South Texas Botanical Gardens and Nature Center

On Sunday, Valentine's Day, we visited the botanical gardens. It took about ten minutes to pay for our tickets, because the cashier couldn't figure out how to replace the paper in the credit card machine. Our first stop was the reptile house.  It was a very small room with approximately ten aquariums, but there were only three snakes.  The rest were lizards, turtles, and iguanas.  Mom is not a fan of snakes, so we quickly passed through this exhibit.  Next we visited the fish pond.  Eva, Pop, and I fed the fish.

Then we looked at the birds.  They had a lot of very beautiful, noisy birds.

We saw the Triton Cockatoo.  He looked like Nigel from the movie Rio.  He was not shy and began showing off when Mom was taking pictures.

There was a greenhouse filled with orchids, but there were not many blooming.

We found a cool chair in the shape of a butterfly.

There was also a photo op to pose with butterfly wings.  Both Eva and I took advantage of the opportunity.

We did most of the nature walk.  I was leery of snakes.  There were signs everywhere warning about rattlesnakes.  On our walk we saw many different birds.  The prettiest was the white ibis.  Eva and I posed beside a bronzed ibis.

There was a small playground that I played on for a few minutes before going to check out the tortoises.  Grammy and Pop discovered one of the tortoises on her back and called for help.  According to the park staff, the 25 year old male likes to flip over the younger female a couple of times each day.  It appeared as if he was trying to help her flip back.

The best part of our day was eating lunch at Pizza Hut, meat lover's pizza and Dr. Pepper.  That night to celebrate we had a Hershey pie for dessert!  We all licked our plates.  Sugar is not found very often on this trip.

Jack and Mom

R'omers Horse Around

Monday, February15, in the morning we went out to Padre Island National Seashore, did are junior park ranger booklets, and attempted to pick trash up on the beach. The attempt was a fail. There was litterly no trash. 

Then we went to Horses on the Beach which was a horse riding place. We went in, signed in, and then we waited in the back near the stable playing with some of their dogs.

After that they lined us and the rest of the group (we were a group of about ten) on a wall and asked us about our experience. Pretty much all the group was just as inexperienced as us. Then they asked us what type of horse we wanted. They gave me a horse named Ace, Mom got a horse named Stryker, and Jack got a horse named Boon. I think it was BOOM, but Mom and Jack are convinced it was named Boon! It took a while to get us all saddled, but finally we were off.

At first my horse would not cooperate, he was being a drama king, and he was trying to get his way. We finally got along and had some fun though.

Below is the selfie she took!!!

As it grew darker it got prettier!!!!!!

It was so much fun I would so love to go back. We decided that we would try to get my pop's horse saddled and then ride Rusty. I am super excited to try it. 

Fishing in Lake Amistad

On Friday morning, February 12, I got up at 5:15 a.m., because I was so excited about going fishing.  I got up on my own without anyone waking me.  I got dressed without being told.  I was ready to go.  Grammy fixed an egg sandwich for me.  I ate it quickly.  We, Pop, Eva, and I, were ready before it was time to go, so then we sat and waited. 

Our fishing guide was coming at 6:30 a.m. to pick us up from the Broke Mill RV Park.  We went outside to wait at the front office around 6:20 a.m.  While we were waiting we met one of the performers from the night before.  (See Eva’s blog for more information about the performance.)  Betty plays and sings with the Broke Mill RV Park Band.  She also does the cleaning, laundry, dog walking, and anything else that needs to be done around the park.  We talked to her until our guide, Raul, arrived.

We left the RV park, went to pick up the boat from storage, and then put in Lake Amistad.  When the boat began to fly across the water, Eva and I froze.  When we finally stopped, we thought we were going to be there for a long time, but we soon left for another fishing spot.  So, we froze again. 

When we stopped for the second time, we got the fishing rods down and started to fish.  We did deep fishing instead of the long casting that I’m used to.  Eva caught three fish right off the bat, and Pop caught one.  

I didn’t catch any fish all day, but there was one that got away.  I had a bass come and nibble on my line, but I didn’t pull the line quick enough to hook him.  Pop and Raul let me reel in several of their fish.  I still had a good time, but I’m anxious to fish some more.

Jack

R'omers Experience a "Little" Western Pizzazz

Thursday, February 11, we were in Del Rio, Texas, and we were staying at a place called Broke Mill. The owner owns a ranch, and he raises grass fed beef. On Thursday night each week they host a burger dinner and concert for six dollars a person. We decided we would go.

Once we got there we took our seats, and there were maybe 15-20 people in all. The room was a mix of American and Mexican decor. There was a stage at the front of the room.  Several people were setting up for the concert. Then the owner rang a triangle and whistled saying it was time to eat. My mom's response was,"We are in Texas aren't we!" Almost everyone formed a line to the food, but mom and I stayed in our seats until the line was gone. They had the owner's organic beef burgers, cowboy beans, and his speacial BBQ sauce. Dessert was cherry pie and ice cream. It was delicious, and while we were eating the Broke Mill RV Park Band came and performed. 

