Luau - February 24, 2014

The theme of our Luau table was “Toucans are Better Than One” – complete with a Talking Toucan and an archway of beer cans. We came second in the most humorous category for the second year in a row.  After the buffet dinner,  we enjoyed dancing to the music of the Cruisers.

Our friends John and Janice Matol were crowned Luau king and queen!

 The jello and pudding shooters made a tasty addition to the evening.

Feb. 2014 - Part 2

On Thursday February 13, we joined the Rio Grande Valley Chapter of the Good Sam RV club. The meeting was held at the Peter Piper Pizza Restaurant in Alamo. 

The next day we took Blanche and John to Nuevo Progresso so that they could experience a “trip to Mexico”.  We ate at the Red Snapper, explored the shops and returned home with tequila.  We then headed to the park’s first Valentine’s Day dinner where we were joined by John & Carol, Sharon & Tony and Gillian & Gary. It was then off to the Texas Country Dance – certainly a full day for all of us!!

Saturday the 15^th, we took John, Blanche, Tony, Sharon, John and Carol to South Padre Island. 

We drove along the beach hoping the fog would lift enough for us to enjoy the sun but that really didn’t happen.  We enjoyed a delicious lunch at Dirty Al’s restaurant - a famous landmark on South Padre Island.

On our return to Fun N Sun, we stopped in the backside of  Bayview to show everyone Harley’s General Store and Beer Garden. A real glimpse into a country music mecca!

If we hadn't tired out our guests completely, we all enjoyed the Eagles Tribute Show at the Fun N Sun dance hall later that evening – again another busy day.

We said goodbye to Blanche & John on Tuesday the 18^th as they prepared to fly back to Ontario.

 Later that day, we went on a tour of a Shrimp boat and learned all about the Texas / Louisiana shrimp industry.

We are now converts to “wild caught” gulf shrimp although we are not sure where we are going to purchase them once we return to Ottawa.  After the 3 hour tour / information session, we headed to Port Isabel for another seafood dinner at the Pelican Station with Nancy, Jim, Tony, Sharon, Carol and John.

The next day, we headed to Llano Grande RV park in Mercedes for our annual Titanium RV Owners (and Titanium alumni) lunch.

Although it was a smaller crowd than usual, we enjoyed visiting with friends whom we hadn’t seen since the Kingston Reunion last June.

The annual ladies luncheon was held on Thursday February 20^th and this was the best ever. The organizers decided to forego the usual fashion show and opted for a “Chip & Dale” show.

12 men volunteered their services to perform for the ladies – what a fun show.

Later that day about 15 of us rode our bikes through the park celebrating the two gold medal wins by the Canadian women in the Olympics.

It was a prelude of things to come later in the weekend.

Some of our Fun N Sun motorcycle group – the CRABS – went to Fred Booth School on Friday the 20^th. The children certainly enjoyed sitting on the bikes and blowing the horns, so much so that a few of the batteries went dead.

Even the school principal was dressed in red that day so she fit right into the picture. Sue, Jane, Carolyn, Gary, Chuck – all volunteers at the school – posed for a picture outside the school.

Later that day we went to the Canadian pot luck dinner for another fun social event.

Sunday February 22, we got up at 5:30 am so that a group of us could gather around our TV to watch the CBC TV version of the Gold Medal Men`s Hockey game which started at 6:00 am.via satellite.

We snacked on muffins, pumpkin bread, cookies, coffee with liqueurs, and freshly squeezed orange juice and champagne – which was perfect for the gold medal game.

 Around 9:00 the 8 of us went to a local restaurant for a Mexican breakfast – a first for several of our friends. At 1:00 pm we joined around 50 other Canadians for a ride around the park on the Fun N Sun train, bicycles and golf carts

– all of us sporting Canadian flags and t-shirts.

 We were even allowed to sing O Canada that night at the ice cream social. Many of our American friends conceded that if they couldn`t win gold, they were glad that the Canadians had.  This was definitely one of the high points of our winter season here!

Feb. 2014 – Part 1

On February 1, we joined Blair & Sharon and John & Marg to dance to the music of John & Cindy Dixon (Dixon and Company) from Woodstock, Ontario. We had no trouble finding a table in the hall at Kenwood RV Park in La Feria but despite the small crowd we had a great time dancing to the music of these Ontarians who spend their winters here in the valley.

