A Day at the Beach

Jamie was nice enough to come visit us this weekend, and we planned a trip to the beach. She came in late Friday night and left early Sunday afternoon so it was a pretty short trip, but we had a lot of fun while she was here.

Bridget LOVES Jamie. She posted herself outside the office door waiting for Jamie to get up in the morning, waited outside the bathroom door while Jamie was taking a shower, and jumped all over her whenever she was available for jumping on. Bridget's inner monologue sounded something like this...."Jamie Jamie Jamie Jamie jamiejamiejamiejamie Jamie! Jamie! Jamie! Jamie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We flew from Stinson Airport in south San Antonio to Mustang Beach.
Ready for takeoff.

Taking off from Stinson. The metal building is actually the museum we went to a couple weeks ago and you can barely see downtown in the background.

On the way to Mustang Beach.

Jamie at the controls flying towards the Gulf.

The Gulf (very blue on this day).

Coming in to land at Mustang Beach.

The beach, looking north.

There aren't any courtesy cars or rental cars at this airport, which we originally thought might be a problem, but luckily there is a trolley you can take as a shuttle bus around the island.

We took the trolley to Moby Dick's for lunch.

We then walked across the street to "Nautical Wheelers" and rented a buggy in which to tool around the island for a couple hours. They were all brightly painted and themed. Ours was named "Lone Star."

We buggied over to the ferry landing to see if we could spot some dolphins, but they weren't out today.

Someone was drying their jeans out their car window in the parking lot.

Jamie had forgotten her sunglasses, but purchased a pair of ZZ Top sunglasses for just $1 at the buggy place, which got the job done and were stylish to boot.

It was windy enough that people were surfing.

Cruising the island in the buggy. We all took turns driving and riding in the back.

It was a BEAUTIFUL day...

Taking the trolley back to the airport.

The beach from the air after takeoff.

Jamie trying out flying again.

Aerial view of the whole island.

Heading back to San Antonio at sunset. It was such a clear day, all day the horizon was really crisp.

Coming in to land at Stinson.

Unloading just as the sun was setting.

It was a very full, but very fun day. The weather was beautiful and everything worked out great. We're so glad Jamie could come visit us, we had a great time!

Stinson Airport

Scott's flight school is moving to Stinson Airport from San Antonio International this weekend, so we thought we would see how far away it was and check it out. It's still in San Antonio, and is about 25 minutes from our apartment instead of 10 minutes. But since it's a smaller airport he'll save time taxiing so it'll probably be a wash.

This is the newly remodeled terminal building. Stinson is one of the oldest airports in the United States still in operation.

The airfield.

There was a helicopter tour company giving tours of downtown.
Of course we had to check out the museum. This was some sort of attitude chamber they used to get pilots trained for flight. There's a chair inside and the sphere moves you all around in different attitudes.

These are Curtis aircraft that were used in the Mexican Revolution in the teens. Pilots would actually get in dogfights and shoot at each other with pistols while flying. And just like the Wright Flyer, there's no cockpit or anything!

This is a Cessna 150, which is the same size as the 152 Scott first trained on. We were looking at it and we honestly don't know how he ever fit in there, let alone with an instructor. It's veeery small.

This is a Funk B-38, which neither of us had ever heard of.

A Sikorski helicopter. It was so big Renee thought it was an airplane missing its wings.

One of the other outdoor exhibits, we can't remember what it was called.

We then headed home to walk Bridget, but once we got there we apparently didn't get ready fast enough for her because she chewed through her leash while waiting. So we had to take a detour to PetCo before heading to the park!

Canyon Lake

We had planned to go to the beach today, but with a high of 60 and wind gusts up to 33 mph, we decided to save it for another day. So we headed northeast about a half-hour to Canyon Lake and went hiking with Bridget. It was a beautiful day for it...sunny and about 65.

This is a view of the lake from the dam, those are sailboats to the right.

Bridget checking out the water (it was amazingly clear, probably because of the rock bottom). It was too cold for her to jump in too much.

The lake is reportedly down about 20 feet due to a drought. That's the water line on the dam.
Another view of the lake from the dam. We really couldn't have asked for a better day, and the scenery was very picturesque with all of the rocks and hills.

This is the Guadalupe River coming through the other side of the dam.

Walking along the top.

Walking along a rock ledge on the lake shore. The water was about 15 ft below, and the water line was about 5 feet above the ledge, which matches what we heard about the lake being down about 20 feet. It's a perfect fishing spot, and we plan to go back.

Scott managed to skeeter around this boulder on the very edge of the ledge by holding onto the top. He then looked back and said, "C'mon Bridget!" And Bridget looked at him like, "What, are you nuts?" She went around the top.

Look how blue the sky is!

This looked like a perfect diving platform, but short of bringing a rope ladder with you, there didn't seem a way to get back up. It's hard to tell in the picture but the water is still about 15 feet below the ledge. Although we were bummed to put off going to the beach, we couldn't have picked a better day to explore the lake and we'll definitely have to go back to explore more and go fishing. It was just a perfect day for hiking and exploring and we had a great time! Bridget was especially tired after a long day, but we still stopped at Dairy Queen on the way back where she got a small dish. Bridget likes ice cream very much.