Denice had a hay day. And where there is flowers there is butterflies. Now Denice needs a picture of one of these, especially one of the black ones, but they won't land, just flit here and there. She finally did get a couple of good ones, not to mention the other hundred or so that just showed another flower, and where the butterfly had been!! 
By then it was time to meet John and Brenda at the mansion at 2:00PM. The tour was well guided and took the whole hour for $6 a head. Lots of old original stuff in the house from the Fulton Pioneers. If interested you can get the full history by logging onto;http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/fulton_mansion/hist.phtml
Here is some photos of same:
John and Brenda on the Back steps:
Returned home and read, then had dessert. Samantha always said you should eat your dessert first, so that you are not too full of the main meal for the dessert portion. Good advise Sam! Had fruit left over from last nights "Finger Food" Supper. Then Brenda brought over Pureed Squash Soup, for the starter, then micro'ed some left over ribs, and had that and potatoe salad for the Main meal. Pretty Good for no planning ----------
It is kind of interesting as it has a lot of character with many worm holes in the sides. I completed the finishing with Orange Bees Wax and the grooved in a gold bead chain near the top. Brenda does not have this one YET!!
Not sure what this guy was doing out there!! No fishing Rod, no camera, no ambition!! 
A few fishermen are out there, but the only fish I saw them catch was some little trout-like fish about 6" long that they fed to the resident heron. 
So once at ACE Hardware I was able to buy an electric Reminton chain saw with a 14" bar for $54.99. Not bad. One the way home, my co-pilot, suggested we stop at DQ for a treat. Once we had the ice cream, it was obvious that in the 92 degree heat it was going to melt before we got home, so we made a beline to the beach and enjoyed it there. While there Eagle Eyed Denice, who always has her camera, spied a new shore bird. Now I know its not a sparrow and not a crow, so what is it?? My birder partner says it is a long billed curlew. Here is a photo of it.
Then home and some more slack time until time to get dinner. I get the barbie going and put on some back ribs, while Denice gets the rest of the meal ready. Very Good!!
We could hardly see across the lane in front of us. This is the water running down our windshield.
I called John on our radio to alert him of the possibility of a tornado. What should we do???? 
Pretty flat here, so no place for the water to go. Good thing the soil is nothing but sand, so it disappears quite quickly. By 4:30 the rain stopped and the sun came out under blue skies. A pan I had sitting out on the picnic table had about 2" of water in it from the 30 minutes storm. I don't think that anybody actually saw a tornado funnel, but we weren't really looking. Just a little spooky!!
We actually expected the beaches to be much busier than they were. A fair amount of people were there but I guess Spring break is over so most of the young peple have gone back to school by now. 
We drove about 10 miles down the sandy beach, taking interesting photos as we went. But once you have seen 1 mile of the beach, the next mile is just a repeat of the last. After 10 miles we returned to the main highway that is still only 1/2 mile off the beach. We contunued south an crossed from Mustang Island to Padre Island, only over a small short bridge. A small town is here, but it is actually part of Corpus Christi. 
Travelled on south to our destination of Padre Island National Seashore. Stopped at the Visitor Center, were we were able to but some junk food for lunch. Went another couple of miles until the road came to an end, and then we were on the beach again. Only went a mile or so and then parked facing the water where we ate our lunch. Tide was coming in, and although there is not more than a couple of feet difference from high to low, by the time we were finished our sandwiches, pop, and chips, water was lapping at our front wheels. Of course Denice was nervous about this. Maybe it would undermine our tires, and then wash us away -----. 
We could have continued on south for nearly 50 miles on the beach, to the Mansfield Shipping Channel between Padre and South Padre, that we had driven part way to last year when we were vacationing on the South Padre Island. Anyway we had seen enough, so returned to Corpus Christi, over another very large high bridge. I wanted to drive the seashore of Corpus, so took the first right street. Well, that was the wrong one. Ended up at a Naval Base Security Check in. Guard reasonable and allowed us to turn around inside the gate. Resolved best just to follow freeway that our Jeeps GPS was indicating. One more high long bridge out of Corpus across Corpus Bay and then follow Highway 35 home - enough for today. 
Didn't know what to have for supper, so when John and Brenda suggested we go out we were all in agreement. Decided to try "Crabbin" just down the road. Food was OK. Denice tried a soft shelled Crab appetizer - Same food the Whooping Crane eats while down here, I have Cajun Catfish, Denice Grilled Catfish, John, crawfish, Brenda, shrimp and angel hair pasta. Brenda says, best meal she has ever had. Isn't that right Brenda??
Then went back to Kingville for lunch at the suggestion of the registration lady. She suggested the Drug Store , so that is where we went. Found them to have a nice little nook, the food was good and it was CHEAP!! I think I had "Steak Strips", fries, and Soup for about $4.00. The rest had equally as good of food and drinks and the total bill was under $20 for the four of us. You don't find that very often in todays world! Then we went back and went on the 1:00PM tour. They took us on about a 10 mile bus tour through the area of the ranch surrounding the central part nearest their headquarters.
We did see Santa Gertrudis Cows that they are famous for, quarter horses, javelinas, longhorns, etc etc. 
The driver/narrator was rather boreing with a sing-song Texan drawl. He had a "Rehearsed Canned " speech. Any distraction, threw him off his line and then it took a while to get him going again. Several things he said were obviously incorrect, but it was trivial, and not worth the time to question him. The tour took about 2 hours until we were back at the starting point. Then we went back into Kingville and went to the King Museum. No pictures were allowed, and that ticked off the ladies. I snagged af few anyway, unbeknownst by anybody. But they didn't turn out too well !! Then we went through their Saddle Shop Outlet. Lots of good stuff, but its something like having the emblem of Caterpillar, Cadillac, or Lincoln - Really expensive!! Returned to Rockport, but as you guessed, it was time to eat again. Stopped at the "Big Fisherman" and filled up with Shrimp, Clams, Oster Rockerfeller, Stuffed Crab, Pilapia. Could hardly finish it all. I scooped John on this one. I bought cheap dinner. He bought a more expensive Dinner. We'll get evened up some where along the line I'm sure.Once home and relaxing went to our other neighbors behind us, Daryl and Charleen, who are from Omaha, Nebraska, Denice's home state. So even though she is Canadian through and through, she still akin to Nebraska Folks. Chatted with them unti well after dark. Back home realized that I am days behind in my Blog, so started to try to catch up. About 10 minutes until my eyes got real heavy. Tomorrows another day.
And he was pretty good.
I was trying to make it more and more difficult and he was trying to be more and more initiative to find ways to reach that food. Reminded me a little of Bill Murray in "Caddy Shack" and that gopher he was trying to outsmart. 
Not much more to tell. 
1:00 o'clock I was back at the hair dressers and Denice was standing outside waiting for me. Not sure what they all do in there but she goes in for $75 and comes out looking like a million bucks, and 20 years younger. Wonder what they could do for me --------
If anybody else would like to talk directly to us and would like to use skype, the downloading process is relatively simple. Just go to the web to and search Google for "Skype". Once found the site just start the download process. After loading it up you will have to set up a name for yourself, and e-mail it to me so that I can include you as a contact. From there on, just call me or I can call you. When called, your computer will ring as with a telephone. You can also just send text messages.
On the road again. Next an interesting Beach. Nice photo op:
