Refreshing start...

... to the day and the weekend.

We decided an early boat outing was in order.  I took the cover off and got the boat ready to go; Joan had a fresh mug of coffee for her and an ice water for me.  Time to shove off.

It was quiet as we motored out our canal.  A look at the morning sun at the end of our canal...

That was looking east.  Turning northwest and out that canal...

Warm and humid, but the breeze felt good.  We turned west into the turning basin - a few vessels to check out...

Just south of that, we spent a half hour watching some dolphins feeding...

It was apparent they were feeding, so we gave them plenty of room.

See the eyeball in the above photo - they were watching us, too.

Moving on, and some bird watching...

Then, heading east in the ship channel...

We made our way past South Bay and into the jetties area south of South Padre Island.  They have added fencing around the new Event Center there...

There were people on both sides of the Brazos-Santiago Channel (between South Padre Island and Boca Chica Beach); mostly fishing, but once again not as crowded as I expected.  It is early, though.

Looking east into the Gulf...

I decided to take us up the bay side of South Padre Island, for an "island circle tour" of Long Island.  While there were more small fishing boats than we've seen in any previous outing since we've been home, it was far fewer than I expected.  The head boats (taking passengers out to fish in the bay) were all out...

That's the Queen Isabela Memorial Causeway behind those boats - surprisingly light traffic moving on the causeway at this time...

Turning northwest, with Port Isabel ahead...

The swing bridge onto our island was just coming back in as we turned that direction.  We waited for traffic to clear once it was closed, and called the bridge tender to get an opening.  He was uncharacteristically chatty today.  Getting our turn through...

This small island, an unofficial sanctuary for pelicans with broken wings, was nearly submerged with the high tide...

Then, time to head for home.  A lovely way to start this weekend.  Joan let Rufus out on the deck while I cleaned the boat.  He makes me chuckle as he follows along with me as I go from the hose bib to the boat, him on the deck, me below on the dock.  When I was done, I joined them on the deck.

I don't recall if I have mentioned this before, but Rufus is such a good boy...

:-)

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Afternoon update: traffic is now backed up all through and more than a mile out of town.