ROCKPORT HARBOR, BEACH AND ART.

We had heard about the only "blue beach" in Texas and we went to see it. It is chained off from vehicles, and doesn't look like that is going to change anytime soon.

It is a pretty beach. I guess I was expecting some kind of blue sand or something. It turns out the blue is for a blue diamond rating given beaches by a coalition of beaches organization, assisted by each state or country in keeping with the US  Environmental Protection Agency standards.  This one is considered the cleanest beach in Texas. Clean means safe bacteria levels and kept free of debris and so on.

Across from it is this pretty saltwater lagoon.

And, nearby is a pretty harbor.

One area has the fancy sailing boats and yachts.

The other side has working boats, the fishing fleet and small individual boats.

I liked the small fishing boats best. They seem to have more character.

They have a beauty of their own.

Here's MARGIE cozying up to the bait shop.

A hardworking boat, with a patch or two, but still working. Needs a little TLC.

The whole harbor seems like a work of art to me. I guess if you live here and see it every day, it may not look special. The Rockport Maritime Museum is nearby as is the Community Arts Center. Jim went to the Museum and I chose the art center and drove to a couple of galleries on Broadway. Broadway, the main street, is short and sweet with a host of galleries and kitschy shops. And, a good restaurant, La Luna. At least, in answer to my question, "where would you go to lunch...?  But, I knew we wouldn't be going anywhere in town for lunch this day because the American Legion serves oysters from 2:00 pm. on Sundays, until they run out.

At the Community Art Center, this was my favorite piece. I could just see that bird dancing in the shallows and showing off her feathers. Here they allow you to vote for a favorite and the artist that wins the People's choice, gets to show in their merit gallery. Everything is for sale here.

I like fabric art and this one wasn't great, but I took a picture because of the little motor home in the corner. You don't see many motor homes in art work. It was entitled See America, and that is what Jim and I are doing.

I love the many dune pictures I've seen in the galleries, representing spring and summer when the dunes are at their most beautiful.

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Then this fish, kind of a decorator item. I tend to take pictures of fish facing right because my friend, Dave Olsen is convinced that all fish are portrayed facing left in art.

Hey, Dave, here is another.

In another gallery was this cute little beaded critter. This is for Sharon who is a beading nut. There were at least a dozen different critters in this place on Broadway and several more galleries I had to miss. We are only here for a day and everything opens late on Sundays, and the oysters are ready at 2:00.
We got there before they ran out, but it was a long wait in line. A dozen oysters on the half shell for $5.

I found out you can eat a lot of oysters if you don't have anything else for dinner. A dozen fried or baked $5.50.  Such a deal. I wanted to go back for the baked, but we got there about 2:30 and by the time I decided to try the baked, they were out of oysters. Yummy! People look at us kind of funny when we take pictures of our food but we kept company with a couple from Illinois and they understood perfectly.

ROSARIO RESORT

Once we landed on Orcas Island, we headed uphill toward Rosario Resort, our first stop of choice. Fields of hay, quiet farms, sheep, home gardens,old barns, small ponds or lakes and a few cows populate the view from roadsides. Peaceful.  The day turned sunny and I shed my jacket and enjoyed the first real sunny day since leaving Murphys.

This is my first day using my new camera, a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5V, and I liked the shadows on the walkway.  Jim got into shorts and a T-shirt.

We wanted to have lunch at the beautiful Rosario Resort Hotel only to learn that the Hotel only serves dinner. We were invited to look around the building because it was once the home of its founder, Robert Moran, and is now a museum. Robert Moran arrived in Seattle penniless and managed to amass a fortune through his hard work. He was told in 1904 that he had one year to live. He moved to Orcas Island and built this magnificent mansion with his shipbuilding wealth. (He lived another 38 years on Orcas.) A link to Wikipedia about Moran: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Moran_%28shipbuilder%29

During this period, fireplaces were in vogue and one graced every bedroom in this house. The main fireplace was built from marble chips embedded in concrete and formed whole, then delivered to Orcas for this room.  Moran was maybe the first recycler. He used marble chips gathered  from the building  of  Seattle’s King St. station for this mantle. Jim used my new camera to take this photo. My old camera would never have  accomplished  this wide-angle. The mantle is cool and smooth to touch.

Here a close-up of that marble mantel. I loved this room, and other beauties.

This stained glass light fixture.

A unique stained glass window.

The rich woods, the view from the dining room window, (now hotel dining room window.)

There is a room sized organ, beautiful grandfather clocks, modern bathrooms and closets and other innovations for the time, but I became fascinated by the door hinges.

Cupboards also had ‘hell for strong’ hinges. Quality and craftsmanship showed through out the house.

Flower basket light posts line every walkway, which we took to the only other building in town. The Castaway, Marina  Store, grill, public restrooms and patio over-looking the beautiful pleasure craft harbor.

My new camera allows a 180 degree scan of an area and pastes it together as one picture. I’m not sure how well I will like this feature, yet. Left click on it to get the full affect. The food at the grill was of good quality. I had a fish burrito and a local craft beer.  Jim had fish and chips. We can recommend both. On to Olga.