Cruise to Port Aransas pt1

A few weeks ago I was invited on a 2 day cruise from Corpus Christi to Port Aransas and back with some friends of my folks and their YC.

Corpus Christi from the marina:

Tankers pass us in the ship channel

A tugboat was carrying around a crew boat to service well heads

Golfing

Sunday I golfed 9 holes at a semi-private course in Corpus:

The club house and the grounds looked like they have seen better days. I'm not so sure how many members the club has, but the empty pool and pool house (not pictured) looked like they haven't seen people in quite a few years. The clubhouse, an excellent example of 50s/early 60s contemporary architecture, needed a good renovation/regular maintenance.

Fun course nevertheless, many water traps. I drove better than I ever have, maybe it's because I'm more relaxed than usual; it's probably been about a year since I last played golf.

The sun in the sky and the tropical climate:

Jazz Fest

Saturday evening I went to the same Jazz Festival that every medium-sized city in the western world has. You know, the one with the requisite multiple stages, beer tents, corporate sponsors, funnel cake, and vendors selling handmade crafts, sand art, and wannabe-Thomas Kindades try to sell their bland artwork.

This one was in Corpus.

It was unique in its own way of course, I wouldn't be able to get some quality authentic Mexican food on the cheap at Jazz Festivals in other parts of the country and beer was $4, in the Northeast it would be $7 ...maybe. There also were a disproportionate amount of people smoking cigars there, one of the vendors was selling them.

It was in "Heritage Park", which is where they put all their Victorian buildings to roost.

A statue of BUD MAN was there, the real BUD MAN had more important things to do, I suppose.

These guys were really good, except when the bassist played, but it wasn't his fault, there was something wrong with his connection or the amp.

A voyage to Shamrock Island

Saturday I went on a voyage with some friends of the family to the mythical Shamrock Island, home of the famous leprechaun who invented Lucky Charms in 1947. I skippered most of the way and we never made it ...we did set out past 1, oh well.

The wind was blowing in the high teens and lower twenties, the boat was an '03 Beneteau 331. I am used to sailing racing dinghies and crewing on J/Boats, so it was a bit different of an experience for me. It had a roll-furling main and genoa jib. I didn't like how I couldn't see the sails easily from the helm with the bimini in the way. We also could never get the main trim how I would like and the leech of the main sail kept on luffing and we couldn't get to the right line because of the bimini.


Corpus Christi from Sea

Corpus Christi Bay is littered with these well heads/oil rigs/pumps/pipes/whatever these things are. We didn't come very close to any of them, but we were a lot closer than I was comfortable with before I tacked away from these.


They use these well heads as course marks to round for Wednesday night racing, in the dark too!

My view from the helm, I normally like looking up at my sails, so this takes some getting used to:


Shamrock Island was almost directly into the wind from the club, after spending hours of tacking to get out there and getting within 2 nautical miles of it, we decided to head back because it was getting late. As we sailed back with a pleasant quarting sea and then a following sea as the wind eased as the sun sank slowly towards the horizon.

Texas State Aquarium

In honor of Columbus Day I went to the Texas State Aquarium:

It's a very nice aquarium, they have a nice amount of fish.

The boat's name is "Working Together", you can tell it's trawling not only by the lines its dragging, but by the display of the black hourglass shape you can see near its antennae (for more: Chapman Piloting & Seamanship).

Across the bay is the newly expanded Art Museum of South Texas, designed in 1972 by Phillip Johnson before he turned all Po-Mo.

South Texas Bike Ride

I went for a bike ride after my run on Saturday. Here are some pictures

This is not a hockey rink or athletic center, one of the things I've noticed down here versus the Northeastern US is that there are a number of suburban churches with large congregations in relatively affluent areas that nevertheless are not obviously places of worship architecturally:

Oso Bay empties into Corpus Christi Bay:

This house has a Burro (donkey) in their front yard.

Dog Breeder/Rifle Range combos are pretty common down here

Walking for Diabetes

Saturday I participated in a fundraiser walk for Diabetes through downtown Corpus Chirsti. I walked about a half a mile until I decided to run the rest of the 4 or 5 miles. I didn't want to run initially because it was a walk, not a run, and I wanted to stay with the group I was with but there were a number of people who ran. After a few minutes of walking at a regular pace my urge to run couldn't be surpressed. I ran track in high school and wearing running shorts, sneakers, an ipod laden with workout music, and a sweat band and having a good course with blocked off roads just triggered something in me. Although I hadn't ran regularly for a few months, I managed to pass everyone I saw... the group of serious runners who had started running at the begining of the walk had probably all finished. I didn't time myself but I think I finished in about a half an hour, I would have picked up the pace but I started to taste the smoked salmon I had from breakfast's lox & begal on the last two miles.


