Christmas Vacation

Each time we drive to South Padre Island, we pass a shipyard full of shrimping boats.  I can't explain why these boats hold such fascination for me, but they do.  I blame Forrest Gump.  Yesterday, the last day my daughter, SIL, and grandsons were here, daughter decided we should explore.  The first thing she wanted to do was to get up close and personal with the shrimp boats.  I was onboard.

We walked out to the dock to get snapshots of the boats, then drove around to where the deck hands were cleaning up after their last 60 days at sea.  Before I knew what was going on, daughter talked to one of the deck hands and got the

okay for us to board the ship.  The sailor who allowed us to board gave us a thorough tour of the boat.  (I have brothers who are sailors and I'm concerned about calling these vessels boats.  Are they ships?  They tell me there is a difference.)  We took loads of pictures, but these three are my favorites.

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This is the north end of Padre Island.  There is no residential or commercial property, just sand and water.  When Mom and D took us to the north end of the island a week ago, the entire area was deserted.  Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day and it seemed everyone had the same idea as we:  Christmas vacay at the beach!

As we crossed the bridge from the mainland to the island, I glanced out the window to watch for birds.  Instead I was treated to the sight of dolphins leaping from the water.  In the sky above, people parasailing.

After leaving the island, and a few wrong turns, we made it to downtown Brownsville.  Grandsons wanted to see the border crossing between the United States and Mexico.  They thought "the wall" would be something like the Great Wall of China.  I tried explaining the difference to no avail.  They were interested in an academic sense when they saw the border, but completely underwhelmed.  This is no Great Wall of China.  And that's all I have to say about borders, crossings, and walls.. sighhhh...

We did see a very funny sign in downtown Brownsville.  We stood reading it for some time.  Here's a bad photo of the billboard and a couple pieces from it I found hilarious.

Merry Christmas from me to you.  Now go have some fun!