After she finished helping with the food, their cleaning lady, dogwalker, cook, and pretty much everything else, Betty, came up on stage and sang "You Are My Sunshine." Then she performed with the group for the rest of the evening. A short while after Betty joined the group the owner came up and played the fiddle. Jack had mentioned earlier that "...you gotta have a fiddle in the band." They all sounded great.

Owner, Betty, Dude, Dude, and Dude

We left before they finished because we were going to go fishing very early the next morning.  Jack was tired and practically falling asleep in his chair. It was a very good country experience.  

R'ome in the Middle of NOWHERE

Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, February 7-9, we were in Big Bend National Park. Now if you think that you live in the middle of nowhere or you've once been in the middle of nowhere but you haven't been or lived in Big Bend, you're wrong. Big Bend National Park is literally NOtheWHERE (the middle of nowhere)!!!! 

We stayed in the Rio Grande RV Village which is at the edge of the middle of nowhere. You could spit on Mexico or in my case the Rio Grande River which runs along the border, so I am going to count that as Mexico. My spit doesn't need a passport (I hope)!! On Monday afternoon we took a nature hike up one of the overlooks to see the gorgeous scenery of the Rio Grande River.

Then on Wednesday we hiked the Hot Springs Trail which was more than seven miles round trip to a natural hot spring on the bank of the Rio Grande River. It was so hot and dry but breathtaking both the hike and the scenery.

Jack and I didn't complain, so we got "special snacks" when we returned to camp!! 

The next day we left but decided that it would be worth returning and taking our chances again in the middle of nowhere.

 

R'ome Gets Starstruck

Thursday, February 4, we are still in Arizona staying at the military base. We pretty much did nothing today, but mom planned something big for us to do that night. We thought we were going to freeze to death!!! No, not really but we knew going to a high mountain in the desert to look at stars would be cold.  Before we went though we decided to get a head start on freezing and stopped for Baskin Robbin's ice cream!! 

When we got up on the mountain the first thing I saw was ice and snow on the ground!!

Talk about a confidence booster!! Lucky for us we brought tons and tons of layers, at least I did. What we did next was a very weird thing.  They had all the people who were in the night observation program line up their cars in the parking lot.  We were a little confused, but later learned the purpose. 

We found some more cool mosaics!!!

Finally, we went into the visitor center, and we looked around at the exhibits.

After that we sat down, and they were playing a documentary about light pollution. The video made me sad when it told about sea turtles on the beaches in Florida. The sea turtles after hatching follow the light to get to the water. Usually the stars are reflecting off the water, and it is the brightest area. But now there is so much artificial light near the beach that the hatchlings head away from the water. They only have so much time to get in the water before they die from dehydration. My mom was like if they were trying to make her cry then they were doing a good job.  

The documentary was also kinda creepy.  They talked about how birds migrate using the stars but are getting lost in cities because of the lights. So there are people in some cities who assist injured birds and collect dead birds.  They put the dead birds in storage! The trays of dead birds made me want to hurl. By the way we were eating dinner during the documentary.

After the documentary they took us outside to see the sun set. I thought bring on the cold. Carmen our guide talked about how sometimes right before the sun fully sets it would look green and they called that the green flash. This is what you were supposed to see, but it doesn't happen every time.

This is what we saw.

 

Then Lucas taught us about planispheres which are maps of the sky. They also taught us that red light doesn't damage your night vision as much as other colors of light which I already knew from visiting a planetarium in TN with my friend Sydnie. We went outside to try using our planispheres. The first thing we saw was Orion. I confess we had already watched two lectures on the night sky, so I was familiar with many of the things he shared. The lectures fill your brain with so much information your brain hurts. Our docent also pointed out Cassiopia, Andromeda, and several others. He also showed us how to locate the North Star by Cassiopia, because the Big Dipper a.k.a. Ursa Major was behind the building. 

Then we got out the binoculars and looked to see what we could see with those. It was gorgeous to see all those stars and very little light pollution. We went with another docent who took us to this open observatory to look through a telescope.  The pictures I am about to show you are cooler than what we saw through the telescope. Though what we saw was beyond cool. We saw the Almach. 

 (That one was pretty much what we saw.  Actually what we saw was cooler!)

We saw the great Orion Nebula.

Picture is way cooler!

Then we saw the Andromeda Galaxy.

Andromeda is my favorite constellation, probably because of her myth but her galaxy is pretty cool.

Then we saw Uranus.

It was the only planet up at the time. Still a pretty blue.

We also saw the Eskimo Nebula which is sorta a dying star.

After that we waited inside the visitor center forever.  They finally said we could go to our car, but first they explained to us that they covered our headlights in order to not disturb any working scientists. 

If going up the mountain didn't fill the worry quota of my mom and Grammy then going down definitely did. All the way down Grammy was like "...slow down Pop...you're going too fast..." while Jack and I were trying to sleep. We were asleep by the time we got off the mountain. I at least don't remember getting to the bottom of the mountain. 

Though technically R'ome didn't see the stars from Kitt Peak at all the R'omers did.