§ Texas Day Tripping Continued...

I haven't composed a blog post in a long while; I had a bad case of food poisoning and it took 4 days to even begin to see any improvement after spending most of my time lying on the couch with my cellphone or sleeping. I finally broke down and had Bud buy me some OTC 'meds' before I started feeling better. At least enough to eat something other than rice and potatoes. I still am slowly recouperating from this nasty bout. 'Twasn't any fun.

I will now continue the saga of Texas' birthplace...Washington on the Brazos. The museum on the park grounds. It was a small museum but loaded with a lot of history. I didn't take too many photos 'cause I was busy reading all the plaques that were explaining what I was looking at...

And YES Ginny...you questioned about Texas being a country itself! YESSS, it was. It was the Republic of Texas before becoming a state of the union. In fact, the map below shows that Texas was much much larger than it is today...the boundaries going way up into what is now the state of Wyoming!!

After leaving Washington, we stopped at Comfort Texas. Erik wanted to see a memorial there. Then, on to Frederickburg, Texas to another museum [World War] and some wine tasting!! The wineries of Texas Wine Country have been producing award-winning wines that have earned honors around the world. Wine production in Fredericksburg dates back to the original settlers who used the native mustang grape to produce wines. Fredericksburg is a highly populated German community!!! The famed Admiral Nimitz and his family built a hotel here [hence the world war museum I suppose]. Two particular sections of the museum interested me most...the USS Lexington [which is now permanently docked at Corpus Christ's North Shore and is now a museum!!] And the section of the Destroyer Escort USS Tabberer [pronounce TAB er er] DE418. After world war two, in the late 50's and 60's Bud was stationed on the USS Tabberer!!

The high winds and seas continued to batter her on the 18th. By 1830 [6:30 pm], her mast and radio antennas were gone. At 2130 [9:30 pm], a signalman trying to rig an emergency antenna sounded the "man overboard" alarm. Tabberer rushed to the rescue. Once on board, the sailor reported that he was from USS Hull and that his ship had gone down about noon that day. Thus, she was the first ship of the U.S. 3rd Fleet to learn of the tragedy of 18 December 1944.
Typhoon Cobra...Tabbberer received many medals.




DE418
And the image above and to the right of Tabberer is 'the weakest link [anchor chain link]

§ A Musuem of Art...

A few weeks ago, as I mentioned previously, our South Texas Art Museum had a special exhibit of some of Rembrandt's works. Of all his art, one of my favorites is the Prodigal Son...it just moves me to a field of awe and inspiration. With his exhibit here, there were no photos allowed of course, but I did get a chance to see one of the preliminary sketches of the very same among dozens more plus some of his treasured implements and tools! I was thrilled. The museum is at the end of the cultural center downtown, along with other museums, theater, arenas, stages, etc. The photo I share of the museum was found thru google, but I cropped it some...

In other exhibit halls, photos were allowed of some of the permanent displays and exibits. I just took photos at random to share with y'all...

§ Seawall Walk

I set my camera on panoramic to get most of the seawall in one photo
...the white you see is the walkway & benches and miradors...
...it's approximately 3-4 miles long...
nesstled between the bay and yacht club/parks/beach with
another art center, banks, hotels and restaurants on the other side

The last of the series of my seawall walk consists of heading toward the harbor bridge that crosses the ship channel on the way to Portland Texas. Here, is where I was sure it'd be breezy. But nope. I searched the channel banks as far as I could without falling in the water [don't worry, there is a fence barricade] -I was looking for waterfowl that would normally have hitched a ride as a stow-away aboard tankers coming into port. Nothing this morning. With the hour of the day, the sun position was perfect as I watched the shadows of large semi-trailer trucks above me and listened to the traffic just over my head. I walked a bit more before I headed back the way I came. Some of the sidewalks that meander around the cultural centers was closed for repair work....the coastal ground shifts constantly and roads, streets, and sidewalks are always in need of repair. Anyway, this is a bit of what I encountered...

Along with the new expansion bridge being built [many delays in that "typical politics"] there is also a new port o' call building being constructed - in the photo.

