Port of Brownsville Tour

We rode the Wilder Bus with a bunch of people from Winter Ranch and Trophy Gardens today heading for South Padre Island. We all boarded a BreakAway Cruises boat for a tour of the Port of Brownsville. The boat was pretty crowded because there was another bus load of people on with us. The boat managed to stay afloat though!

There were a few problems with the tour. The first was the fact that we left at 9 AM in the morning and didn't get any meal until after we came back so we were all starved on the trip. The boat ride through the port was four hours long and it took us quite awhile to get down to the port.

Port

Dolphins

 The one thing that really made the trip was the dolphins. We saw tons of them on the way up and some on the way back. But when we were about an hour from shore one dolphin decided to race us. He stayed right on our side until we just about reached the dock. We were all standing and waving and yelling at him and he seemed to enjoy all the fuss! It was great! I took a ton of movies of him so Lee had to look at bunch of stuff to find the few moments we put here on the Trip Journal.

Nora Minor, Joyce Brandt and Karla Arrasmith

Brown Pelican

Us

Free Beer Being Served

Nora making a toast

Charlie and Nora

The tour of the port held the men's interest much more than the women. The Captain talked about each boat that was being torn down as we passed it and gave us a history of the boat. The women made it to the end where we turned around to head back and we though we could just head on back. No such luck, he talked about all the boats on the other side on the way back. We were ready for a speed boat! That was also probably due to the fact that we were all starving!

Joyce Brandt chugging beer

 However, the boat provided free beer on the trip so a lot of our Winter Ranch friends had a great time. We don't drink beer but it would have been a disaster if we did on an empty stomach. People were eating chips and cookies from the snack bar to keep them going. Our friend, Joyce Brandt, had her birthday today so she celebrated. The young man that was serving the beer gave her the pitcher at one point. But, of course, it was almost empty when he did that. It made for good pictures though!

Ron and Edna Odendahl

Lee heading to the restaurant

 

Dave and Karla Arrasmith

After we docked, our tour included dinner at the Shrimp Haus. However, this was the second problem. There were several of us who bought our tickets from a lady from the cruise line that came to the park. She handed out a menu of what we would get to eat at the Shrimp Haus. We got our tickets at the RV Show and we were promised the same menu. However, the menu they gave us was really limited and didn't include the coconut shrimp which the Shrimp Haus is known for and that is what we all wanted. We had several talks with the waiters and got no where so I had my phone and I called the cruise line office and told them what we were promised and told them they had 12 people who were going to be awfully upset if we didn't get coconut shrimp as promised. After several phone calls and talks back and forth between the restaurant and the cruise line, we 12 all got our coconut shrimp. I was the heroine of the day! And, it was worth it. Their coconut shrimp is just outstanding. 

Coconut Shrimp

Later on we heard from our Activity Directors that they then tried to charge them for 10 extra people. When we got there Lee followed the bus driver in and gave them our tickets because they were purchased separately from the group. However, we didn't know anything about the other 10 people who purchased them after a Wednesday morning meeting. The Activity Office had a devil of a time with them so we now will never be taking the bus for any of their cruises.

Oh well, for all of the craziness, we still all managed to have a good time. The dolphins sure helped!!