The trip was pretty fun. I spent a few days at my parents house in Rusk. The two highlights were my parents dog, Sasha, a 13 month old Rough Hair Collie, and my Dad's new smoker. Both seen here.
As you can see, we made ribs on the smoker, and they were delicious. I have already decided that when we get our first house, I am going to find something similar.
Actually, another highlight of my time in Rusk was playing golf with Theresa's Dad. We met him at a course halfway between Rusk and Dallas on Sunday, a few days before he was to head back to New Jersey for the holidays. However, we found out later that week that he will be heading back for good, as he got an early retirement from his job. He and Theresa's mother are quite happy about it.
After that, we went to the Texas coast to enjoy a few days of fishing and eating good Mexican food. In the early morning fog, while on our way to the Honey Hole, we ran into a group of bottlenose porpoises. Here's a picture of two of them (although I think we saw about 5 or 6 in this group). It was pretty cool when 2 of them jumped completely out of the water, Sea-World Style, right next to us. I thought they were going to flop into our boat.
And yes, we did catch some fish as well. Here's a pic of a Texas Red Fish that weighed in at almost 8 lbs.
The bays along the Texas coast are always littered with duck blinds. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, a duck blind is basically where someone hides from unsuspecting ducks with their trusty dog and their shotgun while duck hunting. They scatter decoys, which are basically fake ducks, around their blinds in hopes that other ducks will spy the decoys from afar and think "Hey, let's head down there to join our chums." Then the idea is you blow them away before they realize, "These ain't ducks, and some dude in cammo has the bead of his 12 gauge aimed up my quacker." For years I had wondered what it would be like if there were people in all of these blinds, and since this was the first time I was there during duck season, I finally found out. The amount of gunshots reminded me of an Iraqi wedding. I also decided that I really don't like to be around that many people with guns when I don't have one myself.
Anyway, we caught a lot of fish despite the hunters, and apparently the heavy fog made the duck hunting rather fruitless anyway.
One of the things I have always enjoyed about the bays along the Texas coast is the abundance of wildlife. I've already linked pictures of the dolphins and a redfish. The water in the bays is only 4 inches to 2 feet deep, but is literally teeming with fish of all kinds, crabs, oysters, shrimp, jellyfish, and birds. Here are a few other pictures of some birds that I saw on this trip, random gulls following a shrimp boat in the first picture and an oyster cracker (among the oysters, nonetheless) in the second.
At the end of my trip I spent a few days in Houston with my brother and Monika. They are both excited about a new house that they are moving into on the last day of 2008. I am definitely happy for them as well.
Of course, the weather in Texas was a brisk 70 degrees for the majority of the time that I was there. When I got back to Seattle, there was over a foot of snow on the ground, and the temperatures were below freezing. I guess I shouldn't complain though, at least I was fortunate enough to not get stuck sitting in the airport.
No comments:
Post a Comment