While staying in Abilene, Texas we visited their Frontier Texas! museum, focused on the old west, especially around buffalo hunting.
The experience starts with an intro video, narrated by Buck Taylor of the Gunsmoke TV show and western movies; we had the theater and exhibits to ourselves:
Exhibits:
Each section has a “hologram” guide that can narrate stories:
The last area is the Frontier Experience Theater, with swivelable stools and screens all around, where they tell more about the times:
Our second boating excursion in the USVI was on a power boat, circumnavigating the island of Saint John, including a couple of snorkeling stops, and lunch at Lime Out, a floating taco bar.
This was a fantastic way to see St John, including snorkeling in the national park (sea turtles & stingrays!) and a unique lunch experience at Lime Out (shrimp tacos!). Our crew of Captain Brandon & Mate Lacey took great care of us and made it a highlight of our trip to the USVI. They were so accommodating and even had ways for non-snorkelers to enjoy the warm water, such as a floating mat attached to the boat, allowing everyone to get in on the fun.
This was one of the most unique and memorable dining experiences I’ve ever had. We took a day cruise around St. John specifically because it had a stop here for lunch. It’s expensive, but how many times are you going to be able to eat a taco on a floating pad while fish swim around your feet, eating any scraps you might drop? The drinks are strong and the tacos are pretty good, but it’s all about the experience.
Our boat:
Swag for purchase:
We sat on a floating circular seating, with a floating table ferried between the restaurant and seating to deliver the menus, drinks, food, and swag:
The menu:
Nobody was allowed on board; our server called out across the water:
Selfie:
Tacos:
There were lots of fish swimming below us, waiting for dropped crumbs:
A glimpse of the bar along the edge of the floating restaurant, and more floating seating:
Lacey in a fish taco costume:
On the way to the next spot:
An interesting house; something simple and isolated like that would suit us nicely:
The second snorkeling spot:
I wasn’t into snorkeling, so Lacey kindly put out a tethered float for me:
An underwater video I recorded of the fish under me:
Jenn:
She took my phone and captured some great shots, including this stingray:
Fish:
A turtle:
Continuing on, past the Annaberg sugar plantation (where we visited the previous day):
As previously mentioned, the US Virgin Islands consists of three main islands, and a bunch of minor ones. We were staying on Saint Thomas, but another highlight of this trip was to cross off another national park, in our goal to visit all of them. The nearby island of Saint John mostly consists of the Virgin Islands National Park.
It is possible to take a passenger ferry over to the island, and walk to the park visitor center, and explore the town of Cruz Bay (where the ferry docks), but we wanted to explore more of the park, which is best done by car. So we headed to the car ferry dock.
Here’s a car ferry loading; the cars all back on, to make it easier to drive off at the other side:
During our US Virgin Islands vacation we did two boating excursions. The first of which was on Jenn’s birthday: St John & Surrounding Cays Full-Day Sail and Snorkel Experience — a six-hour trip on a sailboat, with only six guests (including us), an open bar, lunch, and two snorkel sessions included.
We had a great time sailing with Captain Denby and Mate Rusty. The wind was a bit blustery the day we set out, but they knew all the best places to go to beat the weather and still enjoy our snorkeling. Lunch was delicious and we really loved being with a laidback smaller group.
Here’s the sailboat in the marina:
Leaving the slip:
Sails unfurled; so peacefully quiet when sailing without the engine:
Preparing to anchor in a bay for some snorkeling:
Jenn snorkeling:
The Big Red Barge car ferry (we were on that another day) and some fancy houses:
This park was established fairly recently, in 2015, and is quite small. It consists of just a visitor center and a shelter over a dig site with several mammoth fossils.
The Shuttle on a jumbo; the Shuttle is a replica, but the plane is one of two used to transport the Shuttles:
Exhibits in the plane:
We had wanted to do one of the guided tram tours of the space center, but their reservation system was being dodgy, so we weren’t able to do so, which was a little disappointing:
Inside the replica shuttle:
Gift store:
Selfie:
A few more pics of downtown Houston on the way home:
The Thousand Trails campground was near a small town called Columbus in Texas. We drove though it to get some Whataburger drive-though, our first experience of that fast food chain.
Colorado River bridge:
Downtown Columbus:
Whataburger:
Not bad; we tried the Dr Pepper shake, which was interesting. The fries and burger were decent, but we’ve had better:
On another day, we went back to Whataburger for a second time, going inside this time:
After dinner we went across the road to the H-E-B grocery store, right next to the Walmart:
A fairly small store, and not as nice as others we’ve been in:
“If you hit this you’ll hit bridge”; a 14’ 6” bridge, which we went under on our way to the Thousand Trails (our coach is 12’ 7”):
We were still recovering from our colds while at Lockhart, so not feeling too adventurous, but since we were 45 minutes south of Austin, we felt we should at least do a quick driving tour there.
All the roads into Austin seem to be toll roads:
We stopped at a MOD Pizza for lunch; a favorite chain of ours for years:
Then we drove by downtown Austin:
We looped around the capitol building:
No doubt Austin has lots of interesting things to see and do, but we weren’t up for it on that occasion. So of course we weren’t overly impressed by the city. It did remind us of Portland, which shares the “keeping it weird” theme, but we weren’t overly impressed by there either. We’re just not big city folks anymore; we prefer small towns.
