2013 January

1/1/13 to 1/4/13 We had a very quiet New Year enjoying the Gulf Coast's very large fresh shrimp.  The weather was cold and rainy. 

1/5/13 to 1/12/13 We enjoyed a warm, sunny 7 day cruise out of Galveston on the Crown Princess to Cozumel, Roatan and Belize.   This was the most relaxing cruise we have ever taken.   Our first day was a day at sea.  The first port was Cozumel .  We got off the ship, had a beer at the port while listening to a Mariachi Band and watching the Cruise Ships in port.  We spent the rest of the day on deck reading and relaxing.  We went to the beach for the day in Roatan and did some great snorkeling.  The next port was Belize with a tender to port which we decided to forgo for an extra "day at sea" relaxing and reading on deck.  The last 2 days were sea days so in total we had 4 "sea days" which was wonderful.  Jerry enjoyed playing all nationalities and ages at the ping pong tables. The weather was sunny and in the low 80's, I wish we could have stayed there.  We had very nice table mates with great dinner conversation.  Our arrival back into port was delayed from 7am to 3pm because the port was closed due to fog.  We had almost another day at sea, they fed us lunch and had activities available until we docked.  Wish we could have stayed on for the next cruise, 7 days is never enough!!

1/13/13 - We drove up to Houston to tour the city and visit the National Funeral Museum. While that sounds very unusual it was actually very interesting and full of history. The museum covered funeral history along with memorabilia from presidential funerals along with famous actors and musician’s funerals.  There was a very large display about the Pope’s entire funeral process and the Egyptian mummification process. 

1/14/13 to 1/18/13 Cold rainy days (high in the 50's), Belinda worked and we stayed in out of the rain.  It finally started clearing up on Thursday.  We decided to head for warmer weather.

1/19/13 to 1/20/13 Moved to "Down in the Valley" as the Winter Texan's call it.  We spent Saturday night in the Kingsville Wal-mart, very quiet with only a few other campers there for the night.  We are now down in the Rio Grande Valley near Harlingen.  The weather is expected to be in the mid 70's with little to no rain.  The campground is very friendly with lots of activities.  Jerry is playing lots of pool with our fellow campers.

 



1/21/13 We visited the Iwo Jima Memorial.  This is the original plaster working model of the statue that currently stands at the Marine Military Academy, a private Marine Corps-inspired youth military academy in Harlingen, Texas.  The detail in the plaster is amazing and very life like.

 



1/23/13 We took a late afternoon drive out to South Padre Island to see the sites.  It is a very beautiful place, we can’t imagine it at Spring Break time.  It was so quiet and peaceful this time of year.

 

 

 

1/25/13 We spent the morning at the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville.  It is rated as one of the top 10 Zoo’s in the country.  The zoo had a very natural and clean layout and look with a large variety of animals.  We had lunch at the Pelican Restaurant in Port Isabel then spent the afternoon exploring South Padre Island in more detail.

 

 



 

1/26/13 to 1/27/13  On Saturday we moved to a new lot in the park, we decided to stay a few weeks longer because the weather is nice and the people are very friendly.  The new spot is much leveler.  On Sunday we took a drive exploring the area, all the way to west of McAllen and back. 

1/29/13 We went on a late afternoon treasure hunt for the Mural’s in Harlingen.  There are 30 murals around Harlingen, we found all 18 that were in the downtown area.  The oldest was from 1954.