December Holiday Party

Pool Session Report

October Meeting Minutes
by Robert Langley

Trip Reports

Morgan's Birthday
by Cecilia Gill

Pecos River - a Brief
by Donna Grimes

Canoe Kind of Guy

Happy Birthday, Morgan!!
``````````````````````````````By Momma Cecilia Gills

Morgan's 4th birthday was celebrated at Sargent Beach in Matagorda County. If you haven't been there, it is honestly not the cleanest beach around, but it is also not the busiest. The latter is why we like it.

We got there around 4:pm Friday afternoon. The draw bridge was up, so we got to watch a "water train" (barge) go by. The boys liked trying to figure out what was on the barges.
The canal looks paddle-able, except that I personally wouldn't because of the barges. But, it might be a nice thing to be able to camp on the beach, then go to the parking lot/dock area where people fish, put in, paddle down to the Krusty Pelican for lunch, then paddle back. However, any paddling I do there is usually kayak surfing. There does appear to be many areas that could be paddled all around there, though.

We took our pets and camped out on the beach with the Jolly Roger flying. We were quite comfortable where we were. A couple of people said they couldn't find us, even though I told them almost exactly where we were going to be. Turns out they didn't have 4wd and were afraid to get stuck. The funny thing is, I saw plenty of vehicles that don't come with a 4wd option going further down the beach than where we were.

When the surf is up, it is fun.... except, where we were it was only about a foot deep all the way to where the breakers were. I scraped my knee boogie boarding...

We saw lots of shore birds, but I couldn't tell anyone what they were exactly. I could identify the pelicans and seagulls, of course, but the little birds running all over.... I checked my book. I think they were sanderlings? And there were a couple of (some kind of) sand pipers.

I also took pics of lots of flora to attempt to I.D. later. A ghost crab was nice enough to let me get really close to take a picture of him. There were wading birds of various sorts, too. The only problem we had was the fact that there are houses just on the other side of the canal, and each and every one of them have lights, lights and more lights. So even though the sky was pretty clear the first night, we really couldn't see that many stars...

The boys (including Joe) dressed up like pirates. I didn't think to get the camera out, but I did get video of their escapades. Once I figure out how to download (upload?) video......

We had pop corn popped in our new camp popper, hot dogs roasted over the fire and fajitas. We had cake and opened presents. Morgan was pooped long before the sun went down and went to bed. Lonnie stayed up and took moonlight walks with Daddy. I stayed at the campsite to be near Morgan....in case he woke up.

We planned to sing some pirate songs, but when Morgan pooped out on us, Lonnie wanted to go for walks and I didn't have anyone to sing with. Oh, well.....

Puff, our iguana, seems to enjoy getting to go with us again. Bird seems to like getting to go, too, but the large birds at the beach scared him. Every time the pelicans or the seagulls flew near, he would tuck his little head down and try to make himself as tiny as possible, while trying to hide. He's not a very big parrot....

We got a new "portable shower" from Academy. I wonder how many people don't use it as a shower, but as an out house, instead? Hmmm.... Anyway, the instructions are not very helpful. We had to try to figure the thing out. We got it up, but parts were upside down and backwards.... one part was broken, but it is not an integral part so I really don't care. It worked great despite being put together incorrectly and having a broken part.

After packing it in, we went to the Krusty Pelican (Joe kept calling it the "Krusty Krab") for an early supper on the way home. If you read "Backwater Backwash", you already know this part, so I won't go over it again.

Even though we were the only ones there, it was really a great trip! Maybe next time, others will join us!