MARDI GRAS! in south Texas.

Today the team went to North Padre Island for the Island's fourth annual mardi gras.  Prior to going to the Mardi Gras, we went to the Padre Island National Seashore.  Art and Sue plan on visiting there after we finish our NOMADS project.  The park has a program to help rescue sea turtles.  The park rangers watch for the turtles to come ashore to lay their eggs.  When they do the rangers dig up the eggs and take them to a lab to let them hatch.  Once they hatch they return them to the ocean.  The rangers announce when the release will be, and people come to wish the baby turtles well on the way.  We then went down the road to the Mardi Gras.  The Barefoot Mardi Gras was really different.  The parade was done on the beach.  We drove onto the beach and parked along the route of the parade, that was really neat.  Prior to the parade there were vendors selling t-shirts with the event logo on it and a man selling tomales.  Sharon bought a t-shirt, I bought some tomales.  The tomales were very good.  I would have to guess that there were several hundred cars parked on the beach, and many more on golf carts and bikes.  The parade started at about 1300 led off by a U. S. Marine Corps color guard.  Then the many floats and vehicles gave us a good show of fun and ingenuity.  The parade lasted about an hour.  Art and Sue suggested a pizza buffet they had been to on a previous trip to the area,  so off we went for pizza.  The salad bar and pizza was very good.  There was a good selection of pizza, from one with pineapple to the good old pepperoni and sausage.  After lunch we headed back to Taft.  On the way we crossed part of the bay in Port Aransas on a ferry.  It was a short trip, but enjoyable.

Spent the rest of the day just resting.  We work as hard at having fun as we do on the project.  It is nice to be with good friends and enjoying each other's company.

                                                   U. S. Marine Corps Color Guard.

                  The lead group announcing the North Padre Island Barefoot Mardi Gras 2013.

                                                  The Royal Court of the Mardi Gras.

                        Like to hear what those horns sound like when he tries to honk them.

                                              One of the many floats powered by golf carts.

                                                     This was Steve's favorite float.

                                     This was my favorite float.  Yes, and I will stick to that.

                                                               Sharon liked this one. 

                                           We all like this one.  That is Thor hanging around.

The group showing off their collection of beads.  Steve didn't have enough so he decided to take some of Leanne's.

             Even the dog's were getting into the act.  Show's that you can train an old dog new tricks.

                                                                   The car ferry.

As you can see we had a lot of fun.

Looking forward to going to church in the morning and resting up before starting back to work on Monday.

Remember, God Loves You