New Years Eve, 2009

I notice that when I try to label my photos on the blog, the labels do not come out right. So I am going to itemize the photos here - from the bottom up because they still didn't come out right:

1. Linda with Miss Jessie (L) and Miss LaRue(R) from the Ben Rogers Welcome Centre
2. Penguin enclosure at Moody Gardens Aquarium
3. Shari enjoying a drink at the Rain Forest Cafe
4. Giant Dalmation fire hydrant in downtown Beaumont


I appear to have gotten lazy over our Christmas break, so I am using my newspaper article to share what we encountered:

What a lovely, memorable New Year’s Eve! First, we enjoyed a New Years’ Feast at the Golden Corral, which is the “buffet of all buffets”. Shari’s eyes bugged out when she saw all the food choices – the salad bar alone was phenomenal! Then there are different bars with your choice of Mexican, Chinese, Italian, Texas steak, pork, roast turkey, barbecued ribs, pot roast, catfish, shrimp, a dozen types of vegetables, pizza, various soups, buns, basically anything your little old heart desires by way of food! After you have your fill of any or all of the above, there is an area of desserts which is larger than most entire buffets. Not only ice cream, both hard and soft, but also pies, cakes, macaroons, cookies, fudge, several types of puddings, and cheese cakes - truly a dessert-lover’s paradise. All for the grand price of $10.95 per adult, seniors $9.95!

St. John’s Lutheran Church nearby had a sign out indicating there was a New Years Eve service at 7:00 p.m. and we attended that service. It was a lovely service and everyone was very friendly, in true Texas style. Afterwards, my husband was visiting with a gentleman at the door who was saying he had overhead we were staying at Ford Park. If we had no plans for the evening, he invited us to their New Years Eve party. We had nothing whatsoever planned, and as he just lived about 6 blocks from Ford Park, we graciously accepted the invitation.

Fred lives in a lovely home along the road we had traveled often. When we arrived, we were introduced to his wife, Rebecca, and five other couples, including the pastor and his wife from the church we had been to. There were also some immediate family including a few young’uns. The island in the kitchen was covered with food. We visited a bit and then our hosts advised it was time to play some games. One card table was set up for two couples to pay Pinochle, the large table was for dominoes [Shari and I and our hostess and others played there], and John was at the kitchen table with our host and another interesting gentleman playing “Oh Hell”. There was lots of teasing and laughing and visiting. The television was on and at the stroke of midnight, we toasted each other: “HAPPY NEW YEAR” with a glass of wine!! Another confirmation that strangers are just friends we haven’t met yet…

We spent a wonderful day at Shangri La Botanical Gardens. Although not in season, we could see the potential for a very beautiful colorful garden. We also purchased a ticket for a boat ride, which turned out to be a very informative one hour swamp tour. This attraction, even out of season, was well worth the total price of $8.00 for seniors. We will be certain to go back before we leave Texas in March, hoping to catch some spring buds and flowers.

On the way home from the gardens, we stopped at Vidor Flea Market for supper. It is a very small privately owned restaurant with excellent food and service. Our waitress, Maggie, had the time to stop and chat with us, and was interested in our work with MDS. As we were leaving, she informed us that our meals were taken care of! The hospitality and generosity of the people of Texas never fails to astound us.

On Shari’s last day, we took her to Galveston to see how much more of Hurricane Ike devastation had been rebuilt since we were there last. They are making great strides with reconstruction. We did learn some interesting details while we were there. Maggie had informed us, and it was confirmed by a local resident, that although the nation still believes there were very few casualties, over 3,000 people had been killed in the storm in Galveston. The resident advised that due to the touristy nature of Galveston, this large loss of life had been “kept under wraps”. He also advised that just this week, they had discovered the remains of one more casualty to add to the list.

Moody Gardens Aquarium in Galveston was very similar to the one we had been to in Tennessee, and for $13.00 for seniors, we spent all afternoon enjoying the absolutely fabulous marine life displayed. This venue put San Antonio Sea World totally to shame!

At the penguin enclosure, it appeared our little black and white Jughead puppy that disappeared in April last year, may be reincarnated as a penguin… We laughed as one particular penguin swam as fast as it could in the water, round and around, up and down, in and out of the water, for about 5 minutes, just having a gay old time, as our little puppy used to “fly” around our back yard!

Life will get back to “normal” as Shari goes back home and we get back to work. We will be happy to be back to work instead of eating out and touring just about every day.