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Started this day off right! I had breakfast with my sister Amelia and her husband Raul. I can't believe they have been married 43 years! Hearty serving of Barbacoa de Cabeza on corn tortillas! Now traditionally this is a beef head that is cooked in a hole in the ground over several hours. I don't know how it is done these days but damn that is good eating. The meat is super tender and tasty. You just scoop some into a corn tortilla and away you go!
Amelia and Raul have the largest family of all my siblings. They have 5 kids, Armando has 2, Antonieta has 2, Armandina has 1, Arturo Jr has none, Adelmira has 3, and I have 2. All in all, I have 13 nephews and nieces plus several of them have children of their own! This brings to mind a funny story concerning my mother. When we were young, my mother had this gold bracelet with little head profiles hanging from it. Each head had our name and birth date on it. The bracelet was rather large and heavy so I am sure it was valuable. My mother loved that bracelet and told us all that whoever had the most children by the time she died would inherit this bracelet. I remember telling her early on that she should just go ahead and give it to Amelia because there was no way any of the seven of us wanted as many children as she did! Well, I was right; here we are all these years later and Amelia ended up with the largest family and the bracelet.
Another funny side note here. You may have noticed that all seven of us sibling's names start with an "A". This was my father’s thing and my mom let him go with it. I continued the tradition with the names of my two sons. I remember when my son was in elementary school and they had a project of building a family tree on a poster board and bringing it to school. We built my wife’s side first and then mine. When we were done, we couldn’t help but laugh and laugh hard. My wife’s side looked like a small bush while my side looked like a damn forest!
I walked around the block to shoot a couple of pictures. The house I am staying in belongs to my oldest sister Amelia and her husband Raul. It is right on the corner of the street. It used to belong to my next older brother Art when my parents were alive. I may have mentioned that Art owned this house and the house my folks lived in until the fire right behind his and one over. I will provide more detail on that when I go around the corner. This is a really nice house with a big garage and plenty of space in back to do anything you want to.
Now, two houses down from that is my sister Armandina's (Nina) with her husband Jerry. This is a nice neighborhood and pretty quiet. The house my parent's lived in was in between this house and Amelia's house, just behind them on the other street but very easy to get to through the alley. My dad died at the age of 91 in the fire that destroyed that house and my mother moved into this house with Nina and Jerry until she passed away a few years later.
Around the block to the house my parents used to live in. After the fire, I took some vacation and went down to help my brother Art work on the house. The house caught fire as a result of a faulty electric heater that started a fire. On their way out of the house my father fell and did not make it out of the house and passed from smoke inhalation. It was a loss we all took hard. Art rebuilt the house with the insurance money and some money from the settlement. Personally I think he overbuilt for the neighborhood but it is a beautiful house now none the less. He managed to keep some of the structure from the original house intact. My nephew Joseph now lives in that house with a couple of roommates. These guys need to learn some landscaping skills though!
Well, on the bike and time for a ride to the old haunts. I rode down to our old cruising turf, Ayers street. This was an old street where we would go hangout and ride up and down looking for friends. There are lots of old businesses with huge parking lots right off the street. You could pull over and hang out when you saw someone you knew, or wanted to know. Cops would come through on a pretty regular basis and make sure we didn’t have booze or anything else we shouldn’t. On this road was also an old haunt of ours, "The White Rabbit". This was a bar we would go to for dancing till the wee hours of the morning. This place had a huge dance floor and music where we could dance to Spanish music for a change from disco. I have many a fond memory from this place. Now it's called "Fiesta Latina" and looks like a real dump!
I took a ride to the waterfront. The cool thing about Corpus Christi is that you can get to a waterfront within about 15 minutes from anywhere in town. I guess this made me take the waterfront for granted and when I moved away it kind of made a difference. I rode through the "T" heads, there are three of them. These are basically docks for boats but also have restaurants or places for people to hang out. We used to go charter fishing on the Captain Clark from here every now and then; fishing in the Gulf of Mexico can be fun but very different from fishing in Alaska. For one, the fish do not compare. Once you fish Alaska and hook a thirty pound salmon or hundred pound halibut, it's hard to go back to smaller fish. The other thing is the depth of the water. In the Gulf, you go a long ways out and the water might be as shallow as 20 feet. In Alaska, you step off the island and in some spots; the water drops 200-500 feet immediately! We used to also go wade fishing at the mud flats. This could be a dangerous outing though because the mud flats are littered with stingrays and trust me, you don’t want to piss one off because they will stab you with their tail! You would just have to walk slowly and never raise your feet. You just kind of did “the old man shuffle” with your feet on the bottom. In this manner, you scared the stingray away if you bumped them. Funny but that scares the crap out of me now but back then it was no big deal!
