Pickleball in the Cold

The weather has continued to be unseasonably cold with temperatures in the 30's and not rising out of the 40's.  For exercise, Julia had the great idea to go play pickleball inside at the tennis center open to the general public in Corpus Christi.  

When we got there, we discovered that her information was bad; the courts were all outside, and no one was playing on any of the ten beautiful and permanent courts.  Just then, two people got out of their cars and walked over to us.  "You two playing?" the man asked.  "Um, sure", we replied.   "Okay, then, we've got four to play."

So we played in the coldest weather that we've ever played in.  Greg was a retired carnival worker, and his lady friend was Danell.  They were both really good and play all over south Texas.  We somewhat held our own and kept it competitive.  Later, Eric showed up, giving us five, which allowed one person to take a break during games.  Eric left early because he didn't want to be too tired for a tournament he was scheduled to play in that night. Pickleballers are crazy!

 

It was so cold that we cracked four pickleballs, but a good time was had by all. 

Later we went to lunch at Railroad Seafood Station and Brewing Company.  The beer was unremarkable, but the seafood gumbo and fish po' boys were delicious

We finished getting our exercise in on the bayfront walkway.

USS Lexington

The ship above is actually a museum, which we did not tour.  Several huge freighters came in between the museum and the shore.  If the weather was nicer, that's the kind of thing that I could watch all day.  I'm not all that interested in ships, but they do make my imagination run about all of the stories that they could tell.  

We head tomorrow to San Antonio for a couple of days. 

A Great Day

The local weather woman on the news promised sun today, and she was eventually right. Threatening storm clouds hung around all morning and into the early afternoon, but there was no rain.  By 2 p.m., the skies were blue and sunny.  

We drove over the bridge to Corpus Christi after breakfast and then walked five miles up and down the walkway along the bay. 

Then we headed over to Nueces Brewing Company for a stout and a pulled pork sandwich.

We’ve enjoyed our first visit to Nueces, but this time, the prices and service did not impress. Sometimes, it’s hard to replicate that positive first impression.

Our favorite brewery in Corpus Christi had been Lorelei, but it appears to have at least temporarily closed late last year. A quick internet search revealed a small brewery not far away, but closing was at 2 p.m. on Sundays.  We made it to the south side to Lazy Beach Brewing with about ten minutes to spare.

An industrial space in the middle of nowhere, an overhead door in the back opened up to some wooden picnic tables in the alley.  There definitely was no beach, but the quality of the beer, reasonable prices and friendly service made up for it.

Another stout

Although last call was at 2 p.m., they let us hang out long after that.  There were families with kids and dogs and board games.  Everyone was enjoying the sun coming out.

After arriving back at our Airbnb, Julia and I hit the beach for some more strolling along the surf under sunny skies.

It was a great day. The walking was flat, but we both got over ten miles in.

Finally Tired