I remember the days of 3-day weekends... trying to squeeze a "mini-vacation" into those 72 hours. I don't miss that.
Living in a resort area, we are very cognizant of the crowds who come to the coast for their get-aways. In fact, we plan around that, so we aren't caught in traffic on the main drag. We avoid our local restaurants when we know there will be crowds and waits.
I was surprised last night when Joan said, "Pier 19 has that breakfast you really like as their Monday Special - want to take the scoots and go over there early? Maybe we'll get in before the crowds are out of bed?"
While she had me at "breakfast," she really set the hook with scooters, some riding, and that special... I'm in.
We got there just before 8:00 and didn't have to wait for a table. The food was good. You could tell by the wait staff that it had been a long weekend. When we were done, we took a chance and rode around the island a bit - the motels looked plenty busy and the restaurants that serve breakfast had lots of cars in their parking. Looks like a good start to the summer season here.
Before heading for home, Joan asked if I wanted to take the boat out before it got too hot. Again: I'm in!
I prepped the boat while she got drinks for us. It is another beautiful day here, with sunny skies, warm temps, and a nice breeze. Heading out our canal, I could see the tops of a couple barge boats across the land. Turning out of our canal, the first one was a tug pushing a couple barges...
As we came up on him, we could see that he had intentionally run the front barge against the shore on the far side of our island. This isn't unusual, if they have to wait to get into the Port of Brownsville. About that time, the radio crackled - a Coast Guard small boat was calling this tug to see if he had a problem...
"No, sir - we're just waiting for our orders for docking." He wasn't the only one...
This tug was also sitting - easy to see why when we got to this point...
An outbound tanker had departed the Port of Brownsville. We heard the Port calling another tanker who is inbound that "... it will be 20 minutes before you are cleared for entry to the Brazos-Santiago Channel (aka the jetties). A busy holiday for the Port, with one tanker leaving, another coming in, and two tugs waiting their turn for that same narrow stretch of water.
Before we could get to the ship channel for a closer look, another view popped up...
"Well, I guess we should watch for a minute or two." ;-)
You can tell from the background, that we aren't even out of the turning basin, yet. (That barge above has a crane on it that is setting pilings for the docks there.)
Moving down to the ship channel, we watched the departing tanker...
There were all kinds of small fishing boats and jet-skis scurrying about. The only other vessel that was taking the time to enjoy the scenery and what's in it...
Fins to Feathers, another dolphin watch excursion boat - this one is a 6-pack operator; no, not cracking open beers, they are set up for no more than 6 passengers. We make it a point to stay out of the commercial operators' way - we're doing this for the fun of it. We passed by them and found some more dolphins who looked like they needed some watchin'. ;-)
One of the dolphins tossed something into the air - we at first thought it might be teaching a baby to jump... nope, it's a fish. That's unusual.
This one surprised us, popping up right next to the boat...
NoFin...
Looking down the ship channel to the jetties, the next tanker coming in...
Back to the dolphins...
Shooting fast, they aren't all in focus...
Well, the boat seat is crisp. ;-)
Time to head for home. We saw this flying overhead...
I had to crop in close to tell what it is: an ultralight on floats. Not much opportunity to use one of those around here, considering our typical winds. Looks like fun, though.
Coming back around the west side of our island, that first tug and barges have changed it up a bit...
He unhooked from the back and is holding the barges in the shallow water from the side. I guess his wait extended out a bit.
Just before turning into our canal...
The guy in the small fishing boat is getting a visit from the Texas Game Warden boat. Hope his catch is in order.
Nice to not be on the road this holiday weekend.
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