The Corpus Christi waterfront does have a lot to offer. Nice little beach so you don't have to go all the way out to Padre Island. There's the USS Lexington you can see from here that is now a floating museum. All you have to do is go over the Harbor Bridge to get to it, to another beach, or to the aquarium. There's also a huge convention center that was built here sometime after I moved away. Personally, I think it is an eyesore but I guess it brings in plenty of business. Riding under the harbor bridge brought back some memories. As a kid we used to come here and fish. The water is pretty deep because this is a deep water port so plenty of fish and fun catching them.
This is a very old part of town and you can find some historical houses and even the Museum of Hispanic Culture. I guess when the majority of the population in this city is Hispanic; you better have a Hispanic Heritage Culture Museum! One thing this city does well is that the businesses here have learned to adapt to their customers better than anywhere else I have lived. The most important color to businesses here is green and not the color of people’s skin. Don’t get me wrong; this is the south and racism is still alive and well. The difference here is that businesses here cater to their customer and don’t expect customers to cater to them like I have seen so many other places. If you have people come in who don’t speak the same language or perhaps don’t speak it as well, they get you someone to talk to with no fuss. I have shopped some places in other states where I saw people who had trouble with the English language get treated disrespectfully.
I got back to the house in time to find my nephew Juan and his wife Rita there with their kids. Juan has a brother and sister that are twins and he has a set of twins now himself, Juan Tomas and Janie Elizabeth. His wife is this tiny woman, very smart. It's funny that his twins are boy and girl because his twin siblings are boy and girl. The kids wanted to see my bike so I took them out and let them sit on it for a picture. Too bad they are still a little too young to go for a ride though. It is evident that the bulk of Juan’s genes did not come from my side of the family! This kid is huge, well over six feet tall and all muscle! One guy you don’t want to mess with! By comparison, I am 5’10 ½” tall. At my height I am considered a freak of height in my family!
My niece, Andrea (one of the twins I mentioned earlier), also showed up with her kids Wes and Amy. Amy is shy and Wes is a riot! That kid is full of spit and vinegar! Andrea’s husband will be down in a day or two so I'll get to say hi to him as well. Andrea surprised me with a gift that nearly brought me to tears. She had with her a quilt my mother had made and given to her when her kids were born. This quilt, my mom made for me when I was a baby and it was used to put me on the floor to play and sleep on. I had no idea this quilt existed. She got the full story from my mother many years ago and now that her kids are older, she felt the quilt belonged back with me. The quilt is made from old bits of cloth my mom would save from her worn out dresses and such. I looked at the quilt and immediately recognized several of the prints and colors in the quilt. My mom always liked wearing the same kind of dresses and in the same colors. All my life, she did this because she was a person of simple needs and likes. I took the quilt and had to give her a big hug. My sister Amelia said she would mail the quilt to me once I hit the road again. I have a picture in my collection of this quilt. It will sit at my home in Alaska forever now! I will always treasure this gift and I doubt many can ever understand its significance to me unless they knew my mother.
So, we all headed over (two doors down) to Nina and Jerry's house. Jerry, in my opinion is a BBQ master! The man will light the BBQ at the drop of a hat and is ready to cook anything. Sometimes I think the BBQ gets more action then the stove! We sat around and had a few beers and tore into the BBQ. A cute little Chihuahua jumped into Nina's lap and I was surprised when Nina told me this was Tiny. Tiny was my mom's dog and came with her to live at Nina's when my dad died in the fire. At this point, my mom has been gone 2 1/2 years and Tiny is still doing well. This is the first dog my parents ever allowed in the house and he was their special boy! We ate and drank and had a great time.
