Boxing Day at Surfside and my visit to Moody Gardens

Ah, this is more like it. Boxing Day dawned bright and clear. The above sunrise was captured from my front porch. For two days the skies were blue, the beach was beautiful, the sun was warm and Surfside lit up. Lots of new folks have shown up for the holidays. All six of the houses on my street are full and I've see numberous surfer and kite surfers.

I don’t believe I’ve shown any pictures of Bon Ton Roulet, my temporary home here, so I’ve included one with a few pictures of the gulf.

By Thursday, the fog and rain was back so I decided to go over the toll bridge to Galveston and visit Moody Gardens. I think my whole family has visited there, but I always seemed to be at work. I know it is cheating to show pictures of wildlife from inside a pyramid, but I couldn’t resist a few, including the Scarlet Ibis, the national bird of Trinidad and Tobago. Again, I find myself reminiscing about the days we watched hundreds of Scarlet Ibis' in the wild in Trinidad.

Speaking of wildlife, surfers and kite surfers turned up to take advantage of the warmer weather. These kite surfers, viewed from my front porch, were really amazing. These guys were flitting around at amazing speeds, jumping waves and reversing course at will. I wonder how many years of practice it takes to master this sport!?

I'll be leaving here on January 1. Jon and I plan to visit mom and dad in a few days, so in the meantime I'm planning to visit College Station and catch a game or two of Aggie basketball. They are playing great these days, winning their last game 101-27. They must have slacked off in the second half, since the halftime score was 65-13. Ok, I know the competition will pick up, but it looks like they have a real chance to make some noise in basketball for a change.

Football? All I can say is the season is over and Fran returned to the hotseat.