PORT ARANSAS, TEXAS

We drove to Port Aransas to blog at the library yesterday since we had no signal. We almost always find good places to eat in a strange town and here is our secret. We ask locals to recommend places. It goes like this: Jim says to librarian, “If you were going out to lunch to day, where would you go?  We like mom and pop places, no chains. We like good food of any kind, hopefully they serve beer and wine.” She suggested Jays Seafood and Spaghetti works and gave us directions. Sometimes I ask, sometimes Jim asks. It works very well.

First we got soup and salad at the salad bar, then our entree, which for me was three blackened redfish tacos with avocado sauce. Jim chose the tacos with Shrimp.

Excellent for $8.95.

Served by this wonderful woman, cheerful, fast and fun.

From lunch we went to Port Aransas Museum. They were doing a special exhibit on a private collection of post cards. Over 1,000 of them. They were divided into buildings, economy, fishing, scenery, famous people and so on. It was different and fun. President Roosevelt visited Port Aransas in 1937. Notice the cigarette in his left hand. Obama smokes and keeps it secret, or so he tries, anyway.

So many fish were coming off the dock that one man decided to start a trend and he picked off a scale from every tarpon caught there. His collection amounted to 7,000 shiny scales before he quit. It inspired  Farley’s Boat Works and really built the town toward a major port.

Not only did they not think they could put them near extinction, the Island’s at one time had 40,000 nesting sea turtles on their shores. Most of them are still endangered and the Park Service at Malaquite builds corrals around their nests to protect them.
From the museum, docent Jan recommended the Farley Boat Works and Felder’s Art Gallery and that is just where we went.

All volunteers, these guys restore boats, hopefully with the help of the owners. They are building boats from scratch, too and mostly concentrating on skiffs. It takes a lot of clamps.

This one is a full tree dugout from New Zealand.

They all work together.

This is the job I want. The gent with the can built himself a chair out of ends and pieces and likes to sit and take it easy now and then.

The Felder Gallery has high-end work, much of it by the senior Mr. Felder. His son ran the shop and claims he isn’t creative like his dad. Fabulous pieces for collectors who like boats and water.

I want this piece.

Most of the work hanging here is huge pieces for hotels, restaurants and big houses. Great stuff.

This was a smaller piece by Dinah Bowman,a gyotaka watercolor at about $1,500.
If you like art, don’t miss this gallery.

Just before sunset, this bird was standing on the dune in front of the motor home. What a treat. And, what a lovely day.