gems and stained glass and some grout and mortar for the bricks.   I left so much behind that I could have brought.  lol…but the things I forgot?….silly me….The glass cutting and breaking tools.   So Rich and I had to go to Hobby Lobby and Home Depot and buy them AGAIN…..Oh Well….Now I will have 2 sets.

This was the first time I have ever taught a class for this project.   So of course I have been a little nervous, but it is going well.  All the lady’s have been excited.  It is something different.  They said in the past they were always making potato beads?   What?  What are Potato beads?…..lol…You cut up a potato into small pieces, and put a toothpick in each piece.  Keep turning it as it dries, which takes several days or maybe a week.  It dries up into a little black shriveled ball.   Paint them as beads and string for a necklace or bracelet.  They brought some for us newbies to see.   They were really quite attractive….lol…

It was fun watching everyone come up with new ideas for designing.  Everyone made them their own.  So creative.  The last class was the grouting.   We took 2 tables outside and Rich brought over our extra hose so we had access to water outside.  The mixing and applying of the grout is very messy, so everyone wore old clothes and wore plastic gloves.   Now next week we will simple do a final clean up and spray with a sealer……I will make sure I take pictures and share them later.  We ended up with around 14 ladies.  Quite a large class.  But we all are having a great time.

In the North hall we have 4 pool tables.  The men play every morning.  The women play everyday at 4.   And I mean everyday, even Sunday.   I have been playing also, but lately I have been so busy, that I haven’t been their as much.

But what a great bunch of ladies…Nothing but constant…… laughter……Good Times.  Some of the really talented ladies help the rest of us with tips on how to shoot.   Haha

This is LauriBeths’ kitty. ” Shotsy”…..lol….Isn’t he beautiful.   He is a 19 year old Angora.  He sleeps on the dash during the day.  We tried to see if Shotsy and Kitty would make friends, but they really weren’t interested in each other.  lol.  Shotsy looks out the window and Kitty looks out our window, but they really aren’t concerned with each other….lol

Here is Kitty, enjoying the Sun on the step.  He is still scared to come out, but is getting more curious all the time.  Maybe eventually will he learn to walk on a leash?…..NO DON”T THINK SO….