Jan 19
Temps in the mid 70's today . We went for a walk on the beach, then crossed over and walked back down the main drag, stopping in the stores along the way. SPI is 34 miles long but only 1/2 mile wide. Only the southernmost 5 miles of the island are developed. One side borders the Gulf of Mexico, and the other borders the Laguna Madre. The main drag runs down the middle, and I think there is only one other street that runs north/south on the island.

Our condo is about 1/2 block to the beach on the gulf side. The beach at SPI is ranked as one of America's top ten. The sand is like flour, but the surf packs down a nice surface for walking. There are thousands of shells washed up on shore, as well as occasional other creatures like jellyfish. The beach is busy with lots of people walking, but not many people in the water other than a fisherman here or there. The water is quite cold this time of year (around 60 degrees). SPI is mostly retired people, so the beach is full of old people like us! lol

On our way back along the main drag, we happened to see that the liquor store (Ben's Liquor - there must be at least half a dozen of these stores on the island) was having a moving sale . Everything was 25% off - Roger got a 1.75 litre (66 oz) Seagram's VO for $26, and a 4-pack of Kahlua mudslides (for me) for $4.

When we got home, Gil and Lois were home from their walk. Gil was hand washing his van, and Lois was reading her Kindle. We bbq'd steaks for supper, but the condo only has a charcoal bbq so we had to give ourselves lots of time. Gil had gone out this morning and cleaned the bbq all up. He has trouble sitting still for too long. Seems we're related. ;o)

Jan 20
Today was a nice warm day, but very windy (which is typical of SPI). We went for a long walk, then headed to the Convention Centre where there was a craft/trade show for the winter Texans. OMG ... you've never seen so many blue hairs together in one place. SPI has 5,000 residents, but over 1 million overnite visitors each year. As Lois said, "they were all at the craft show."  Gil & Lois bought a few things, but we came away empty handed .

Gil, Roger & I spent the rest of the afternoon playing cards, whole Lois read her Kindle. After playing a round of Julie Rummy, Gil taught us a new version of rummy called Lambsy. The wild card changes each round (starting with Aces and moving up the line to Kings). It's lay down rummy, but lowest score wins so you count what's left in your hand against yourself. You can take wild cards from other people's laydowns, and you can lay what's in your hand on other people's laydowns, but you have to have melded first. The thing that really messed Roger & me up was that, if you haven't melded, once you draw you're done for that turn. Anyway, Gil seemed to change the rules as we went along (remind anyone of Durock????).

We had lots of fun. Quite a bit of cursing and name calling. ;o) Roger lost 2 games out of 3 (which is very odd for him), so he had to buy pizza for everyone for supper. We're having Pizza Hut, and watching the movie "Water for Elephants" after.