Whooping Crane Festival

[papermakermd]

Whooping Cranes have been seen in Port Aransas this fall at Charlie’s Pasture. We saw them in the same area last year. The Whooping Cranes at Aransas NWR tend to be a long ways away and hard to see even with a long lens or good binoculars. One can get closer to the cranes by taking a tour boat out to ANWR. Two Facebook pages that will be useful for finding out where they are at. One is Shutter Bugs Port Aransas. The other is The Island Life in Port Aransas, Texas. Also, if you haven’t already, check out port Aransas.org for more information about the Whooping Crane Festival.

Thanks! for the info Silverbeard I'll keep this post in mind for when we arrive.

[papermakermd]

papermakermd, we are at Pioneer Rv now until the end of March. Come see us at site 455 when you get here.

We made it and are on site 470. Sorry we no longer have our Grand design though. We will check in with you one day. we are here for 8 nights.

[papermakermd]

Some things about Pioneer and Port A that you may or may not know.

Pioneer staff will pick up your trash if you leave it at the end of your rig near the street, daily. Be warned the Grackles will tear those thin garbage bags open before they pick up garbage daily and spew your trash everywhere. You can also go to the trash bins near the office and discard yourself.

If you need propane filled, leave the bottle out on the street with your site number written on the bottle. They will refill and bring it back to you.

There are two pools and a hot spa. Both are maintained very well but the pools are chilly. We only use them if its above 80 deg.

They are building a new laundry facility that may be ready by the time you arrive. The old laundry facility has a lot of shortcomings, such as older units and too much use. We use Wacky Willie's laundry in Port A about 5 miles from here, that is, until the new laundry facility is completed.

Pioneer expanded the walkway to the beach about 50% complete, double lanes now for golf carts and foot traffic. They are waiting on permits to complete the board walk upgrade so right now it's a "Two lane reduced to one lane" LOL.

Speaking of golf carts, if you rent one, the best place in town is Texas Red. We own ours but in years past we've rented.

Best Mexican restaurant is La Playa followed closely by San Juan. La Playa doesn't open until 5pm so get there early. Its always a wait for a table after 5pm. Open Tue-Sat.

Best sushi is Blue Water Cowboy. They have other great food too but on the expensive side.

Moby Dicks is a fun touristy restaurant and the food is average. All-you-can-eat shrimp on Wed.

Port A beer hut is a great outdoor place to take in a beer/wine and is dog friendly. Bring the dominoes and play some games sipping a beer!

Many other good restaurants here I've not mentioned. Yelp is your friend. We've eaten at all the restaurants here and the ratings are pretty spot on.

I suspect you'll regret only booking 1 week once you're here. We stay here from Dec 1st through April 1st and have developed some lifetime friendships with our snowbird comrades here at Pioneer.

We made it to Pioneer. We are in site 470 for 8 nights. We no longer have our Grand Design though. We will check in with you one day.

[Silverbeard]

We made it and are on site 470. Sorry we no longer have our Grand design though. We will check in with you one day. we are here for 8 nights.

Glad you got here. We are about 5 doors down the street from you.

[papermakermd]

We met Sportsdad60 and Silverbeard after we arrived at Pioneer Park. I want to thank both for all the good info they provided. The weather has been lousy this week but we kept ourselves busy and we did manage to spot some Whooping Cranes through binoculars. I also had some fly over me and they have a very unique sound they make.

[Sportsdad60]

Terrible week for weather since Wed.(Still warmer than back home in MT)
Monday our seasonal temperatures come back for at least 10 days (mid 60s)
Pleasure meeting you folks.

[Grandesigner]

Need some pix of the birds...I'll start with this one.