Our day started our fairly miserably by the beach on North Padre Island but it turned around once we left the place and headed down to the bay front of Corpus Christi with the eventual destination of Whataburger Field, the home of the AA Texas League Corpus Christi Hooks. The Hooks were hosting the Frisco Roughriders, and it was mini trashcan night.

The park is magnificent in its setting, attention to detail, atmosphere and fan fun/friendly atmosphere. The Hooks won 9-4 in an entertaining but somewhat raggedly played game (five errors). The key player for the Hooks was third baseman Chris Johnson, a former 4^th Round pick out of Stetson. He hit a three-run homer which was the catalyst for turning things around.

After the game, there was a strange ball toss event as fans could buy a ball for $1 and the groundscrew put buckets on the field and fans had to land one in the bucket to win a cash prize. Sadly, my ball fell several feet short of the target.

Our Lone Star Summer has taken us to some strange places, and today we wound up in North Padre Island which is the Gulf of Mexico beach side of Corpus Christi. No one will mistake it for Cannes or even Destin, Florida, but lots of folks come here to enjoy the beach. About 10 miles down the road you hit Port Aransas, a fishing village that has some restaurants and the normal touristy stuff. Between here and Port Aransas, there appears to be some newer condos and homes on the beach.

So, I ask, what’s with this driving on the beach? As someone who grew up going to the Jersey Shore, I can assure you driving on the beach is as far from my frame of reference as possible. To each his own. Wonder if AAA will take calls to dig your car out of the sand?

Our Lone Star Summer has taken us to some strange places, and today we wound up in North Padre Island which is the Gulf of Mexico beach side of Corpus Christi. No one will mistake it for Cannes or even Destin, Florida, but lots of folks come here to enjoy the beach. About 10 miles down the road you hit Port Aransas, a fishing village that has some restaurants and the normal touristy stuff. Between here and Port Aransas, there appears to be some newer condos and homes on the beach.

So, I ask, what’s with this driving on the beach? As someone who grew up going to the Jersey Shore, I can assure you driving on the beach is as far from my frame of reference as possible. To each his own. Wonder if AAA will take calls to dig your car out of the sand?

It was a true Austin experience: Here we are, walking from the juice bar to our car at Whole Foods HQ at 6^th and Lamar in Austin when we come across a live music session ready to start. The performer is George Ensle, a local singer-songwriter whose melodies and lyrics positively enchant. As his website says, he paints pictures with his words, and the pictures he paints make you smile and cry, sometimes at the same time.

It was an Austin thing, and the reason we moved here p/t. We left our place with no particular destination, just hoping to hear music. We were headed to the Elephant Room (jazz is not my producer’s cup of tea) so when it started raining, we dashed over to Sullivan’s a steakhouse (from the Del Frisco people) which has a small bar that features lives music. To our great delight, we discovered Adam McInnis a musician who, along with his large band (on a small stage) was absolutely memorable. We bought his demo CD (we now are gathering a collection of local artists) and will be seeing him on July 11, again at Sullivan’s. If you are in the area, do not miss him.