Brenham for a Burger

Plans were made with friends, Jim and Jean from Kansas, Jim and Ruth from Hallettsville to fly to Brenham for lunch at the Southern Flyer 50's style diner. We got up Sunday morning to find Victoria had dense fog, so lunch would have to wait. The guys kept calling each other comparing the flying conditions............we decided to wait for it to lift. Finally around 11:30 am we were able to take off for Brenham. Jim and Jean decided to pass on lunch since we were getting such a late start.

We landed at Brenham right behind Jim, only to discover that Ruth had decided not to come. The restaurant was crowded, everyone seemed to have been grounded because of the fog.....good old South Texas weather.
We had a tasty hamburger while we talked airplanes.









After lunch we headed back to Victoria, landed and put Miss Ice Tea Too safely in the hangar.

Hard at Work

I've been busy this week working on our upcoming trip, booking our flight to Tampa for Sun and Fun in April and booking a group of six for a dive trip in May to Cayman Brac. I don't know what we did before the internet, sure makes travel planning easier.
The weather remains cold, wet, and dreary......................makes sitting at home around the fire really great. Trips to town are no fun in this weather.
Tomorrow we are going to workout at the Healthplex, eat lunch in town and take in a movie "The Bucket List". Hope it is good!

Dreary and Cold

This has been a dreary cold week in South Texas. We have been busy trying to work on our "To Do" list for our upcoming Australia/New Zealand trip. Less than a month now and we will be off on our adventure. Dale has been doing some work on Miss Ice Tea Too when the weather permits and I have been busy around the house and in town.
We had out of town guest over the week-end and we enjoyed their visit. We are trying to get together again with our friends from Kansas that have rented a home in Rockport.
The weather just doesn't want to cooperate with us. Maybe this weekend we will have clear sunny skies.
Saturday night we have our monthly Country and Western Dance Club at DaCosta. We are also trying to get together with the dive group to plan dive trips for this year.

Punching Holes in the Sky

We left the airport this morning and flew down to meet Jim and Tim in Sinton. It was crystal clear, we could see the Gulf of Mexico when we took off, and the flight was smooth. Jim and Tim were waiting for us at the airport and we talked airplanes. Jim and Jean had decided to come down to Texas to escape the bitter cold of Kansas.
We took off and, headed out to Port Aransas to meet the wives and have a seafood lunch at The Wharf. Jean and Carolyn were at the Mustang Beach Airport when we landed, so we all piled into Jean's van and went to lunch. The shrimp and oysters were very good and we all left stuffed. We stopped at one of the stores in town for some photos with "Jaws". We said our goodbyes, hoping to see them later in the week and took off for Victoria, flying down the beach until we reached Port O'Connor. The thermals had built up with the afternoon sun and was kinda bumpy. We landed, cleaned up Miss Ice Tea Too and put her in the hangar for the night.
We had a nice day, saw old friends, got in some good flight time and stuffed ourselves with great seafood.

Final Hours in Paradise

On Saturday we packed a picnic lunch and went to Mango Halto for one last drift snorkel. The snorkel was great lasting about forty-five minutes and the water clarity was good. We enjoyed our lunch under the shade of the mangroves and watched some local families enjoy the beautiful water. The skies began to cloud up and we decided to head back to our little apartment. We kicked back the rest of the day and enjoyed the beauty of Aruba. We dressed for dinner, stopped to take some pictures and went to Fishes and More for a great dinner. The food and service were first rate. A trip to Aruba wouldn't be complete without a stop at Amici's for ice cream, chocolate and rum raisin.


Sunday, we lazily packed, enjoyed lunch on the porch and headed out to the airport around two in the afternoon. We stopped, fueled our car before we turned it back in to Hans at the airport. There were no lines at the Continental check-in counter and we breezed on to security screening, and then US Customs and Immigration. When we arrived at our gate we noticed it was packed with people, no place to even sit. Dale found out that Aruba had lost the link with Miami Air Traffic Control and no planes were being allowed to leave Aruba for the USA. Our flight was delayed about two hours, and we lifted off about seven in the evening headed back to Texas. Time we landed, got the car, drove home it was after one in the morning.