As you can see, the people to the right forgot how to walk:


The walk ended by circling the infield of Whataburger Field. Built in 2005 on the site of cotton warehouses As you can see on either side of the scoreboard, rusting port infrastructure is incorporated into the baseball stadium

a walk through Corpus pt2

One of the nice things about Corpus is that their highways are more aesthetically pleasing than nearly anywhere else I've been. Besides this Public Art installation on elevated highway pilings there are all sorts of precast and red-dyed cement highway improvements and other finishes and embellishments. I can't seem to find any pictures online of them, I'll post some later.

Foxy Lady's is Corpus Christi's hottest night club.

After walking many miles downtown I had dinner at a great Sushi place and then made my way over to the L-head to crew for Wednesday night Racing. The city's self-proclaimed nickname is The Sparkling City by the Sea and here is an example of just that.


Sailboat Racing on Corpus Christi Bay

A walk through Corpus

I lost my driver's license just before I left Pennsylvania for Texas, I didn't have time to get a replacement in Philadelphia so I planned on getting a new one here. I got dropped off at the DMV at lunchtime and waited in line. As I expected, I needed to take the written and driving test over, but besides photo ID (my passport) I needed proof of my Social Security Number, which I did not have in Texas.

As my ride would not be available for a number of hours, I was told the Social Security Administration was just a mile or two away. Inside I was reprimanded for using a cell phone by the officer on duty, the form asked for parent's SSNs and who knows that off the top of their head! I was called and brought in to someone's cubical where my request was processed. I was told my card would be mailed to me.

It was only just past noon and I had nothing to do until 5:15 when I would go sailing from downtown. I also had no ride. I looked at Google Maps from my phone and walking downtown was a number of miles and fairly straightforward. Plus, it would be a good opportunity for me to see the city. Below are things I passed along the way.


Toni's Quality Shop

Frank's Produce looked like an interesting store, with all those characters hanging it looked like a game you would find at a fair or amusement park but later I realized they are probably piñatas.

If only the LiLi had a straight-edge while she was crafting this sign!

Babies, Guns, and Jesus... That's Texas!

Greyhound to Corpus

I took the Greyhound from Austin to Corpus via San Antonio, the Austin Greyhound Station has a nice mural, it is a "a celebration of celebrations, with music and dancing, a piñata, Joseph and Mary from la Pastorela, and a couple from Día de los Muertos." (Austin Chronicle). The Greyhound Station in Austin puzzlingly, is nowhere near downtown or a major transit center, it's actually fairly hidden and is near a mall parking lot.

I had never taken a Greyhound before, my intercity bus travel was limited to the Chinatown Bus which links Philadelphia and New York... just buy a ticket at the bus and get on... I bought my ticket online and checked in at their desk. They printed me a boarding pass and also had tags for my luggage, but when I got to San Antonio I had to move my luggage myself, so it seemed somewhat pointless. The bus to San Antonio was fairly crowded, looking for a pair of seats for myself I eventually found myself sitting in the seat next to the bathroom and next to someone. I gathered that most of the young men in the back of the bus knew each other from prison, I think. Someone kept on playing annoying music on their cell phone.

I had a one hour layover in San Antonio, unlike Airport layovers, I was able to walk around downtown and had a Latte and Panini while I waited.

The River Walk.


The bus from San Antonio to Corpus was much less crowded. Note the cowboy in front of the line. I was able to get some sleep and read some of the book I'm currently reading, Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found. An older man comically kept on trying to get off the bus at each little stop to smoke a cigarette only to be stopped by the bus driver who insisted that we would not be stopping long enough to smoke a cigarette. The man stuck up a conversation with me, he said he lived in a tent on Corpus's beach for nearly a year a few decades ago and then he went on and talked about a whole litany of other things, like how he cut himself above his lip shaving. There were a number of little stations in between all three cities. The Texas countryside was flat but scenic, with many ranches and small towns.