Things got super funny when we found out that Joseph had given Nina a karaoke machine for her birthday. Nina loves to sing but it seems that particular talent did not stop at our house! Sorry, I love my sister but she sings as well as I do! LOL. Amelia left once Nina convinced Raul (Amelia's husband) to sing. We could not stop laughing at this turn of events. My sister Toni showed up and sat in on some of the karaoke as well. I about peed myself laughing when a wasp got in the house. While a wasp in the house is not something you normally laugh at, this time had to be the exception! Nina was singing and the wasp was flying around and highly attracted to Toni. Toni was swatting frantically at the wasp while simultaneously screaming for help. Nina kept on singing and just kept waving Toni off. She wouldn't stop singing till the song was over. This was hilarious! I was laughing so hard; I couldn't even get up to help Toni deal with the wasp. We ended up the night splitting up a huge watermelon and chowing down. I know I'm going to pay for that in the middle of the night.
Following are some details on the pictures
Pic 1 - The Hernandez's: Breakfast with my sister Amelia and her husband Raul. Hearty barbaqoa de cabeza on corn tortillas. The breakfast of kings! 43 years married!
Pic 2 - Casa Hernandez: My sister's house. Amelia, my oldest sibling. This used to be my brother Art's house before.
Pic 3 -Casa Castongue: My sister Armandina's, house. It is two houses down from my sister Amelia's house.
Pic 4 - Casa Joseph: My nephew Joseph's house. It's between my two sisters' house but behind them. Talk about staying close!
Pic 5 - The White Rabbit: The old "White Rabbit". We used to dance to Spanish music until the wee hours of the night. What have they done to the place? Tragic! The old White Rabbit ain't white no more!
Pic 6 - Cruising Territory: Looking down Ayers street. Our old cruising street. Going up and down this road trying to chat the girls up.
Pic 7 - The "T" Heads: The infamous "T" heads. Three of these full of boats and adventures after dark. Used to fish out of here on the Captain Clark.
Pic 8 - Ship Ahoy: USS Lexington permanently docked across the channel. It now serves as a museum. Used to be an aircraft carrier. Makes a neat tour.
Pic 9 - Harbor Bridge: Harbor Bridge. Gonna ride across to north beach before I go back. I hear it is a real dump now.
Pic 10 - Convention Center: This monstrosity is the US Bank convention center. It was not here when I lived here!
Pic 11 - The Harbor Bridge: This is from a spot under the Harbor Bridge where we used to fish when I was a kid.
Pic 12 - Across the Chanel: The white building is the Texas State Aquarium. My last memory of this place was going with my folks and touching the stingrays in the interactive display.
Pic 13 - The Port of Corpus Christi: Looking down the deep water port of Corpus Christi. Many ships in and out of here. At one point it was listed as number 7 in the US of where a possible attack would occur to knock out shipping, believe it or not!
Pic 14 - El Museo: The Museum of Hispanic Culture. Yes, we have one!
Pic 15 - Old Abode: Preserved historic houses. This and the next pic are the oldest houses in the city.
Pic 16 - Old Abode Too: Another historical house.
Pic 17 - Second Generation Hernandez: My nephew Juan Hernandez, his wife Rita, and their twins Juan Tomas and Janie Elizabeth. Can you believe this kid is 6'2" and related to me?
Pic 18 - Kiddos: My nephew's son in front and my niece's son and daughter behind. They want their own bike to go for a ride. Bunch of cuties!
Pic 19 - Andrea: My niece Andrea with her two kids Wes and Amy. Too bad her husband couldn't make it. She brought me an awesome gift. She had the quilt my mom made for me when I was a baby from her old dresses and scraps. I was touched.
Pic 20 - The Quilt: This is the quilt Andrea gave to me that my mother had made for me as a baby and that Andrea used with her kids.
Pic 21 - Now That's BBQ: My bro in law Jerry getting all jiggy with the BBQ! Damn he can cook. My mouth is already watering!
Pic 22 - Chewing the fat: My sister Armandina and her husband Jerry Castongue with the fat Chihuahua Tiny. The dog is 9 yrs old and belonged to my mom before she passed.
Pic 23 - Tiny: Introducing Tiny, my mom's Chihuahua. My mom passed away 2 1/2 years ago and Tiny stayed with my sister where my mom was.
Pic 24 - Sing Along: It's getting scary around here. Karaoke time! My sister Amelia left when her husband started singing. LOL. My sister Nina wouldn't stop singing while my sister Toni was fighting a wasp! We were laughing very hard and couldn't help her waive it away.
Pic 25 - Watermelon: Texas size watermelon! We do not get watermelon like this in Alaska and definitely not that tastes anywhere this good! I could not get enough!
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