Our two weeks in paradise were great, beautiful water, great food, lots of relaxation, new friends, great dives and the beautiful turquoise Caribbean Sea.

Cloudy Day on Aruba

We woke this morning to cloudy skies, rough seas and the wind was blowing like crazy. Dale and I enjoyed our coffee on the porch. I left for the dive shop and my last scheduled dive, only to find that it had been canceled. I paid by dive tab, got a kiss on the cheek from all the dive guys.......a Dutch thing I think, said goodbye and headed back to our place. I stopped along the way to take some photos and made a stop at the grocery.................we needed some fresh appleflaps. We decided to go snorkeling but the sea was rough and cloudy, so we just sat at the beach under a tree for shade. A nice way to relax!
Dale visited with the large group next door, a family group of twenty-four. We had supper on the porch and watched another beautiful sunset. Shortly after sunset we had a brief rain shower, maybe the weather will be better tomorrow.......................our last full day in paradise.

Swimming with the Fishes

Well, this morning started off with our usual cup of coffee and a appleflap on the porch watching the turquoise blue Caribbean. We decided to head over to Boca Prins, explore, then have lunch. We enjoyed a hamburger at the little restaurant at Boca Prins overlooking the rugged side of Aruba.


We stopped at Rodger's Beach to look around and tasted some "Wild Grapes" the locals were gathering.



Instead of doing a DPV dive, I went on a boat dive to Indian Reef. It was a short ride to the dive site, we geared up - four divers and the dive master and entered the water. As we swam down the reef, we saw four spotted eagle rays gently gliding through the water at about 80 feet. I tried to get some photos as we followed, soon I looked at my dive computer to see that we had reached 94 feet below the surface. The rays seemed to grow tired of the curious divers and quickly left us behind.



Swimming along the reef the dive master pointed out a large moray eel sticking his head out of a coral formation. Really kind of a ugly creature! Soon we spotted a large stingray swimming along the bottom, not paying much attention to us.


We saw several more eels, sea fans, coral formations, and small fish at we begin to swim up the reef. After about 45 minutes the dive was over and we surfaced at the boat. It was a great dive, the clarity was pretty good and no current.
Dale was waiting for me and we headed back to our place in Malmok. Dale got on the computer and I soaked in the hot tub with a Pina Colada.
Supper was on the patio just after sunset. Another great day in Paradise!

Another day in Aruba

It was cloudy and we had a brief shower to start our morning off in Aruba. We relaxed with a cup of coffee on the front porch watching the beautiful waters of the Caribbean. We decided to do some sightseeing, shopping and make a stop at the grocery. We drove down to Eagle Beach, and walked along the beautiful beach filled with tourist. A young couple that had just gotten married were taking photos on the beach near us. We headed into Oranjestad to shop for some shirts, since three cruise ships were docked the town was busy. We found what we were looking for and headed back to the grocery, to pick up some great cheese from Holland. We arrived back at our place just in time for lunch, leftovers with some salad. We are meeting an agent later to look at a new place we found, right on the water, and just down the road. Later we will enjoy a yummy dinner at Madame Janettes.



Dale enjoys playing with his new pet "Lizzy", she shows up for her daily snack of lettuce.





Dinner at Madame Janettes was excellent, the food is fantastic and the service is first rate. We enjoyed our meal, music and service!

Birthday in Aruba

Today was a pretty slow day in Aruba. Dale slept late, I walked the beach early this morning, worked on my photos on my laptop, grilled lunch on the pit, made a run into town to find ice, can't have a pina colada without ice. I found one Valero station open and grabbed a bag of ice. Later I snorkeled at the beach down the road and enjoyed laying under a divi divi tree. Dale and I enjoyed a soak in the hot tub before supper, which we enjoyed on the patio watching a beautiful sunset.
What could be more perfect that enjoying my birthday in Aruba? Age is a state of mind anyway!