Canton to Weslaco

We spent a week down south with Nellie and Danny and their family to help celebrate their wedding. It was a very nice event with a good group of people. Dinners, setting things up, the ceremony and reception, some tourist stuff as well - we had a good time. See what all we got into on this trip!

We headed back up north and spent the afternoon in Fredricksburg walking the main street and checking out the stores. We had dinner at an outdoor eatery which was pretty good. Next morning we went to the National Pacific War Museum and checked it out. I found the museum to be really well done, with a lot of information that was displayed really well. Some of the staff were extremely knowledgeable and shared some interesting facts about some of the items on display. Admiral Nimitz is a central figure in all this (as expected) and he was from Fredricksburg. I found the museum very fascinating - thank you Melody for indulging me in this one! Afterwards, we headed for home to pick up the dogs!

Maddie has been down in South Padre for Sprint Break participating in a evangelical outreach effort from her school, Texas A&M Commerce. Their mission was to provide sober rides for tourists who are way too inebriated to drive. While providing this service, they also were spreading the gospel through breakfast events, and other outreach methods. We drove over and met up with her for a spell going to Dairy Queen for a ice cream. Maddie seemed to be having a good time and was really busy with this effort taking multiple shifts from her description. Its a worthy cause/effort and I'm glad she got to participate in it.

Next day Melody and I took a drive down to Boca Chica so I could see Starbase and the Startship rocket. They were preparing for a test flight (#3) so the rocket was on the launch pad - ready to go. They had liquid oxygen trucks coming in and filling the tanks at the launch site. I was amazed at how close you could actually get to it all - not sure that's going to last for very long. Parked in the parking area was a cyber truck so I got a close up look at one. Very different looking, not sure if I like it or not. I also met up with another enthusiast who actually went out on the beach and took pictures in the early morning - he was nice enough to share some of his images with me! This rocket is quite an achievement and has come a long way in a short period of time. Will be interesting to see the progress over the coming years.

Monday we traveled to South Padre Island with Danny's family to do some tourist things. We went to the wildlife sanctuary on the island to check it out. It was a pretty neat place with some alligators, and tortoises. You can walk around the marshlands and see some of the birds and other local animals like fish and ducks and birds.

We went to Blackbeard's for lunch which was really good. Got a chance to get to know some of Danny's family. We then went and got some ice cream down the main drag of South Padre and finished up the trip with a stop at the beach. Danny's grand kids wanted to play in the water which was fun for them. It was a good day - fun times!

On Sunday we went with Nellie and Danny's family over the border to Nuevo Progresso, a small border town in Mexico. We ventured through the shops on the main drag for a while, and then landed at Pancho's for lunch. They had live music and the food was pretty good. As I recall, the service was not the greatest for some reason, but we all got through it. Its always fun to hang around with this group, fun people to spend time with.

Let the festivities begin! All the guests headed to the Victoria Palms for the reception to begin. The place looked really good, the cake and decorations from the wedding coordinator came out really good. The food was very tasty, and there was plenty of dancing and activities going on. They had a selfie wall set for pictures and I think most of the attendees took advantage of it. I think everyone had a good time and Danny and Nellie seemed very happy - Congratulations to you both and here's to a long time together!

We headed over to the First Baptist Church of Weslaco for Danny and Nellie's wedding. Melody was a bride's maid so I had to go find a seat by myself. Nathan walked Nellie in and gave her away, it was a nice very simple ceremony. Everyone looked really good in their finest attire, even Melody and Anna coordinated :-) Afterwards, they took family pictures and such and then we headed back to the Victoria Palms for the reception.

Nellie and Danny rented a hall at the Victoria Palms Resort for their reception. We also stayed at the resort which was very convenient. In the morning we joined some of their family to help setup table decorations and center pieces in the hall to prepare things for after the ceremony. Nellie hired a wedding coordinating vendor who also helped set things up for the event. There was a lot of activity going on this morning to get things ready. We then headed over to the church as well to set things up for the ceremony there. Decorations were put on the pews and a such. The church had some magnificent stained glass windows - I really liked them. Once this was done, I dropped Danny off at home and headed back to the resort to get dressed for the ceremony. Melody and Nellie were already at the beauty parlor getting all fixed up for the event, so we met back up there and then headed for the church shortly after.

We drove down to Weslaco over night and met up with Nellie and Danny in the late afternoon. We all headed over to a local restaurant called Nana's which had outdoor seating. It was a pretty large gathering with family members from both sides gathering to help celebrate Nellie and Danny getting married. There was a live mariachi band as well that performed which was really neat. Overall, it was a good kick off to the festivities for the next few days.