The Winter season at Fun N Sun really started on January 6 with the ice cream social and the free Sunday night entertainment. Wade Landry, a Cajun entertainer from Louisiana who performs in Branson, Missouri was an excellent start to the season. Subsequent entertainers included Michael Catalano, a singer; Tucker with his little bit of Branson show that includes comedy and country music; and finally Amber Waves Band, a family bluegrass group with the children 7, 12 and 16 performing. The 12 year old fiddler was quite amazing. We also enjoyed the Alaska String Band (another family group) who were part of the paid entertainment on Saturday night.
Two park residents, Connie who sings and plays the keyboard and EJ who plays a variety of saxophones and clarinets, gave an excellent concert one Wednesday evening and are promising an even better one in February. It is amazing the amount of talent that we find in parks such as ours.
We also went to a neighbouring park to see Bernie and Red – the comedians from Liverpool who have lived in British Columbia for the last number of years. Their new song, Waltz Across Walmart (set to the tune of Waltz Across Texas) was a hit with the audience. Dave and Myrna had never seen them so the show was a treat for them.
We are regulars at the Friday night country dances so that we can practice the steps we learned at Betty and Jerry’s dance classes. We also enjoyed another rock and roll dance with DJ Noe who has been to the park several times before.
The third Friday of the month is our regular “Canadian Dinner” – which used to be a potluck event, but this month we were treated to a spare rib dinner cooked by the park’s new chef. January is usually the best attended dinner, so we got to touch base with all the new arrivals.
We have been attending seminars / talks at the local hospitals. This month we found out more from the orthopedic surgeon about knee replacements, and a session on balance for life. Of course the hospitals do bribe us with free snacks and door prizes!
We are back in our usual weekly routines, Jane volunteering with her Toys for Tots, her work at Fred Bowie school, the odd yoga class and when weather permits – her daily aqua fit, and aqua Zumba classes. Paul is back at the weekly computer club meetings with emphasis on Windows 8, and the iPad groups. Wednesday mornings is still golf with the park league – although it’s been cancelled due to rain and cold on two golf days. We seniors are really fair weather golfers!!
January has also featured two “Welcome Back Winter Texans” events. The first one was sponsored here at our park by the local merchants who set up booths to display their services and products – and then raffled off door prizes, a sure way to keep everyone in the hall. The City of Harlingen hosted its Winter Texan Fiesta last week. We always attend and are really building up a collection of annual winter Texan t-shirts. Harlingen’s event is massive with over 1500 shirts given away – it is almost becoming too crowded to really enjoy.
The valley-wide RV show and the open house at Ron Hoover’s RV dealership are regular January events and we attended both. It is a good chance to ‘kick the tires’ on the new models. This year Paul even went to the RV twice so Dave could return to purchase a waterless carwash and brush set.
There have also been the regular craft sales and a park-wide patio sale. Jane was restrained at the patio sale and only spent $0.50. The Kralik-mobile is packed to the max right now so we will have to do some purging when we get home to Ottawa and Perth.
Although Jane is not a member of the Fun N Sun book club, she and Myrna attended a talk by a local author. Susan Lemiles Holmes grew up in San Benito, moved to Dallas and is back living on South Padre Island. Her first romance novel, Touch the Mayan Moon, set in the RGV in the 1960’s sounds like an interesting exploration of Mexican American culture. It was also fun listening to her discuss local places and people – in fact she went to the same high school as Freddy Fender.
Now that the weather has improved and we can gather outside, we are also getting into the Happy Hour season. Myrna and Dave hosted 24 of us on January 25th (too bad we all forgot our cameras.
Last Saturday we attended a Brunch and Auction to benefit La Posada Provindencia – which is a ministry that provides shelter for immigrants and asylum seekers petitioning for legal refuge in the USA. We were very impressed by this mainly volunteer organization and we are planning a visit to the shelter next month. It might be another place to donate some time next season.
Yesterday we made the trip up to San Juan to attend mass at the Basilica. We really enjoy the Mariachi band that plays at the 9 a.m. service. Our friend Myrna came along as she had never been to the Basilica, and we after church we headed over to a local Mexican restaurant for breakfast. We all had the infamous ‘divorced eggs’ – you’ll have to ask! This was followed by a stop at Costco and the Donna flea market. It was a nice day for a field trip.
Coming up this week is a Mexican Fiesta – with food and dancing troupes from the local schools. It promises to be an enjoyable evening.
The end of this week will center around packing! Saturday we are off on a one week Caribbean cruise with our park friends. A bus has been chartered so no one has to drive from here to Galveston where we will board the ship on Sunday. It will be a fun week.
Ah, retired life is so boring!
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