SPRING HAS SPRUNG SALES SALES SALES

Yes, my favorite time of year.  Rummage sales, yard sales, estate sales, are all back in season.  I have a few for you for this weekend.

A friend of the daughter of a friend of mine (did you follow that, I'm not sure) is having what is being billed as a HUGE yard sale in Belleville.  She posted a listing on Craigslist that was then forwarded to me.  Some of the offerings include:  books from the 1800's thru present day, vintage dolls and doll clothes, old and new linens, glassware, oriental dished, glider rocking chair, desk, 2 dressers (one antique), exercise bike, lots of household items, antique and new lamps (over 30), dish sets, games, silverware, tools, baby and/or doll clothes, patio furniture, baskets, Miller Lite Pool Table light, tons of framed pictures including lithographs and some antique.  They're also promoting that they will be selling hundreds of items for 25 cents.  The sale is at 429 N. 40th Street in Belleville on Friday, April 3rd and Sat., April 4th from 7 a.m. to 3 .m. each day.  

There is a Methodist Church on Frank Scott Parkway between Rt. 159 and Hartman Lane that is having a rummage sale this weekend.  Sacred Heart Church in Dupo is also having a rummage sale this weekend.

I plan on picking up a newspaper tomorrow or checking the News Democrat's website for additional rummage and yard sales.  If I find any I will add them later!

PORT ISABEL PART DEUX

Just a few more photos from Port Isabel.  These were taken from a pier at Pirate's Cove.  Pirate's Cove was just an area with restaurants, gift shops, fishing pier, a dock for a dolphin watch tour, fishing charters and a special "Pirates Cruise" geared towards the kiddies.  We of course, acted like kids and John posed as the pirate and I posed next to the Pirate!

PORT ISABEL and GLADYS PORTER ZOO

The top 2 photos were taken in Port Isabel Texas.  Port Isabel is the last town you hit before you cross the bridge onto South Padre Island.  There, we ate at Manuel's Tacos, a tidy little hole in the wall that has great Mexican food for breakfast and lunch.  A receptionist at The Skin Institute in South County turned me on to this place and she was absolutely right it was great.  They had homemade tortillas bigger than your head that they filled with anything you wanted for breakfast.  John had one with some sort of Mexican beef that was a cross between a lean stew meat and beef jerky, kind of carmelized beef.  I tasted it and it was very good.  I went more traditional with my tortilla stuffing, mine was stuffed with scrambled eggs, bacon and potatoes.   There was a red salsa that was very good served with it.  I only made it half way through mine before I was stuffed myself.  After breakfast we visited the lighthouse and went up it and then went through a couple museums and a few little shops.

The bottom photo was taken at the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville.  We have lots of photos from there but this was probably my favorite and not something I've seen, at least in that way, at the St. Louis Zoo.  While the St. Louis Zoo is bigger and I'm sure  considered better, we really enjoyed this little zoo.  The setting was beautiful again, of course, much more tropical than St. Louis could be.  There were a lot of birds that were not tenants but seemed to have squatting rights and added to our enjoyment.  There was a resaca running through the zoo with a lot of aquatic life and more birds (a resaca is a canal or channel).  And it just seemed like you got to see the animals more "up close" and personal there.  There was a wide variety too.  We really had our doubts about it because we've been spoiled by St. Louis' but we were not disappointed in the least. 

GONE WILD ON THE ISLAND

No, nothing more happened here.  After a day of dolphin cruise and beach time we were hungry and thirsty so we headed to the bay side of the island to a restaurant and bar that I had a gift certificate for (remember Restaurant.com and their  $25 certificates that you could purchase for $2?).  We had a couple "dressed" Coronas (they salt the necks and put a lime in the top) and did a shot of tequila along with a dinner of calamari, chips and salsa, guac, grilled chicken on a stick with grilled pineapple and blackened mahi mahi tacos.  The top photo is taken from the bar's upper patio.  Ok, so after a couple beers and the shot I was feeling a little "happy".  As we were leaving we noticed, parked across the street in a nightclub's parking lot, you got it, the "Girls Gone Wild" RV/Bus.  It was too good of a photo op.  So I ran over and John took my picture.  About the same time another car load of old people (quite a bit older than us) drove up and were giggling at the sight of the bus (and then us).  The driver got out and told John to get in the picture and the rest is now history.  It made for a great laugh!

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND

These photos are both from the day we spent on and off Padre Island.  We drove over to the island Sunday morning and went straight to the marina at the south end of the island.  There we signed up for and went on a dolphin cruise.  It was about an hour and a half long and we went out into the gulf.  The top photo is a photo of a boat similar to the one we took out on the cruise.  The bottom photo was taken off the tip of the island going out into the gulf on the gulf side of the island (versus the bay side which is called the Laguna Madre).  We saw a lot of dolphins but they're out and back in the water so fast we decided not to aggravate John with trying to get a good photo and just lived in the moment instead.  And the moments were many and fantastic.  I can't even count how many dolphins we saw.  Some of them close enough that we were splashed by their tail fin when they went back in the water.  A few even swam along the side of the boat for quite a distance.  I loved the boat ride, the dolphins and the scenery.  The experience definitely is in my top ten of vacation activities.  Next on my list might just have to be swimming with them!