Seeking warmer winter weather!

With the points from our home resort week available, we were able to choose a two-week period in the middle of January at Inverness at South Padre Island. That was the first plus! We didn't expect the resort to be Gold Crown, as it wasn't advertised as such and with a two-week-for-one-week trade (with points left over), we had no pre-conceived expectations.

What this resort had was location! It was perhaps the best location on the strip and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay there. The condo was clean and the staff helpful. The resort was built with an exterior corridor and each condo extended the full depth of the building. That meant that we looked out our front living room patio doors down onto the beach and out over the Gulf of Mexico and from the back bedrooms, we were able to watch the sun set over the bay. The full kitchen enabled us to make meals as we chose -- going to the local fish market in Port Isabel and choosing the catch of the day and a couple of pounds of ready to peel and eat Gulf shrimp was a highlight. Another highlight was sitting on our balcony / deck and eating our breakfast -- which included half of a juicy, fresh, ruby red grapefruit every morning! We don't get ones as fresh as those at home!

We were able to enjoy the sun by the pool and even got a bit of a tan, but must admit the unheated pool was pretty cool even for us northerners. The beach was right at our doorstep and we took advantage of the outdoor shower to clean the sand off our feet from our daily walk along the beach.

What a wonderful surprise! The sign said "All you can eat spaghetti for $6.95" and D'Piano Man, playing Friday to Wednesday evenings. We couldn't resist that billboard and it was just as advertised!

The spaghetti was great and, for an extra $1, you could have three very large meatballs on top. When that was finished, another plate appeared.

But what brought us back a second night was the music! D'Piano Man had the incredible talent of being able to play anything the audience of the evening could call out to challenge him. With the backboard of the old upright piano taken off, you could see the hammers hitting the strings, mostly 10 at a time, as his fingers flew up and down the keyboard. When my husband suggested "Flight of the Bumble Bee," he apologized and said he didn't know the whole song, but we sure couldn't tell! His fingers flew. He circulated a book around the room with pages of songs in his repertoire, with suggestions for people to choose, but he seemed equally able to play anything anyone suggested. Both times we went, we heard a different variety of songs and we certainly lingered over our meal in order to stay and enjoy the music.

The Turtle Rescue Center is an organization dedicated to caring for endangered sea turtles and educating the public about turtles. It was interesting to hear the stories about the different turtles living at the center and to hear about how the organization is trying to teach different countries to earn a living without killing sea turtles to make their crafts.

This was a fun experience for us on our first day on the island. After you bought a strip of tickets ($10 per person), you could wander through the convention center and "taste test" the food from different restaurants and bars located on the island. Two or three tickets gave us samples of chowders, fish dishes, banana leaf-wrapped mixtures, burritos, delicious cinnamon buns, and even Dairy Queen blizzard samples to cool your mouth from a particularly spicy dish. In the center of the hall, you could wander through the displays and check out merchandise from island merchants. It was a great introduction to the food and culture of the island.