Oh wow, the strudel! A perfect crust enveloped sweet pear filling (my choice) and blueberry cream cheese (Kent’s).  There were dozens of sweet treats to choose from.  It was hard to wait ‘til after lunch.

A German burger…actually one of their huge German meatballs on a crispy/chewy roll topped with home made kraut and German potato salad and a strip of bacon. It was a pretty spectacular combination of flavors.

A Rueben, of course. Rye baked in a wood fired oven topped with corned beef and swiss plus more of the homemade kraut.  The potato salad came on the side with this one so we got to taste it unadulterated. Delicious.

A huge loaf of whole grain bread made into the basket before we got out of there. I can already taste it crunchy toasted with butter.

Check the place out. It is on Padre Island Drive as you head toward the National Seashore.

The USS Lexington served during WWII and many years as a training craft for hundreds of pilots. She is moored in Corpus Christi now to allow us to see first hand how these amazing aircraft carriers operated.  Huge elevators move planes from hanger deck to flight deck every 45 seconds.  Craft are catapulted off the deck at over 200MPH every 30 seconds.  At the end of the flight (they call it recovery not landing!) tail hooks snag a cable stretched across the deck, treaded though giant pulleys, and linked to an enormous shock absorber to bring the plane to a stop in less than 300 feet.  All this while folks are shooting at them and their own guns are blazing all around them.  It is hard to imagine what it must be like in the midst of that highly choreographed pandemonium.

We toured from galley to engine room and seaman’s quarters to captains quarters. We checked out the dentist and sick bay and learned much about how damage control personnel responded to catastrophic damage at sea.  I’d have been a terrible sailor with all the places to trip and hit your head and steps so steep they are scary to navigate.  Never mind the cramped quarters and the ever present smell of diesel fuel and grease.  Add to that torpedo and kamikaze strikes……yikes.

Scattered throughout the ship are displays commemorating sister ships and honoring Medal of Honor recipients, collections of model aircraft and ships, tutorials on seafaring flag communication and the evolution of landmines plus lots more. We spent the day and didn’t see it all.

On the lighter side

Any mouse boxes.

Cool socks

Weather is less than perfect but much better than our last visit here when we were in winter parkas and hats the whole time. The bird tour was a bit soggy but we saw an endanger plover, two beautiful white tailed hawks along with some other seaside prairie regulars.  We took advantage of a fairly calm, partly sunny day and got in a couple hours to kayak the shore of the Laguna Madre.  Now a cold front has rolled in so we are up for a couple days of 50s and rain.  Here’s hoping for a return of clear and sunny!  Soon!

Turkey and most of the traditional trappings.  With a dollop of cool whip on pumpkin pie (courtesy the busy little hands at the HEB bakery), we completed our feast.

Best wishes to family and friends on this fine day.  We have much to be thankful for.

Local Brownsville businesses sponsor cabin sized houses that create a street down the center of Dean Porter Park.   All are festively decorated for the season and many contain subtle indications of their decorator’s wry wit.   The local dentist sponsors a candy shop and the mannequin kids are in braces.  In the bank, elves in bandit masks are escaping up the back wall with bags of money.  There were elf legs on the shelf at the doctor’s office.  Seems the creators have a good time with all this too.

There was quite a crowd at Dean Porter Park tonight. Some came to witness the lighting of the village houses.  Some came to listen to local entertainment.  The biggest attraction, free Krispy Krème donuts handed out from an official KK Airstream trailer.  The line seemed endless.  We didn’t have patience for the donut line but enjoyed the festive gathering (even though it was a bit too early…not even Thanksgiving yet).

I can think of a few campgrounds where it sure would have been nice to have that airstream as a neighbor

Who could pass that up? Kent watched over his shoulder the whole time we were there.  To the left, a huge roller moved back and forth flattening all manner of stuff people dump here.  To the right, a huge earth mover scraped stuff here to there and back.  As they worked we could feel the earth move underneath us.  High on the municipal dump pile we searched for the Tamaulipas Crow.  This is the only place he can be seen in the US.  Found it.  We are out of here!

How hilarious. I think I found a new Thanksgiving tradition.  We just happened upon the program on NBC when channel surfing between football games.  I would never have anticipated that I would watch a two hour show staring animated turkeys.  Yes, that’s right, two hours.  It is laugh out loud funny.

Sable Palms Sanctuary is “over the levee and through the fence” “No passport required.” There is actually a sign telling visitors exactly that.  Still, I must admit to a bit of trepidation as we rolled past the border police through the opening in the towering border fence and down the narrow gravel road.  Lots of birding sites down here saddle right up to the Rio Grande.  We and our little red Focus have likely made many appearances on surveillance cameras in the past few weeks.

More rain forecast for tomorrow along with gale force winds and heavy chop, even on the Laguna Madre. Guess the kayaking is going to have to wait for a few more days.

We took the tram tour at Laguna Atascosa NWR.  The driver and guide were both great ambassadors for the refuge.  We learned and we had fun.  Unfortunately no ocelot graced us with an appearance but we did see an aplomado.  Plus, a bobcat trotted across the coastal prairie and a coyote showed up along the access road as we were heading out.  Those guys along with many ducks, shorebirds and raptors made for a good stop