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.  

South Padre Kite Festival

We took off this morning about 9 AM with Al and Miriam Hight to attend the South Padre Kite Festival.  I packed a lunch and kites and tons of warm clothing since the weather man said it would be in the 50's by 1 PM today.

The weather man was wrong and the weather was just about perfect for kite flying and it stayed nice right up until the time we decided to head home.  Then we had rain but we had a perfect day!  We both packed our lunches and ate while we watched the show.

That's us!

Miriam and Al Hight

A bunch of our friends from Winter Ranch took the bus over but we decided that we should go on our own because the bus gets there late and doesn't ever stay as long as we want.  We also wanted to go over to the Gulf side of the island after the festival was over.  The crowd today was something else.  I think the kite festival has caught on in the past couple of years because there were a lot more people here than we've seen in the past.  At first we thought we would be so far back that we wouldn't see anything, however, we sent Lee out scouting and then found seats that were almost front row.

Colorful Frog

Octopus

Some of the Crowd

Not One Of Our Winter Ranch Friends!

Never Saw The Puffer In The Sky

The Large Wheel Got Up Though

Fishie Kites

The I-Quad team from Washington State was here again and we love to watch them fly.  They also had two other team flyers, a local group called Team SPI (South Padre Island) and another team called End of the Line or (EOL).  Then were were many solo fliers.  One time SPI and I-Quad got together and did an impromptu presentation.  It was exceptional seeing as they didn't even practice ahead of time! 

SPI-Quad

SPI-Quad Kites During Demonstration

After lunch, Lee and I went hunting for the rest of the Winter Ranch people that came on the bus.  We found two groups of friends that had moved in to see the show.  They had been to the kite festival before and knew what they would be missing.

Winter Ranch Friends - Sharon, Donna and Richard

More WR Friends - Donna, Mary, Sandy and Wilbur

Cheryl and Tom Brockman, SOITC friends that sat behind us today!

The rest of the people were all sitting with the bus and they weren't even near the kite demonstrations.  We talked to a few of them and told them they should get up and move but they were staying by the bus because they didn't want to get wet when the big storm started.  We don't know if any of them moved, but from where they were sitting all they could see was the kites that are tied down that just float on the wind currents.  If that is all they saw, they probably won't have much to say about the festival so we hope they moved!  The sky did look threatening for awhile, but as the day progressed the clouds sort of flew over.  I think we had four drops of rain while the demos were going on.

Our Bus and People Sitting Close To It In Case It Rained

After we left the Kite Festival, we drove over to the beaches on the Gulf Side of the island.  Miriam went shell hunting and Lee and I tried to get our kites going.  He was able to get his stunt kite going and the wind was good so he kept it in the air pretty well.  My dragon kite was another story.  It just didn't want to fly today.  It has been so long since we had it out, I think we were tying it wrong.  While we were there a large group of people on horseback came down the dunes and trotted across the beach.  When they were leaving they were on the dunes above the parking lot.  Some jerk decided to turn his music up to fire alarm status and scared the horses.  A lot of them started bucking and running into each other.  The leader of the group came galloping down the dune and yelled at the guy in the car who was dumb enough to have left his door open.  She told  him that was an asshole thing to do and to shut that music off now.  He did and as she was passing by his car, her horse got a few kicks in here and there!  Can't say as we blamed her because some of those kids she was in charge of could have been seriously hurt!

Horses on Beach #4 on the Gulf Side

Lee Trying to Knot My Dragon Kite

Lee Flying His Stunt Kite

Miriam Gathering Shells

Western Sandpiper

California Gull on Vacation

Lee Flying His Stunt Kite - Al Watching

When we were all tired of playing at the beach, we went out to eat at the Shrimp Haus on the east side of the south end of the island.  Miriam and Al had Oyster Baskets and Lee and I had Shrimp Baskets.  Both were just wonderful so we'll be back.  Lee and I want to try their Coconut Shrimp.  They have an All You Can Eat Coconut Shrimp Night on Tuesdays.

Al & Mariam Starting Into Shrimp Haus

Walking Toward The Shrimp Haus

They must get a lot of business during Spring Break!

Finally to the Building - Now To The Elevator

We've Arrived in the Lobby

Miriam and Lee

Al taking care of his check

After dinner, we headed on home.  It started raining just about the time we got to the truck and it rained on and off all the way back to Winter Ranch.  It kept raining all night long and by morning the temperature had dropped to the mid-50's.  Can't wait for it to warm up again!