South Padre Kite Festival

We went with our friends, the Al and Miriam and Donna and Richard, to the South Padre Kite Festival today. We have enjoyed going for years now and were really sad to hear the announcement that this will be the last time B&S Kites will sponsor the event. Then to make matters worse, IQuad (team flyers that we love) are also going to take hiatus for awhile. We saw them the first time in Oregon at the Kite Festival at Lincoln City in October of 2007. That was when we were first introduced to the team flying or any synchronized kite flying to music. We keep hoping that the Chamber will decide to sponsor the event in the future but, if not, we'll have to get back to Oregon and enjoy a festival there. We want to get back that direction anyway!

The festival this year looked to be a great success. There were loads of people in attendance. We managed to get really good seats this year though and so were able to get some awesome pictures and videos.

All sizes and shapes of stationary kites

End of the Line (EOL) Flyers

Me, Al, Miriam, Donna and Richard

Al, Miriam, Donna and Richard

Some of the Crowd

Chuck and Sandy Trimpe

Sandy, Donna and Wilbur Jacobs

Mary Hazlett talking to Sandy

This guy flies two kites at once - one from his belt

That's Us!

The Owner of B&S Kite Store After His Routine

IQuad Circle of Kites

IQuad Kissing Kites - There are 6 of them up there!

IQuad

Us again!

Our Winter Ranch Bus Driver - Jack

That's Big Blue - he will be painted over the summer!

Winter Ranch had a bus scheduled to come to the Kite Festival but it also went to some other event first.  By the time it got here, there wasn't room in the parking lot for them.  They ended up parked behind a sand dune.  

That's most of the Winter Ranchers that came on the bus!

Apparently, they didn't want to walk down to where the action is but all they could see from their vantage point was the stationery kites.  

Los Fresnos Elvis Festival

Lee and I couldn't interest anyone in going with us to see the Elvis Festival in Los Fresnos today but we decided to give it a go. We have passed Little Graceland many times on our way to South Padre but we never stopped.

Little Graceland is the home of Simon Vega and a museum that honors the life of Elvis Presley. Simon Vega was born in 1935. He became a personal friend of Elvis while they served together in the United States Army in Germany from 1958—1960. In 1993, Vega turned his house into a museum called "Little Graceland". "Little Graceland" is loosely patterned on Presley's mansion, Graceland, in Memphis, Tennessee.

Today the place was a beehive of activity since the Elvis Festival was taking place. I can't even remember how many Elvis impersonators performed today. We sat through three of them and listened to parts of others as we wandered around.

The first Elvis was pretty old but he could move and he sounded just like Elvis! 

The second Elvis was Asian and he had a really good voice but not sure it was too Elvis-like but he did have his moves down.

The third Elvis had much more charisma than the other two and he had some of the Elvis moves down. He had a fairly good voice but nothing like the real Elvis. He was, however, the most enjoyable to watch.  He just had more sex appeal, I guess. His mother is a realtor in the area and obviously has a lot of money. She talked her son into doing the Elvis thing at Los Fresnos a few years ago and they play it up big now.

LITTLE GRACELAND

For more information on Little Graceland go to:  http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/1811
or see:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Vega

 I managed to get my picture taken with him and his Elvis car.

This is his Elvis Car.  His Mom bought him a couple of cars. There is a bit of money there.

His Mother's Car

His Second Car

After sitting through three of the Elvis routines, we decided we had enough. We could have sat their all night!  It was fun though especially watching people older than we are taking scarves from the different people who did Elvis and holding their lighted phones up and waving them in the air when they performed.  It was a hoot!

We decided to stop at Dairy Queen in Los Fresnos on the way home and, wouldn't you know I left my purse hanging on the back of my chair. We didn't notice it until midnight when I went to get the phone to charge it. We were lucky because we called the next day and the lady had it and we just had to drive back to get it. I'm lucky Lee is so easy-going because this is about the third time that I've left my purse hanging on the back of my chair. I can't believe we keep getting it back without anything being stolen. There are obviously a lot more honest people in the world than you would think!

Quinta Mazatlan, McAllen, Texas

Back of Quinta Mazatlan

We spent the day with Al and Miriam today. I think this was Al and Miriam's first trip to Quinta Mazatlan but we like to visit at least once a year just to see what we can see. Also, they have been adding on and improving the place so it is always nice to see what is new. Some days we see lots of birds but today we were not so fortunate.

 It is sometimes fun to see if you can find the driveway into the place because there is a small sign on a busy road and we almost always miss it the first time.  

Friends, Miriam and Al,

Turtle sunning himself

Al thinks he might feed this deer!

Great Kiskadee

There are tons of these in the park although 
we didn't see any today.

Lots of new bronze sculptures adorn the property

Lizard

Now he's showing off!

www.quintamazatlan.com - for more information about Quinta Mazatlan.