Happy 2016

I'm not sure I totally understand it but New Year's Day is a favorite holiday for me - maybe it stands for a time of renewal and looking to the future with a new book of blank pages. Due to a lot of circumstances over the years, Christmas is not on my favorites list and it's not something you can just push a button and fix. It was never big in my family when I was a kid, it wasn't a bid thing with my ex nor with Larry. So over the years it just took on a ho hum holiday spirit.  Now New Years is another story. For years and years I have spent New Years day updating my Bucket List  and setting some goals for the new year. Back in the days before I did digital books, I would do a scrapbook of the previous year. Larry and I spent a lot of time on New Years Day working on our Bucket List. So, today my list is updated and after this, I will be going through my 2016 calendar and write in dates that I already know will be happening in 2016 like known trips I know about, birthdays, etc.

The Holiday Lights are a big thing here in Corpus Christi. They even have a weekend festival where all the lights are turned on with ceremonies, etc. Many of the boats in the marina are decorated with lights. The highlight is the Harbor Bridge lights.

 The Harbor Bridge spans the bay from North Shore to South Shore in Corpus Christi. The bridge is 1.1 miles long and 235 feet tall so ships can pass under it. The original plain lights were turned off in 1989 after corrosion and age had darkened over a quarter of them. Last year they did a $2.2 million dollar project to add 950 LED lights as part of a state-of-the-art LED Light System. The lights can change color and are sometimes coordinated to music when the symphony pays at a stadium that is close to the bridge. This picture is from the Internet since I didn't have a tripod to take my own pictures. Well I did take them but they are blurry....

The city's Christmas Tree is along the marina near my hotel. It is probably 30 ft tall and is really pretty at night. 

Port of Corpus Christi is the eighth-largest port in the United States in total tonnage. Port Corpus Christi is located on Corpus Christi Bay in the western Gulf of Mexico, with a straight 45-foot-deep channel.  The top products last year was crude oil and gasoline although they also wheat, containers, etc. A crude oil pipeline comes into here and there are numerous refineries in the area.

Here are two ships in port. While here, I have seen numerous ships coming into the harbor and going out.  Some of the ships are like this and some are more like barges. 

I forgot to post about the local Botanical Gardens that I went to on Wednesday. They are small but had a nice orchid display although I have seen better arrangements. They have about 35 different orchid species but they are just in pots along rows instead of being artistically displayed.

This was one of my favorites.  The orchids ranged in size from this one being one of the largest down to some that were about the size of my thumb. 

Tomorrow I start the journey home!  I leave Corpus Christi, drive to Austin where I will take in the LBJ Presidential Library and then drive onto Denton, TX (north edge of Dallas) for the night. I decided to skip the Bush (senior) Library which would have added another night to the trip. I looked at the Bush exhibits on-line and I remember them when they happened so it wasn't as interesting. If I ever get to the point that Bush Sr and Bush Jr Presidential Libraries are the only ones I haven't visited then I will come down to Texas again and see them. I'm interested in the LBJ because I remember some stuff that happened during his Presidency but not a lot of it. On Sunday I will drive on home - my 31st day of being on the road. 8-)

So my quote for the day is one by Georgia O'Keeffe that I saw the other day while viewing her exhibit at the Art Museum. She said  "Where I was born and where and how I have lived is unimportant; it is what I have done with where I have been that should be of interest."  I like that and keep thinking about it.