LOTS OF R AND R IN ROCKPORT

Friday, November 19 - Another beautiful day in South Texas, so we headed to the beach. Relaxation, reading and soaking up some sun......ahhhhhhh!

Marsha took this picture from the balcony of the pavilion. Yes, that is Paul way out there. See any one else….NOPE!

Does this look like any commercial you have seen on TV?

Marsha got a kick out of a pelican feeding near shore. Those darn things dive for fish almost doing a summersault....making a pretty good splash too! Crazy!

We also saw a crane having a picnic.

Saturday, November 20 – Football Saturday. Ohio State and Virginia Tech won….YEA! Were are hoping that OSU wins next week against Michigan and Wisconsin loses. This will put OSU ahead of Wisconsin in the ranking, and they will go to the Rose Bowl! VT is already the winner of their division of the ACC.

Sunday, November 21 – Started with church this morning; then more R and R. We met a few more people. This is by far the friendliest park we have been in. Most all the parks we visit, we find people are very nice but here they are so nice and friendly.

Attended the ice cream social…lots of socializing goes on at this event. We have enjoyed our stay here. If we fished, it would be a place we could spend much more time.

Tomorrow on to Houston.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you come back soon. Have a great day!

INDOOR PLUMBING, GAS HEATING AND LIGHTING…1877…REALLY!

Tuesday, November 16 – We visited the Fulton Mansion State Historic Site today. 

Built by George Ware Fulton and Harriet Smith Fulton on the coastal plains of Texas. Named Oakhurst because it is surrounded on three sides by majestic live oak trees. The front of the home faces the stunning Aransas Bay.

George was a highly successful entrepreneur and Harriet was the daughter of Henry Smith, a powerful Republic of Texas politician. Together, they created a beautiful and comfortable home for their family and friends, decorated in the highest fashions of the day.

Foyer

The house is furnished with many pieces donated by the Fulton family and with other period furniture purchased to duplicate items listed on the household inventory.

Original light fixture

Gorgeous staircase.

Original Recliner in the Library from Europe.

What unique pieces of furniture in the parlor.

 

The Fulton’s bed where Mr. Fulton died.

It was the first house in Texas to have gas lighting, central heating and running water.  It has bathrooms off each bedroom equipped with flush toilets and bathtubs.

Bath tub

150 yr. old toilet tissue. That’s something you don’t see everyday.

Along with these modern conveniences, the house was built to withstand hurricane-force winds. Poured concrete and pre-cast concrete aggregate blocks formed the basement walls while the upper walls and floors were constructed by stacking and spiking pine planks.

This shows what bad shape the house was in before renovation.

For a cost of $6, you received a guided tour through two floors of the restored home lasting approximately one hour.

There is a beautiful garden to the rear of the home with signs describing the plants and trees found there. The grounds are also home to many of Live Oak trees.

We enjoyed this tour and recommend it to those visiting the Rockport/Corpus Christi area. If you liked to see more pictures of the Mansion, please click here.

It was recommended by fellow bloggers and friends here at the park that we must eat at the Big Fisherman Restaurant. The place is HUGE! On Tuesdays, they sere all-you-can eat Chicken Fried Steak, Fried Chicken Liver or Gizzards for ONLY $2.25. It includes mashed potatoes, gravy and cole slaw. It was delicious. They also serve Margaritas for $1. We had to try that also…very good.

They have an outdoor area with a sign that reads…

The only entertainment this day was the cats

and the monkey.

Before we close, in our last blog we wrote about the Tarpon Inn and the tarpon scales on the wall. We were asked what is a tarpon. Well, here is the answer directly from Mr. Webster…

–noun, plural -pons, ( especially collectively ) -pon.
a large, powerful game fish, Megalops atlantica, inhabiting the warmer waters of the Atlantic Ocean, having a compressed body and large, silvery scales.

In all fairness to our readers, Marsha didn’t know either.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day.

GRAY DAY AT PORT ARANSAS

Monday, November 15 – We drove down to Port Aransas this morning and took the ferry over to the island.  Port A is on Mustang Island.

Port Aransas was a favorite of pirates in the early 19th century. Capt. Jean Lafitte and many other pirates used Mustang Island and Port Aransas as a place to make camp and, according to legend, a place to hide their treasure.

The 1916 Texas Hurricane destroyed Port Aransas except for a very few buildings. The docks, wharf and warehouses were now on the mainland and the entire island was flooded and infested with rattlesnakes. After the city was rebuilt, it became a popular destination for anglers, tourists, surfers, and vacationers.

It was a gray, drizzly kind of day, which wasn't the best for sightseeing. We weren't too impressed with the island. Maybe it would have been better on a nice summer day, but not too great today!

We did visit a famous historical Inn, The Tarpon Inn.

The Tarpon Inn was built in 1886 with surplus lumber from Civil War barracks. It was built to house workers for local jetty construction. It has been a hotel ever since the jetty was completed. After the 1919 hurricane destroyed the main structure, the inn was sold and rebuilt in 1923.

Two of the walls of the Tarpon Inn are covered with tarpon scales.

Each of the scales has the signature and hometown of the angler who caught the tarpon as well as the size, weight and date of the catch.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt stayed there and fished the coastal waters in 1937.

The lady that runs the Inn suggested we have some thing to drink and a bake good at their famous bakery. After describing the delicious pies and pastries, we said…Let’s do it! The Bakery was just in back of the Inn, so we drove back, jumped out of the car and were greeted with a…CLOSED ON MONDAY AND TUESDAY sign. Oh My…this wasn’t good. We jumped back into the car and agreed that we saved our selves at least a couple hundred empty calories. Always got to look on the bright side of things.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all again real soon. Have a great day.