Corpus Christi

Corpus Christi, TX or just Corpus is located on the gulf of Mexico. Though adjacent to the Gulf, it is semi protected by a couple of barrier islands, Mustang and Padre. This is the third time that I have visited Corpus. All three times in relation to a conference. The last time was in November of 2010 when we came in for a conference planning meeting. During that trip we got to explore a lot of the area, including the Port Aransas and Rockport areas. This time the only travel I have done is on foot, and mostly along the seawall.
As a lot of you know, Corpus Christi is home to the "Lady Lex" the aircraft carrier Lexington. This is a fascinating floating museum that I spent several hours in on the November trip.

The seawall in Corpus provides a great promenade along the bay. Two access roads take you into sections of the marina known as T-Heads. There are all manner of privately owned watercraft moored in Corpus, from sail to power.

The seawall was constructed in the late 1930's, early 1940's. It is poured concrete and effectively raised the land level by about 14 feet over previous storm surges. The original design apparently called for a statute of Christ to anchor the center of the 1.75 mile long seawall. Apparently disputes kept that statute from being included, though a church at the start of the seawall has a statute that I would bet was along the lines of what was envisioned.

The seawall starts on the south end at the Holiday Inn and goes north to the City Conference Center. It is deceptive to think that the seawall runs south to north, until you realize that while looking across the Corpus Christi Bay, you are actually looking east.

Walking through the marina area does give you some excellent views of the city skyline.

Corpus is a town that we like to visit. We are planning to come down in February 2012 and spend some time in the Port Aransas area.

The Rains finally Came

Last Thursday (8/11/2011) we received the first measurable rain at our house since October 2010. Thursday night a thunderstorm came through that dropped more than 2.5 inches of rain in about a three hour period. Just for an example, this first picture is of a lake (or what was left of it) that we walk the dog around each evening.

As you can see there is not much water there. This photo was taken on Thursday evening about 45 minutes before the rain. In the 10+ years we have lived in Lubbock, we have never seen the lake this low, so, it deserved a picture. Below is how the lake looked two days after the storm.



A major difference. The water level rising has increased the distance of our walk as the lake has enlarged so much. This is just slightly higher than the "normal" lake level. We hope to see it stay this way for a while, at least until our next rain fall.

The down side of the storm was the damage that it did. One apartment house fire and two family home fires were started by lighting. Our next door neighbors took a lighting strike to their Pecan Tree in the back yard that created a 2 inch wide split almost the entire length. It also took out a control board in their HVAC system, the garage door opener, their cable Internet box, and several digital to analog converters on their Televisions. That tree is less than 60 feet from our back fence. We did lose a video conversion box due to that strike, but that is minor damage compared to everyone else.