Tropic Winds-Supermoon, evening fires, Christmas coming, SNOW!, Iwo Jima

We arrived at Tropic Winds on November 29th and have been busy with sightseeing,  shopping, meeting other rvers, going into Mexico, sitting by the fire in the evening, viewing a supermoon, potlucks, and any activity that's compatible with fun.

Our supermoon.

Fireside friend's and a supermoon.

Four pickleball courts at Tropic Winds.  Three indoor at Sunshine.  Three indoor at Fun N Sun.

Lots of opportunities for pickleball in Harlingen Encore parks.

Sunshine indoor courts is a lobbers mightmare.  Fans and ducting above. Actually it's interesting to see where the spinning fans can shoot the ball.

5:30 a.m. I woke up to snow.

The snow continued until we had a nice Christmassy blanket.  Just enough for a few well aimed window shots.

Setting up for the holidays, with a snowy backdrop.

Stockings are hung by the chimney with care.

I also kept busy embroidering a turkey and Christmas tree.

Marine Military Academy in Harlingen, Texas.  This Iwo Jima statue is the actual working model used to cast the bronze one in Washington.  Creator Dr de Weldon gifted it in 1981 to the Marine Corp and the Academy.

It is made of plaster and gets a new coat of paint yearly.

Still having fun.  Just finishing up a week out at the Elks Lodge.  Returning to Tropic Winds on Wednesday.  Heading back to Arizona on January 3rd.  Thanks for visiting.

Visit again.

Susan

South Padre Island , Texas

South Padre Island  on the Gulf of Mexico is the largest barrier island in the world. It's 30 miles long and 1/2 mile at it's widest.

All settled in at Tropic Winds in Harlingen,Texas we all headed out to visit the beach, and beautiful it is.

Lots of sand dunes, breezes and breaking surf.

Lots of jelly fish stranded on the sand just waiting for the incoming tide.

Seagulls command the shore.

A decent selfie of the gang.

A kind lady took our picture.

A little touristy browsing, lunch and back to Tropic Winds.

Thanks for visiting.  See you next time.

Susan

USS Lexington in Corpus Christi, Texas

A short drive up the coast and we arrived at the USS Lexington in Corpus Christi.

Shannon, Bill and I boarded the USS Lexington to explore this Essex-class aircraft carrier and it's history during WWII.

Launched in 1942, it glided into the sea with a non-typical blue coat of paint.  Active during the war, it was often reported missing in action only to show up within a week.  Tokyo Rose nicknamed it the Blue Ghost for it's frequent disappearing act then miraculous reappearance.

Originally scheduled to be named the USS Cabot, the sinking of the 4th USS Lexington in the Battle of the Coral Sea inspired shipyard worker to propose renaming it to pay honor to the lost Lexington and crew.  The proposal was approved and the 5th USS Lexington was born.

You can see in the middle between the two aft guns, the Japanese flag.  This is located on the only kamikaze hit during sea battles.  She also had her rudder damaged  but was able to limp back to Pearl Harbor.

The bridge.

View of the bow end and runway.  The jet on the starboard (right) side is like the one used in Top Gun.

Various jets lining the port side.  During Hurricane Harvey all the jets on this deck were moved to the hanger one deck below.

Top Gun

 Below is a preserved section of the deck in it's original wood material.  The entire flight deck was originally made of wood because it was lighter in weight.  Time and hard use took it's toll and when brought to Corpus Christi it leaked like a sieve.   To preserve the ships structural integrity and future museum use, the decks were asphalted.

Looking aft from flight deck toward bridge.

A-4E Skyhawk .  During WWII, John McCain piloted a jet like this but was shot down.  He endured years as a POW before his release.

What would an aircraft carrier be without a brig.

A functioning city below decks included a surgical hospital.

Hospital ward.

A Barbershop

Dental repairs.

Of course a galley and loads of food for hungry sailors and pilots.

An alternate to hot bunking, hot hamocking.

Sunday services.

A beautiful ship with a courageous history.  She served in the war. Spent 30 years as a training carrier then finally in 1992 she was brought to Corpus Christi and docked to become a museum.

It was a fun and interesting day.  We disembarked and headed home for some well earned r and r.

Thanks for visiting.  Come back.

Susan

Rockport and Hurricane Harvey

As our little caravan traveled along country roads, leaving Houston behind and Rockport in the not too far distance, we began to notice the damage from Hurricane Harvey.  The damage soon evolved to devastation.

We arrived at Bayview in Rockport to a park that survived the hurricane but not without extensive damage.

It's 3 months post Harvey and damage is still apparent and sad to view.

More park damage.
Pickleball courts.

Almost every living oak sustained damage.

Driving around the neighboring area we were shocked at the extent of the devastation.  This is one of two huge boat storage mega sheds.

Hard to imagine the force required to mangle and twist the structure beams.

The mast on this 33 ft. Westsail snapped in half.

We hopped on the car ferry that crossed the quarter mile from Aransas to Port Aransas.  

The devastation on Port Aransas is equally bad.  This house has nearly sunk into the bay.

All in the Rockport area is not destroyed.  There still remains beauty in this once thriving beach front town.  Life goes on and ships gotta go where ships gotta go.

The beaches are beautiful. People still frolic in the surf.