Movin’ on down to the west side

How narrow is South Padre Island, you wonder? In one swift morning my walk carried me from the Gulf of Mexico to the east to the lagoon to the west, all taking the block on which our rental house sat. It took me, maybe, five minutes to get from one body of water to another,…

I greet the sun at the Gulf of Mexico

I had to really greet the sun at the Gulf of Mexico at least once, right? So I looked up the exact time it would peek over the horizon at South Padre Island and made sure I’d take the stroll down the block in enough time to say howdy. The moon was still up outside…

Good day, sunrise

Every day during my dear wife Karen’s family reunion, I started my day rising early for a short walk down our street to the public beach access and a sun rising over the Gulf of Mexico. It was quite easy to find where to enter from the busy road to the beach. Find the garbage…

A house big enough for the whole family reunion

My sister-in-law Lynne did some digging from Arkansas. She found a tri-plex a short stroll from the Gulf of Mexico that could fit everybody traveling to South Padre Island for the third edition of the every-other-year family reunion. The three separate apartments had plenty of bedrooms for every possible breakdown of sleeping arrangements. In our…

A tasty little brewery on South Padre Island

As we proved two years back in Kona and four years ago in Estes Park, we four definitely like to test the local brewery during my dear wife Karen’s family reunion. In fact, we walked down the block to the South Padre Island Brewing Company our first night in. The place was way smaller than…

Everybody needs to pick a good place for lunch

With at least four hours of flat and open road in front of the adventurous four between our first stop of San Antonio and the Family Reunion proper on South Padre Island, my dear wife Karen and terrific daughter Elisabeth took a deep dive into their devices. A diversion to Corpus Christi would add just…

Now we can picture this perfect Hawaiian spot

Kona Family Reunion gift-giving continued: The kids gave us a nice frame and shots of the four of us at the breath-taking Hilo lookout. It was the closest she could find to the four of us together, my terrific daughter joked. Yeah, we gotta work on that next trip. But this will do very well,…

The Hawaiian theme makes us quite happy

Elisabeth and George Three came in from the car lugging some hot gifts for my dear wife Karen and I this holiday season. Our Family Reunion week in Kona will forever tie us in the greatest of ways. The kids obviously knew how much the old man loved Wailua Wheat. They went online to find…

We saved Hawaii Friday for Drew and Maritza

Nephew Drew had announced on the Family Reunion Facebook chat page a while back that everybody had to reserve our Hawaii Friday for he and his girlfriend Maritza. No problem. Once in Kona a few days, we were told that we were all going to a beautiful beach resort 20 or so miles toward Hilo.…