The "old", still in use, Harbor Bridge from a different perspective.  The first of the series of four [above] is one of the four [two on each side] colossal stanchions that hold up the weight of the massive bridge.  It really doesn't show the size much, but trust me, they're big - about the size of a mountain cabin A Frame, and probably from the ground up ---my guesstimation would be about 200 feet high, weighing tons.

About a couple city blocks away from the bridge/stanchions is the Buccaneer Commission. Annually, a large weeks-long event is called Buc-a-neer Days. Parades, Dances, Historical events, pirates, Crowning of Queen and King, one of the largest rodeos in America, etc. is held. [This year, because of Covid 19 it has been cancelled --- or hopefully just postponed 'til Fall. Time will tell] Anyway, this is where all the planning and work on the event is done. It's a year long job. I cropped this one photo to show you the sword-fish rodeo rider that is the logo.

...further along the area on different streets I can find many go-to venues.  Selena Auditorium that hosts the Corpus Christi Ice Rays [hockey] and oftentimes Disney on Ice shows, plus American Bank Center that has off-Broadway shows and many concerts with celebrities such as Willie Nelson, George Strait and more of the 'modern' stars.  There is an art museum, an Asian history museum, a science and history museum, a playhouse [Harbor Playhouse] which is one of my favorites!  There, they have classic plays and musicals such Christmas Carol, Cats, and many others from well known authors' stories made into plays...with a very large sized stage [and the many we've attended, well done and quite entertaining!]  In the same area, is the historic homes showcased each year with a street fair. Also, across the water, the nationally-famed Texas State Aquarium and USS Lexington [WWII aircraft carrier turned museum]. On the back side of the bridge along the channel is the Houston Astros' Farm Team Ballpark, Whataburger Field.

Top left/right -Asian Museum
Bottom left - Texas State Aquarium
Bottom right - Harbor Playhouse


...this concludes my round-about walk along the seawall and beyond.  Oh, one more thing.  catching fish or  virus?

Part II 

Part I

§ History...Then, Science

This week so far, nothing much is getting done except for doctor's appointments. Once you go there, the whole day is shot. Three appointments in as many days for me. Monday, cardiologist...two hours. Then, afterward, I had to go shopping for a new vacuum cleaner. The one we had turned belly up. It was old, so no surprise there.

Tuesday, I had to go BACK to the cardiologist's office to be fitted with a Holter Monitor. In December of last year, I had an SVT episode, and he at that time adjusted my heart meds. After several weeks, the heart rate dropped to a scary level [think stroke levels...but no, I didn't have a stroke]. After Monday's appointment he again adjusted the dosage to less. Then, on Wednesday....I was scheduled for a vascular carotid doppler [echo]. Got that all done...now it's a waiting game to hear the results and have my blood checked in 4 weeks...that is, if nothing startling is found in the ultrasound from Wednesday.

Well, to keep up a few daily walks, Bud and I went to the city's History and Science Museum and enjoyed the coolness of the inner building without the hot sun blazing down on us. This past month, the museum re-opened its doors after much needed repair work done by hurricane damage from last August. Tho, not much has changed with the exhibits, it was still a nice, quiet outing for us. Here is some of what we saw...

HISTORY

King Ranch Stage Coach
[used by the King Family to travel from Brownsville to Corpus Christi -they had homes in Brownsville, Kingsville [the ranch], and Corpus

A typical General Store display case, One of King Louis's XIV [fourteenth, I think] navy [His ship Labelle sunk along the Gulf Coast on the Texas border]

Richard King's [of King Ranch] branding iron - "the flying "W" and a close up of the cotton gin from nearby areas of South Texas

The Buccaneer Days...the Queen's Gown and crown from 2017


The same...cotton gin -full view


SCIENCE

On the Science Wing there is much to do with the dinosaur era, shell collections, many different minerals and stones, birds, mammals, snakes, wind history, oil, etc.

The largest land bird in America..the Whooping Crane and Coyotes

Leaving, and going through the gift shop, I happened to buy this broken geode...I couldn't resist not buying it!! I have many pieces of the amethyst geodes [my birthstone], but this one reminded me of iron pyrite [fool's gold] only a fabulous silver metal...does anyone know what it is? Pretty, I know. I must remember to do some research on the 'kind'.