Oh, what a beautiful morning...

Oh, what a beautiful day... if you said, "The opening song from the musical Oklahoma!, 1943", you get 150 bonus points.  If you said, "Written by Rogers and Hammerstein," you get another 300 bonus points.

No, we didn't move to Oklahoma.  It has been windy most of the last week here in the Tropical Tip.  When we got up this morning, the winds were very light, sunshine, and reasonably low humidity; the temperature was 75º.  The high for the day is forecast to be in the low 80s.  Yes, just a truly glorious day!

After breakfast, Joan packed us a lunch for the boat, I put Rufus's lunch in his timer-feeder, and we shoved off...

The canal looks like a mirror - you can see the reflections of the clouds in the water.  With the wind laid down, we turned east after exiting the canal; I called the swingbridge for an opening and we heading through and into the Laguna Madre...

The water is still a bit murky, after all the wind; but, the ride is nice as we head towards the jetties area at the southern tip of South Padre Island.  LOTS of boats out today...

The boat above is a new sailing excursion boat: Ka Motion (get it?).

Traffic was backed up on the causeway...

Plenty of private boats out - we are seeing more pontoon boats here these days...

And, for friend MJ, a close up of the flags on Murphy's Law...

Dilly! Dilly!

Getting close to the southern end of SPI, we got a better view of the new amphitheater being built...

It is supposed to hold 5,000 people and will have various entertainment uses, but has been positioned so it will have a good view of the rocket launches by Space-X, just to the south.  Yes, things are changing here.

Coming around the southern tip, we see the hopper dredge McFarland...

McFarland is unique: as a hopper dredge, it can pull up silt from the bottom, put it in its hold, then haul it out to a dump/disposal area.  Or, it can expel what is dredged to the side or put it on a barge.  More efficient than having endless pipe run to shore.  It is impressive in its maneuvering capability, being able to rotate in its own length.

There are changes in ship size that will be using the Port of Brownsville and the ship channel - this is part of that expansion.

We ran east in the jetties area; people fishing from the jetties...

Looking over the jetties and down the beautiful beach on South Padre Island...

We continued east towards the Gulf, passing this shrimper on the way in...

Looking east into the Gulf, there is a Line of Demarcation - this side is "inshore", the other side is "off-shore."

I used to joke with people on the whale watch boats; we often crossed between US and Canadian waters: "Let me know if you see that dotted line on the water - it is on all the charts, but I have never actually seen it."  ;-)

Today, there was a definite line of water color, right at that Demarcation Line...

We listened to nearby dolphin watch excursion boats on the radio, telling each other where they have been seeing dolphins.  We chose to stay away from the crowds, enjoying our lunch onboard and just taking in all the beauty.

Coming back through the jetties and heading into the ship channel, there was an absence of boats.  Joan looked ahead and saw this Coast Guard small boat "visiting" with the few boats that were there...

Wispy clouds over delightful water...

As we headed west in the ship channel, the Coast Guard boat roared away.  Guess we won't be getting "a visit" today.  We pretty much had the ship channel to ourselves - unusual on a beautiful day like this.  Then, looking ahead...

Well, I guess we will be seeing some dolphins today.  We headed that general direction.  Looking to the south shore of the channel, Joan said, "That looks like a pig on the shore."

Nope - it turned out to be two turkey vultures.  And then - dolphinpalooza!

I think we came upon a Junior High Dance - many of these looked like adolescent dolphins, with some adult "chaperones."  They were all around us...

Whoa - that's close!  More around the boat...

Sneaking up underwater, then popping up on the other side of the boat...

A delightful viewing...

Plenty of "ruckus" in the water...

Faces and tails...

And, dolphin belly...

Whew!  Beautiful weather, nice water, and a great dolphin experience - quite a day!

Heading for home, the Coast Guard small boat we saw before and one other blew by us.  Close.

We were home by 2:00 - plenty of opportunity to get Rufus some time out on the deck.

I knew there would be a time investment with about 250 photos to sort through and select.  Instead of heading in with a big ol' bunch of beautiful day left, I decided to take the Vespa out for a solo ride.  No destination, just wanting to get more time on it.  I rode out to Laguna Vista, looked out across the Laguna, then back to Port Isabel.

Along the way, the traffic was steady but not backed up.  A few other motorcycles - yes, waves exchanged.  I stopped for gas on the way home... 74 miles per gallon.  Not bad considering all the wind from earlier this week, and I have been "enthusiastic" with my throttle hand, getting a feel for the bike.  As I was putting away the gas pump handle, a lady from the car behind me came up and asked, "Are those hard to ride?"

My standard reply: "If you can ride a bicycle, you can quickly learn how to handle a scooter."

"That sure looks like fun!"

"It is, indeed."

Through town, across the bridge to our island, and a stop at our Activity Center to check our new mailbox.  When I came out, the Security golf cart was parked next to my scooter and the female guard was looking at the Vespa.  I was pretty sure I hadn't done anything wrong.  ;-)  She asked about the scooter... the usual questions: "How fast, how much, what kind of mileage, and... "Is it hard to ride one of those?"  "Do you need a motorcycle license?"

"80 mph.  It depends on what kind of scooter you get.  74 mpg - but I have one at home that gets 100 mpg.  Easy and fun to ride.  Yes, you need a motorcycle license, but you learn stuff in the process that will help you ride better and safer."

I should get cards made up.  ;-)