Port Aransas Sand Festival

I am sitting at the table in the trailer looking out over at the ponds just across the road from us. Brilliant blue skies, lush green around the ponds with tall bullrushes, small trees, and palms here and there. I am listening to the sound of dozens of birds, with seagulls, smallish dark ducks, and a few flamingos, and even numerous pelicans have been spotted here!
So, we are taking a siesta. This morning we took the Shuttle bus into town to check out the sand-carving festival. There weren't as many as we thought, but what was there was incredible! The really good competitors were carving castles and pirates etc., some as tall as 10 feet! The detail, wow! They are completely made of sand packed solid with water.  There were also amateur competitions for families and kids with some really good carvings there too! Other than that there were, of course, the vendors with every imaginable souvenir, t-shirt, and thing to eat! Got a pic of Karl standing in front of the world's largest BBQ which was an entire transport truck trailer! They were grilling Johnson Brats (sausages) so we scooped up one each for lunch, mine without the bun of course, which Maxie happily shared.
Lots of sun and heat. Bought water for Maxie, but by the time we were heading back to the bus, he was toast, and crawled into the shade at the back of a pickup truck and dug himself in to the sand ... refused to walk any further (couldn't blame him, really). Ended up carrying him for a bit, but once we got away from the heat of the beach, he would at least walk....... Sigh, gotta quit giving him those extra cookies and such......
The shuttle bus driver toured us all over Port Aransas before taking us back to our park.  The town is so much bigger than we thought!  Apparently a pirate, Lafayette, buried his as yet unfound treasure in this part of the Island. There is a board-walk that has two 18-foot alligators that hang out underneath (but don't worry, they just eat turtles and such), the port is the 5th largest in the USA, they have fishing derbies almost weekly with prizes that range from the hundreds to half million dollars, and then there all the neat places to eat......... We were also shown on the higher dunes the foundations of guns were set up to destroy the German U-boats in WWII. Apparently they did capture one which now rests in a museum.  Who knew they came so close!!
We finally got back to the park and I saw a little van cruising around selling "hot tamales" but only by the dozen, sigh, and Karl doesn't like spicy food.
Well, gotta go check my laundry, Karl and Max are sleeping cuz we're going swimming in the Gulf as soon as it cools off a bit.
The wind here is constant, sometimes a breeze but mostly a steady blast strong enough to whip up the sand on the beach. In this climate it's refreshing!
Just got back from a swim in the Gulf of Mexico!  Karl has been anxiously awaiting a dip in the 'big water'! From what the locals tell us the water is frigid. The reality was a romp in rolling waves and water warmer than the warmest day in Wiarton!!! It was a blast!