Walking

     We have a daily goal of walking at least 10,000 steps (around 5 miles).  As of the time I'm writing this, we've met that goal for 20 consecutive days.  Each day we try to find a different location to walk in and we've come across some interesting venues for our exercise.

Surfside Jetty Park

     One of our walks was at the Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge.  Associated with that trip was a visit to the cities of Freeport and Surfside.  In Surfside we stumbled (figuratively) on Jetty Park.  The jetty in Jetty Park juts out into the water for about a mile.  The center of the Jetty is a paved path tailor made for easy walking.  During our walk on the jetty we saw lots of people fishing and many cleaning and cooking their catch.  The jetty went far enough out into the water that we saw a pod of dolphins less than 50 feet from the jetty.

 

the jetty in Jetty Park

dolphins swimming alongside the jetty

Texas City Dike and Bay Street Park

     Texas City is a very short drive from our "home" in Galveston.  The Texas City dike extends five miles into Galveston Bay.  There is plenty of beach area to walk along and watch the tankers and barges travel along either side of the dike and through the narrow channel where the car ferry operates.  

      Near the Texas City dyke is Bay Street Park.  Lots of hiking and biking trails can be found both in the park and along the Skyline Drive, a road along a levee dividing Dollar Bay and Galveston Bay.  Hard to keep track of all the dikes, levees and jetties.

Some of the artwork found in Bay Street Park

Overnighter to Port Aransas and Aransas National Wildlife Refuge

     One of us has a passion for birds.  We set out on a trip to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in hopes of sighting the endangered whooping crane in the wild.  We reserved a spot on a 7:30 a.m. boat trip leaving Fulton Harbor during which we were guaranteed to see whooping cranes in the wild.   We stayed overnight in nearby Port Aransas.   We walked the beach and sand dunes area on the island after taking a 2 and 1/2 minute car ferry trip across the bay.  During that walk we came across beach artwork.

     We got up early and made our way to the dock area at dawn.

 

     Unfortunately, it was far too windy for the excursion.  As one fellow said, "When the palm trees are one sided, you don't sail the boat".  However, all was not lost in our quest.  We drove to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and on our trip on the very first trail we made our own sighting of a group of whooping cranes.  We went off the path (A flagrant violation of the lesson learned from last year's winter trip) to get closer to take the pictures from about 50 yards away.  A successful side trip after all.

ETC.

     People here not only drive cars to the beach but frequently drive their cars on the beach.  Several times we've parked our 4x4 off road vehicle on the beach while we strolled.

I know it looks like I'm lighting up a cigarette but I'm actually checking my fitbit to see if I reached 10,000 steps.

There's no good explanation for this last picture.