Isla Blanca Park Activities

We had our first Euchre class of the year today, and it was exciting to see nine new players start out. Well, maybe a couple of them had played before and just came to be sure they remembered how to play before they came on Tuesday or Thursday evening. All the players who come to help the new ones learn are glad to have the opportunity to get others started out right. We hope to continue these lessons through February and maybe into March if there are still people interested. This is an easy to play card game which a lot of us in the park enjoy. In this workshop we will teach you the basics of the game and practice playing using the rules and scoring formats we use on Tuesday and Thursday nights. If you have not played before, but like playing cards, please come and join us at 1:30 pm on Thursday.

I have finally arrived at Isla Blanca Park. It was an real adventure for us to get here this year, but once we made it we were welcomed by many friends. I made it to Euchre last night (Jan 19) and it was fun, as always. We hope to get the Euchre class going by Jan 27 so all of you who have not ever played will get a chance to do so. This is a game which you can learn with just a few lessons and feel comfortable joining the twice weekly game. We also welcome people to these lessons who have not played for a while and would like a refresher before joining the Tuesday and Thursday evening games. We also need experienced people to act as coaches for the students. We will post the date and time of lessons on the web site and will post in places around the park.

Somehow always seems to be a last minute adventure for us in trying to get South. Some years it has been medical... At least this year it is just our fifth wheel. Our refrigerator suddenly quit cooling last weekend, so we are scrambling trying to get a new cooling unit into town and installed so we can leave on time. I guess the more we want to get moving the more stressful the interruptions seem. At least we are just worried about "things" and not people.

Just wanted to put a few words on here about the 2011-2012 season. I hope everyone is looking forward to the "high season" in the park which seems to start near the end of December. I am certainly looking forward to my arrival in early January. We would love to escape the bad weather in November and December and join those who arrive then, but with a granddaughter having a seventh birthday party on Dec 31 it will certainly not happen this year. In a couple more years she probably will pass into the stage where grandma and grandpa being there on her birthday will not matter and we can begin our escape a little earlier. We will see... Meanwhile I am longing to join the Euchre a couple of times a week and the opportunity just to walk outside in the mornings. Hope all of you are either enjoying what Isla Blanca and the South Padre Island area have to offer already or will be soon. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you.

Well, I guess things have wound up for this winter season. All of the winter Texans (and the summer and winter Texans, in my case) have already left or will be leaving soon. For me as the webmaster this was our best year so far. We had a lot more pictures including a lot more interesting things that usual this year. The "Picture Your Pet" got us off to a good start, and we hope we can update that and add a lot of new ones next year. We even started getting some pictures from new contributors. GO WINTER TEXANS! It is great to see more people sharing their pictures. We also picked up a couple of website links, including our first blogging links. Again, we hope to continue to add to these next year.

I thought that, uncomfortable as it was at the time, the February ice storm added a lot of interest to this season. We had something to really talk about in the weather and in the way the park handled it, as well as getting to see the aftermath both in pictures of the ice and in the turtle rescue. These icy days without electric power were short, though. Overall, this was probably as much really warm weather as I have seen in 11 years coming to the Island in the January - March period. We may have had wind, but we also had warm temperatures. I will take that!!

Another thing we started this year, which I hope to have more contributors for next year is the restaurant page. My wife and I do not really go out to eat very often, so it is helpful to us to be able to hear about the places that others really like. It gives us some better options. So, if you have a favorite and you have not shared it with me, please do so. I do not need to have pictures, but I hope you either take one when you visit the place next year or that someone else who goes there will share their pictures.

I will try to add more to this blog throughout the year, so it will be a place you can visit usefully more often than in the past.

Have a good summer, and check in here for any news I heard during the summer.

Webmaster & BIC (Blogger in Chief)