The next day we spent Super Bowl Sunday at Doug and Sue’s starting with snacks, then going to ice cream and ending with supper during the game. It is always fun to eat dessert first

At the Snowbird Extravaganza in McAllen on February 4^th, we saw some friends from the Titanium owners’ club and went to an informative presentation about snowbird issues of spending time in the U.S. We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go to Costco since we were so close and even returned to the park in time for Jane to go to Gospel Fest.

On Friday February 7^th, our friends Tony & Sharon and John & Carol (from the Titanium Owners’ club arrived in the park for a two week stay. John & Carol had driven from Ottawa through all sorts of bad weather only to arrive here when the water was turned off so the maintenance staff could fix a sewer problems.

 Despite the cold rainy weather, the two couples joined us at the Texas Country dance to celebrate Sue’s milestone birthday.

 On Saturday Sue & Doug headed to Galveston to take a Carnival cruise while Patty & Paul took a group on a Royal Caribbean cruise.

The Saturday night entertainment was Cross Strung – a family group playing a selection of Celtic, Bluegrass, Country, Gospel and Folk.  We enjoyed their performance and we were glad to learn that they were named best Bluegrass group in the Valley Star Awards for 2014.

The weather cleared on Sunday enough for us to host Tony & Sharon and John & Carol here at a BBQ where we were actually able to eat outside. After supper we took them to the Ice Cream Social and entertainment.

Jane went to the ladies’ salad luncheon – a salad pot luck - on Monday the 10^th.  The ladies were entertained by Ralph Kuster, a vocalist from Foxboro, Ontario who performs in Branson in the fall and here in the RGV in the winter. He used the Valentine theme throughout his performance and Myrna even got up to dance with him!!

Tuesday the 11^th was another cold dreary day but fortunately we could spend the afternoon in the Rec Hall enjoying Western Days. Although the attendance was lower than last year, the Singles club was able to raise over $2000.00 for the San Benito Boys and Girls Club (an organization which is desperate for funds).

That day we also welcomed Doug’s sister & brother-in-law Blanche and John as they arrived in park for a short visit.  Fortunately Wednesday was a much nicer day to orient them to the area so they could go touring on their own.    

Back at Fun N Sun – January 2014

Once we were back at Fun N Sun, we resumed our regular activities – golf, yoga, stretch class, Toys for Tots, computer club, volunteering at the elementary school, Friday evening country dances and even dance class. We also went to the annual Winter Texan Expo in the Harlingen Auditorium where we were able to pick up lots of information about events geared to “Winter Texans”.

On January 18, we attended the first of three big shows that Encore (Fun N Sun’s parent company) parks are bringing to the RGV – a Beach Boys / Beatles tribute band. It was hard to appreciate the Beach Boys part of the act since we had seen the “real thing” in Atlanta in October 2013 but we did enjoy the Beatles part of the show.

Bernie and Red – a Canadian couple from Vancouver (originally from Liverpool) – gave a great show on January 20. Each time we see them, we laugh even harder since their jokes about RV’ing and cruising are so real.  It is no wonder that they won Best Comedy Act in the Rio Grande Valley two years in a row.

The Hands and Hearts Brunch, a fund-raiser for La Posada Providencia (a shelter for refugees and asylum seekers located here in San Benito) took place on January 25. Jane bid on and  “won” several gift baskets at the silent auction. We enjoyed a delicious brunch during the live auction. The weather turned very cold the week following the brunch, so we were sure that the money raised would be put to good use.   Here’s a shot of our frozen rose bush.

We spent the afternoon of January 27 helping Blair and Sharon man the Ontario booth at the State Fair.  Paul was glad to unload the box of Ottawa brochures from the bed of the truck. We learned that the surplus brochures were taken to the local schools including Fred Booth where Jane volunteers. Our friend Steve brought his full Mountie uniform and was kept busy posing for pictures!

The cool weather encouraged us to go to the movies so we went to see The Butler on January 21^st and Last Vegas on January 28. The cost of $1.25 a person gives “cheap movie night” a whole new meaning..

On January 30, Jane and Sue went to the Rock shop to polish stones to make a belt buckle and pendant respectively.  They both have more stones to work on in the upcoming weeks.

We had a great time touring 5^th wheels at the annual RV show in Mercedes on January 31.  Later that day, we went to La Playa for happy hour margaritas and a plate of Mexican food.