Sunday, March 8, 2009

Corpus Christi is Windy

Yesterday was the last day of the 2009 Benthic Ecology Meeting in Corpus Christi, Texas. It was the first time I had been in Texas since I graduated from College in Houston. The meeting was fantastic - I made some good connections that will help with my seagrass research projects in Florida.

The only thing was that the hotel was right on Corpus Christi Bay, and the wind was AMAZING all week, rattling the windows day and night with steady 25 knot southeasterlies. I didn't have the time or transportation to get to a windsurf rental spot like Worldwinds. But I did do a lot of jibing and chop-hopping in my imagination while looking out the windows during coffee breaks.

Even though the landscape of the South Texas Coast area is rather flat, desolate and ugly, the combo of wind and the University of Texas and Texas A&M marine laboratories being there put it on the short list of places I might like to live in the future. The picture below, swiped from the UT Marine Lab webpage, pretty well encapsulates the appeal of marine science for me.

Photobucket

9 comments:

Sergey Menshikov said...

Girls and dolphins? :)

Johnny Douglass said...

It's not all pretty dolphins in Texas. There are Bushies with cowboy hats who want no restrictions on coastal development.

James Douglass said...

Sergey- Something like that. :)

Dad- I reckon the same skeazy Bushie developers are everywhere now. They just hide their cowboy hats and adopt the local dress to disguise themselves. In Florida they wear golfer's hats and drain wetlands. In Washington State they wear gore-tex and sneak onto county commissions.

Frank said...

Johnny boy you were just down the road from Victoria were I live. Not everyone who supported Bushies want the coast over built and Texas is not as bad as say Democrat forever Massachusetts Martha vineyard. I'll bet there are some Democrats that would like to make some money so they can pay taxes to help the poor. Port Oconner was a fishing village in my youth but know I cannot afford a hamburger there. Yankee go home.

James Douglass said...

Frank- Don't take it personal what my dad wrote. He's just jokingly deriding Texas because he knows I didn't like Bush and he doesn't want me to live that far from the rest of the family.

Anyway, I didn't know you were from Victoria, TX. Do you usually sail the lakes or drive down to the bays? Lotsa wind in that area, for sure, and the landscape does have its beauty. There are certainly more open spaces, wetlands, and long, wild beaches than anywhere in the NE, and its cool to hear that its not just lefties who want to keep them from being overdeveloped.

Frank said...

James-Magnolia-Indianola beach area most of the time. A friend has a garage there I keep my trailer with gear on. Only lakes is Texanna but not much lately as the Houston croud have DISCOVERED it. Yes,windy, my personal best 34.9 mph was two weeks ago. Port Oconnor has waves an lots of bird watching. In a past life I skipper a boat for a lady that photographed birds from Rockport to bird island. I have sailed from port Isabell to bird island basin once on the inter coastal waterway but know I'm more like your dad (old).

John said...

what kind of dolphin is that, he/she looks cool

James Douglass said...

Frank- I really want to sail that area sometime.

John- I think it's a "common dolphin"; Delphinus delphis. They have a pretty cool color pattern, huh?

Catapulting Aaron said...

Check out the blow-hole on that mammal!