DAY 27?APRIL 8?Houston?A ***** (5-STAR) day
We drove one hour and paid $7.50 in tolls to get to the Armand Bayou Nature Center, 8500 Bay Area Blvd., Pasadena. Admission was $1. They had several living exhibits, including a cottonmouth snake, 2 baby alligators, a raptor exhibit which housed two injured red-tailed hawks, a hardwood forest, and a pond. They say there are an abundance of birds that will migrate into the center in 2 weeks, armadillos, snakes, white-tailed deer, frogs, marsh rabbits, and turtles. Unfortunately, we didn?t see them. It?s only been 1 year since Hurricane Ike roared through with 150-mph winds that tore down 50% of their hardwood forest canopy. They are allowing the downed trees to rot and return to the soil. Sun beams where there was once total shade, and new ?pioneer? plants have sprouted. They are studying the re-forestation. They have worked to restore a variety of native prairie grasses in a very large field.
I loved this site, although it isn?t the jazziest place you?ll ever visit. There were new wildflowers for Wendy (Pictures 1 and 2). We did get repeated unwanted visits from this squirrel (Picture 3) who kept stealing the birdseed a regular visitor had put out for the birds. Doesn?t he have a bushy tail? The ABNC provides the seed in their exhibit area. Finally a Carolina chickadee came and stayed long enough for us to get a shot (Picture 4). We also saw two bison.
I like Texans! They are so polite when they tell you the rules (Picture 5). An 83-year-old man maintains a farm here so the kids can understand the olden days better. There is a real house, a vegetable garden, a birthing shed, a cane crusher, a huge syrup cooker which is like a deep fireplace, a carpenter shop, a blacksmith ship, and a pig pen. They have a fall festival where they dress in period wardrobe and perform chores as the pioneers did, including making sugar syrup.
Dean chased a really beautiful red butterfly, but this orange & black guy with his distinctive blue/red patch actually came closer and landed when Dean said, ?He?s too far away!? (Picture 6) I would definitely put this on my list of wonderful places to re-visit.
Just 30 minutes away, we found Lake Sheldon State Park, the biggest thrill of this trip. They are set up as an education center, a day outdoor science school for kids. There are about 20 ponds. We only had 45 minutes before they closed, so we hurried past the first two fishing ponds to a more natural swampy pond. I didn?t see any birds there, so I moved on to Pond 4. There were little blue herons, snowy egrets, great egrets, cattle egrets, and ibis EVERYWHERE! Many had nests.
While I was staring with awe, Dean told me that while he was at Pond 3, there was a huge splash, less than 10 feet away from him. He didn?t see what made it, but the only thing that made sense was?A BIG ALLIGATOR! We had not read their warnings on the map, nor had we noticed the large gator with a warning at the beginning of the path because we were speeding along and looking for birds.
There were white ibis (red beak and feet), but I couldn?t figure out who the guys on the left were (Picture 7) It turns out it is a juvenile ibis. They are black when they are born and it takes about 3 years for them to become white. This ibis watched us as we watched him (Picture 8). One flew right overhead (Picture 9). We?ve seen lots of beautiful little blue herons, but none as pretty as these in their breeding plumage (Picture 10). Their heads are almost purple, and the fluff at the top of their heads seems extra long and fluffy. The blue of their feathers is so deep and rich.
There were so many birds that they shared limbs (Picture 11). The white pillows in this picture are snowy egrets huddled over their nests. They don?t move at all, and you don?t usually see their heads.. While those nesting are perfectly still, some bachelors are strutting their stuff (Picture 12).
They closed at 5:00, so we tore ourselves away with a promise to return tomorrow. I was so excited that I felt chills go down my spine!
Our neighbor in the RV park has a sign on the back of his motorhome that says. ?HONK IF YOU ARE POLISH?. He told us he had the most fantastic Polish meal at Polonial Polish Restaurant, 1900 Blalock, so we decided to give it a try. He told us to order the combination, which started with bread with garlic butter and what looked like a dip and was really pork fat with bacon (it sounds awful, but it was delicious, though I can just imagine what it did to my arteries). There was a little salad bar with wonderful variety?cucumber slices in yogurt, delicious red cabbage slaw, diced homemade pickled beets, crunchy sauerkraut salad which was not tart, carrot & grape salad, and the usual items?all were delicious. The combination had golabki (cabbage rolls), bigos (sauerkraut w/shredded cabbage, also called Hunter?s Stew), roasted pork loin that was stuffed with ground pork and other things, roasted duck legs, kielbasas, 6 pierogis (2 potato & cheese, 2 meat, and 2 mushroom w/sauerkraut), meatloaf, and 2 cabbage rolls. It cost $30, and we will probably have 4 meals out of it. I love to experiment with ethnic cuisine, and Dean prefers American, though he does like some Mexican and Italian dishes. I loved this meal, though I haven?t sampled everything yet. Dean said it was ?OK?, which is high praise for a unique meal.
This was a great day in every way!
Miles traveled 0
Temperature: 73?
Stayed at Traders? Village
