Celebrating in Port Aransas

Wednesday, 15 January
Gulf Waters RV Resort (GWRVR) — Port Aransas, Texas
Temps: LO 44F (7C) / Hi 58F (14C)

The sun’s been gracing our skies since it burned off the thick marine layer we woke up to Monday morning.  We’ve had beautiful blue skies since then.  That’s the good news.  The not-so-good news is that the sun doesn’t seem to be strong enough to negate the windchill from the almost constant breezes coming off the Gulf.  With lower temps, today was the worst of these past three days.  But this too shall pass.  It won’t be long before we’ll be complaining about how hot it is!  C’est la vie!

After a particularly windy night that had the slide toppers flapping away, we woke up this morning to celebrate Mui’s birthday!  Our plans were to leave early and go find some birds, but one look at the temperature gauge changed our minds.  You know, we’re fine with a temperature of 44F (7C) or less when we’re in the Arctic in the summer.  But we find ourselves chickening out and staying indoors when we have those kinds of temps here in the winter.  Haven’t figured that one out yet ;-)

Instead, we waited for the temps to rise, and by then Mui was in the mood to go on the roof with a tube or two of leveling compound to re-seal some seams on the roof.  So, it was past noon when we finally made it out for his birthday lunch in Port Aransas.

The birthday boy chooses the Trout Street Bar & Grill for his celebratory lunch.

As it was after 1:00p when we finally made it there, the Trout Street Bar & Grill was fairly deserted.  Getting seated at a window-side table with a view of the marina was the next best thing to being at a table on the veranda.

Our server, James, promptly showed up at the table to take our drink orders.  Easy decision — we are in Texas after all — what else could we order but a couple of Shiner Bocks … thanks, MZ and TZ, for introducing us to the brew!

Cheers to a happy birthday!

We started off with an order of calamari to share.  It was OK — but the batter, we felt, overwhelmed the delicate taste of the calamari.  Although we weren’t too happy with the appetizer, we both really enjoyed our main courses.  In my case, Shrimp Larisha — Gulf shrimp sautéed in garlic butter, and topped with toasted bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese; served with rice pilaf and vegetables.  Mui ordered one of the specials, so his dish didn’t have a fancy name.  Nonetheless, the blackened drum fish, served with a side of Creole sauce, and the same pilaf and vegetables, was very good.  Since we had let slip that we were celebrating Mui’s birthday, James suggested the Birthday Brownie for dessert.  Should have gone with our first instinct and ordered the key lime pie instead.  This is our second brownie a la mode in as many days, and it wasn’t all that satisfactory.  The a la mode part was good; the brownie not so much.  Oh well; now we know what not to order for dessert the next time we dine out.

Shrimp Larisha	Blackened Drum Fish	Birthday Brownie

We walked out of Trout Street with plans to go for a walk around town.  It didn’t take more than a few minutes for us to figure out that we didn’t have enough layers on.  So, we quick-stepped it back to the car and returned home, where Mui spent the afternoon accepting happy birthday wishes from friends and family, and his high school Facebook group.

We have some errands to run tomorrow … but also some special plans that I’ve really been looking forward to.  But more on that later.