More from Port Aransas

We’re wrapping up our time here in Port Aransas. It’s passed quickly. We’ve met a lot of great people in this park, and we’re looking forward to seeing them down the road soon. While we can count on both hands the number of warm, sunny, calm days we’ve had here, it’s been fun to hang by the beach for awhile. We’re not complaining, though. It’s been lots warmer here than in Kansas City every single day. Even during the heaviest rain and wildest winds we’ve experienced here, we were thankful the temperatures weren’t in the single digits and there was no snow on the ground.

The sight of the month was the buzz of the RV park. Like an old-fashioned game of "post office" neighbors told neighbors of an extraordinary event just up the beach. When we heard the word, we joined the steady stream of sightseers to lay our eyes on a 40-foot whale that had washed ashore. Officials from the nearby University of Texas Marine Science Institute worked among the shutter-happy tourists to determine what caused the demise of the rare-in-these-parts Baleen whale. Port Aransas city staffers used heavy equipment to drag the beast to a massive crevice they carved out of the sand dunes. This would be the whale's final resting place. Of all the things we imagined we might see in our travels, attending a whale funeral never made the list!

After seeing officials from the place, we spent one particularly windy and rainy afternoon visiting the University of Texas Marine Science Institute, which is located on a northernmost point of Mustang Island. We watched a movie about the earth’s forests, which wasn’t exactly what we thought we’d see at a marine institute! We expected to see aquariums, and there were a few. This seahorse was the star of one of the tanks.

Our time in Port Aransas also provided us with a chance to meet up with virtual friends and make new ones. Fellow travelers Eric and Karla introduced us to their friends Sharon and Sherry and Al and Priscilla. After a fun lunch at San Juan, several of us posed at the restaurant’s cheesy photo-op spot.

It’s been awhile since I’ve been in a quilt store. (Really!) I discovered a sweet little shop in Port Aransas and found these fabrics to represent Texas in our some-day quilt. With dolphins, stars, cowboy boots and Texas signs, these four choices might not exactly go together. But, that's Texas!

As we wrap up our first month as Winter Texans, we’re looking forward to heading south in search of warmer weather. We’ll find it, eventually.