Memorial Park, Rockport, Tx

We went to Rockport today. We stopped at Memorial Park. There were many small children playing soccer. The park has about two miles of walking/nature trails. The mosquitoes were pretty bad. Plus the heat and humidity made the walking conditions especially unpleasant. The park has basketball and tennis courts, playground areas, and an exercise circuit. If not for the mosquitoes I could have spent more time enjoying the nature trail area. I will remember this park and day long after my mosquito bites stop inching.

South Bluff Park

We stopped off at South Bluff Park after Blucher Park.  There are some very impressive brick and stone entrance and sidewalks in the park.  We didn't stay very long because the mosquitoes were very hungry.  There is a playground area with slides.  Also saw a basketball court.  I'm not sure how many but also saw some tennis courts.   I guess you could say were just did an "eat an run".  The mosquitoes ate us while we were running.

Blucher Park

I saw on the news that the city had spent over 85 thousand dollars to renovate Blucher Park. We found the park but drove around trying to find a good spot to park. Eventually we decided to use the Channel 10 parking lot. Ours was the only car there. We saw several groups of people wandereing thru the park. Several of them had binoculars and cameras with large lenses. John and I were practically running thru the park to keep from being carried away by the hordes of hungry mosquitos.

I had used a repellent but had not applied it to my back. I can feel that is back is covered in bites.

We liked the park. It has many pleasant areas to view birds and nature. We just thought that we would visit the park again when the mosquito feeding season has ended.

Norma Urban Park

We first visited here November 3, 2007. I took photograph of sign. I called it Marina. Since then the area has been named for Norma Urban. She was involved with the downtown public art projects.
I really love outdoor art. She died of breast cancer in March 2008.

Sherrill Park

We rented a bicycle surrey and rode up and down sidewalk along the bayfront. I jumped out and went across the street to take photo of sign. I didn't wander around the park cuz John was waiting. It looks like maybe a couple of tables and one of those floating stone spheres. You can kinda see the black sphere off to the left.

Candlewood Park

We spotted this park as we were driving down Williams Drive over in Corpus Christi. It is fairly large and has a lot of area to walk and fields to play. There is a basketball court and a play area. The climbing wall was very sturdy. It feels like even big people could enjoy it. There is also a covered picnic shelter.

Ropes

There are a series of small parks along Ocean Drive and Shoreline in Corpus Christi. Ropes is one of those. The beach access isn't very easy. The parks have signs on the stairs leading down to the water warning users that the stairs are dangerous etc.

We didn't stay here very long. Several young women/girls arrived wearing bikinis. I think they were going to take pictures. It isn't really a park that I would go to sunbathe or swim.

It does have a nice picnic table with the view of the bay.

We left and drove down to Cole Park. There was a large crowd gathered for a skateboarding thing. People involved with the Corpus Dog Park group were also there. They are trying to raise money to build a dog park. The city is not helping with any of the finances. We miss the dog parks. Zip loved to go there and play.

And we were told as we were leaving Chris Tucker (actor in Rush Hour) was scheduled to be there. We didn't go back to see him. If it had been Jackie Chan maybe!!!

H E Butt Park

We went to Corpus to go shopping etc. We checked out HEB Park. There were many people playing at the Tennis Center. I'm not sure if a tournament was taking place or if it is naturally busy.

On the other side of the parking lot was a swimming pool. It wasn't filled with water. You would think since it is officially summer they would have it opened. Other pools in the town have been opened.

The park also had a small play area with swings etc, two open racketball courts, basketball halfcourt, and sidewalks. We didn't look around very much because I found a baby bird that had fallen out of its nest. The other nestmates were perched around the nest. I placed it on a lower branch in the tree. Hopefully it will be able to hop up and over to the nest or maybe momma bird will find it. I'm not sure what kind of bird it is. I should have photographed it. It wasn't a bird I would have recognised like sparrow, grackle, or mockingbird.

May 11, 2009 The bird was a scissortail.

Collier Park

We were driving over to find Hamlin Pharmacy. We missed the turn and was doubling back when we found this park.

