Tuesday was a day to sleep in a little and recover from the previous day's fishing trip. Mom and dad decided to laze around the condo and maybe do a little shopping at the shops close to the condo. Derek and James were interested in driving around and exploring the island and the surroundings. We drove to the north end of the island where Park Road 100 actually dead ends into the sand dunes. We also stopped by a few of the shops on the island so James could do a little keepsake shopping. We still weren't ready to head back to the condo, and it wasn't time for supper yet (the best supper of the week - we were planning to hit La Jaiba!). When we used to travel down to the Valley years ago, I always remembered seeing signs leading you to the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. They sounded interested, and I was as well, so we decided to see if we could find it and drive around a little bit.
Getting there was somewhat of a challenge. The roads were HORRIBLE. I hit one pot hole so bad I almost thought I'd torn the axle off the Excursion! But we finally made it. We saw some signs for some scenic drives, but because of the time of day and the length of the roads, we knew we wouldn't be able to make it out before they closed the gates at dark. We actually saw a couple of bobcats along the road, too! Very unusual to see them period, much less along a road, but we did. We were definitely interested enough to return the next day, and at supper that evening, mom and dad expressed interest as well, as neither of them had been over there. And speaking of dinner, we did end up eating at the restaurant that inspired the whole trip: La Jaiba. And we were fortunate: oysters were in season, and Tuesdays are all-you-can-eat nights. Holy crap we put the food down! I think James ended up eating a couple of oysters, four fish fillets and 35 shrimp or something insane like that. We were all in awe of his ability to pack away the food!
Wednesday, James decided he wanted to just hang around the condo and maybe walk around some of the nearby shops, so the folks, Derek and I loaded up and drove back over to the refuge. We ended up spending most of the afternoon there slowly driving around checking out the sights. We weren't fortunate enough to see any more bobcats, but we did see quite a few osprey and spoonbills. Turns out, we were also looking out over the area where we would be fishing on Friday morning. Here are a few of the pictures from the refuge.
It turns out, too, that Tuesday was a beautiful evening for sunset photos. The way Saida Royale faces, we were able to walk to the west end of the building and get an unobstructed view of the bay and a beautiful sunet. Here are some photos of the evening's glory. I took the first four photos, Derek took the next two, and James took the last one of our ugly mugs with Derek's camera. That's me on the right, Derek on the left.
