Had breakfast and packed up. Another sunny day - we were supposed to have thunderstorms all the time we were here...only one short one on the way to the Refuge yesterday - gotta like that!! We headed to the South Texas Botanical Gardens in Corpus Christi. They have 182 acres of land, the majority of which is wetlands. There are many smaller gardens centered around the visitor's center.
The plumeria garden brought back many memories of
our Hawaii visits. These are the flowers they use
to make their beautiful leis. Not many in bloom
but the ones that were had that lovely fragrance!
A nice rose garden.
They had cool benchs...this is actually made of stone
with colored tile mosaic for the blanket designs.
Of course a native cactus garden...some blooming.
Abundant dragonflies around, as well as spider webs.
More than 2000 planats in their Orchid House.
Construction on a new Orchid Conservatory
will begin in 2014.
All lovely!
Four huge staghorn cactus plants were hanging
from trees near the Orchid House.
Quite a number of tropical birds...
and amphibians..this iguana was about 12" long.
We walked along the nature trail for awhile until the heat and mosquitoes sent us back to the car and lunch. We made a return visit to Snoopy's for fried shrimp and shimp salad sandwiches...yum.
This kingfisher was perched on a line on the way to Snoopy's.
Dowitcher?? in a pool by the parking lot.
Had a yummy lunch and headed back to S.A.
Passed by the Naval Air Station at Corpus Christi.
Passed a good number of refineries...this is oil & gas country!!
and hundreds of giant wind turbines.
Arrived home safely and unpacked and cooled it the rest of the evening. Great trip!
Thanks again Becky and Ernie!!