The pool was opened and being used. We just wished we had brought our swim suits. The park has a big child size climbing wall. This park must be a favorite for birthday parties. We saw three different tables decorated complete with pinatas.

Hans and Pat Suter Wildlife Refuge

This is another park that it mentioned in Birding Corpus Christi book. The book warns that the park is prone to break ins. There are numerous signs stating that the area is "Under Surveillance". On one side is a boardwalk beside a freshwater channel that is the effluent from the wastewater treatment plant. It flows into Oso Bay. We saw dozens of white pelicans grouped together. There were many smaller bird "fishing" along the shore. Some birds were so small I wondered if they might have been "chicks".

We walked over to the trail that leads thru the park. It is a pleasant walk. We saw a very red bird but not sure if it was a cardinal. There were many lizards racing along the path. At the other end of the trail I actually was able to hang from the monkey bars. I think I could have hung longer if I'd been wearing some gloves.

Paris

My niece Kristi went to Paris.

West Guth

In honor of the first day of spring, we went to West Guth park in Corpus Christi, which is located just off of I-37 between Carbon Plant Road and Rand Morgan Road. Never could find the carbon plant. The park has a duck pond with some noisy and aggressive inhabitants, a nice concrete walking trail, a disc golf course, numerous picnic areas, a swimming pool (public), a pavilion, a senior center and plenty of open space. The duck pond has a bridge on the east side that crosses over to an area bordered by a public school. This particular bridge was guarded by a battalion of feisty geese but we managed to cross over without major goose attack. There are also numerous rolling hills to walk, run or crawl up. The trail itself also has hills to present a varied walking/running challenge.

Lake Findley

For our 12th anniversary we decided to drive over to Alice, Texas and see the sights. My bird watching book suggested we check out Lake Findley. It also said we needed to get a permit from city hall before going out to the lake. We found city hall but it was closed. It was Saturday so it wasn't very surprising. Across the street was the police department. We walked over there but were unable to find anyone either. But fortunately there was a garage sale going on in the city hall parking lot. John and I wander over to some of the people working at the sale and asked them about the permit. A local woman said she had never heard about needing a permit so we were able to drive out to the park without a permit. Of course we checked out the junk. They were selling anything for a quarter. We managed to find five dollars worth of 25 cent stuff. John was pleased with a bunch of CDs he found.
We drove out to the lake. It has a levy around it so you cant see it as you drive up. It is the water reservoir for the city. There are several large picnic benches. There are many cypress trees that are a pleasant change from the usual mesquite. You can canoe on the lake. We watched a group with a small boat preparing to launch out on a voyage. We liked the place and felt it was worthy of a return visit.
For lunch we ate at Danny's. It was a Mexican food restaurant. John and I had the enchilada lunch special for only $3.99 (a lotta food for little $$$). We spent 20 buck and that included a generous tip for our waitress.

City Beach

We drove over to the beach. The sign said the sand conditions were poor so we did not want to drive very far on the beach. Because it was so cold and windy very few people were out. We walked a little along the shoreline. I saw quite afew shells etc. I didn't gather anything which is very unusual for me. I was concerned because of the beach parking permit requirement. We didn't have one and didn't want to get a ticket. I think the cold weather probably would keep the permit enforcement patrols to a minimum but we didn't want to risk it. We didn't stay very long. Next time we will get a permit and explore the beach.

Community Park

We drove over to Port Aransas to visit some of the parks. The first one we stopped at was the Community Park. There is a 1.1 mile walking/jogging trail. Along the front part of the trail are many exercise stations. The back half of the trail goes thru a birding area with a couple of observation area. This is one of the best maintained parks we've been to in South Texas. It was a cold day and very few people were out. A woman walking her dog was concerned about some teenage boys. She thought they had guns. They did have paintball guns. Also there is a skateboard park and a heated swimming pool.

Paradise Pond

This is the last park we visited before leaving Port Aransas. It is very difficult to find. There aren't any signs on the street. It isn't a very large park. The park is sandwiched between houses and businesses. There is a raised boardwalk leading you thru a wooded area. Three observation areas are positioned along the boardwalk. They look out over an open area. Currently the area was dry but according to the signs during some seasons it is a water/lake area.