Enjoyable two days showing our family around the Valley

Was 73 degrees and 97% humidity when got up at 7 am this morning.

Patty & Cam getting a bit of breakfast (Emily in the background) before leaving this morning for the cold, snowy Iowa.  They got to our place a little after 7:00 pm Tuesday and we crammed all we could in to the two full days they were here,

Car packed and they are ready to pull out.

Yesterday afternoon we spent time on South Padre Island.  After being on the beach for a few hours we happened upon a display of sand sculptures that was very interesting.  There was one chair so we al posed for photos.

Some of the sculptures.

Earlier, the three "younger" ones started out to wade in the water at the beach on South Padre Island, but ended up fully into the water and enjoyed an hour or so bucking the pretty good sized waves.

That noon we had eaten at one of our favorite fish restaurants; Dirty Al's at Pelican Station in Port Isabel.

Stopped at our favorite "tourist" shop in Port Isabel.

Went up to Laguna Atascosa Wildlife area where there are walking trails, even though the fine museum and visitors center is closed.

We split up for walking since Phyllis & I don't walk very fast any more.  We got to see this deer coming up to water at a bird-watching blind, which the kids didn't get to see it.  They saw other small animals.

 Got in on video chat between our granddaughter Emily and her sister Ashley and her two kids, David (shown) and his sister Jessica.  Everyone got to talk and be seen on their phones.

Wednesday we had gone to Progreso, MX walking the bridge over the Rio Grande River.  Did some shopping and got rolls & drinks at Rene's Bakery.

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The kids were able to see a sugar cane field being burned prior to being harvested.  We drove by the Sugar Mill near Santa Rosa yesterday morning on the way to  Laguna Atascosa.

Just over the bridge, when arriving in Progreso, we got to watch a painter using his "Mexican Brushes", which were crumpled plastic bags, folded paper, spray paint direct and smudged or scratched,  Sprayed direct free-hand and also over pieces of paper to shield part of the photo.

He ended up with this 10" x 14" picture using all his unorthodox procedures.  Pretty good, don't you think.  Emily bought it for her house.

Tuesday morning, before the kids got here, we played shuffleboard with several other park people, then delivered the crushed aluminum pop/beer cans to the salvage yard for the Park on the way to our Barbershop practice in McAllen which got us back to the park about 4:30 pm and the kids got here for supper a little after 7.

See you next year, Lynn