January blows in a New Year

Christmas 2019

The gang's all here!

Donna and Diane in Cleveland before cousin Tommy's funeral

A beautiful sendoff Mass for Tommy

(Yes, they spelled Hoven wrong in the flyer.)

Cousins gathered at the condo after the funeral:

Chuck, Mary Jo, Bud, Francis, Agnes, Bob, Diane
Chuck, Mary Jo, and Fran are Tommy's siblings.

Mary Jo, her friend Annie, and Fran's wife, Agnes

Bob, Jerry, Dennis, and Wendy headed to Mexico

to "take care of business."

Crossing the border on the bridge to Nuevo Progreso

At the "Alley Bar"

they stopped for refreshment.

On January 6th, we traveled to Port Isabel

to pick up our t-shirts for the Causeway Walk, 

sat on the beach at South Padre Island for an hour

while Bob rode his bike, 

and went to the Christmas sandcastle display

Nancy and Wendy with the sand family

The bear was my favorite.

We sealed the day with oysters (for the guys)

and dinner at the Padre Island Brewery.

The three-mile Causeway walk/run from Port Isabel

to South Padre Island was on the 11th.  Bob, Jerry,

 and Dennis finished 13 minutes ahead of Wendy and me.

Over 2,000 people walked (or ran) across the bridge that day,

and we had "brunch" afterwards at Yummies.

Then we went back to our park to watch 

the Bison win another National Championship!

That's 8 in the last 9 years. :-)

 About 100 Harlingen high school students

performed in "Beauty and the Beast." 

The production was better than most

of the Broadway plays I have seen.

 Another trip to the beach...this kite was awesome!

 Bob and Jerry were on their phones, 

so we made Dennis get on his for the photo!

 Bob likes to ride his bike along the beach.

I thought his sandy tire treads were cool.

The bird hovering over the fish would not let
any other birds share in his feast.....

We ate at "Dirty Al's" which, believe it or not,

is clean and has good food!

The Museum of Fine Arts in Brownsville

had a photography exhibit about the Space X

progress and a video explaining what has

been done so far.  Outside the museum

is part of the trail of Civil War battles

that leads to the courthouse.

Courthouse in Brownsville

Mr. Amigo--an annual award 

to a person who has made a

positive contribution to the communities

of Brownsville, Texas, and Matamoros, Mexico

The stars around the base of the Mr. Amigo

statue honor all the Mr. Amigos

We drove to Boca Chica to see the Space X progress

It is always windy and the tide was very high that day.

This is the road into the town at Boca Chica.

There are about 20 houses...many of them 

unoccupied. Space X is trying to buy them

out, but there are a few holdouts who may

end up being taken by "eminent domain" laws.

This fenced-in place is a rec center for the Space X employees

and, we are told, Elon Musk stays here when he comes.

At the end of the road in Boca Chica

we found this grotto

New buildings that were just going up last year

when we were here

The Superheavy rocket is right along the Civil War Trail

"Indian Blanket" flowers along the trail

We had to pass through the Border Patrol Station

on the way back to Brownsville to show

that we were not illegal immigrants.

Boca Chica is a few miles east of Brownsville--

we drove by the sign too fast!!!

Another high school musical production--

this time at a public charter school

in Pharr. (Yes, we went to Pharr.)

We went to see "Little Women"

and then to Colletti's for dessert!

Wendy and Nancy had cheesecake;

Charlotte chose tiramisu; and I,

of course, had the chocolate cake.

The candle was for Nancy's daughter's

birthday in Minnesota, so we could

celebrate "with" her! :-)