Island Market Marks 10 Years on SPI

Anniversaries are good, anniversaries denoting a long time are better, anniversaries marking a long time for a business especially in these troubled times are the best!

People came by whatever mode they could to help celebrate yet another successful business run on South Padre Island, TX.

How do you throw a successful celebration? 1. Pretty food servers.

2. Grilled meat is always a winner, especially when there are TWO COOKS who look like they know a thing or two about grilling.

3. Get some "cerbeza" flowing and you have a party!

Build it and they will come!

Not only were the food and drinks free but they were giving away cool prizes on top of that!

Your spin determined your prize, so you could not blame Hector, with G-Tech, if you did not get a cool cap or T-shirt.

There was lots of beer flowing. Soon people started waxing philosophical.

They say alcohol causes mood swings.

I noticed a barricade for the drinkers and wondered just how wild they expected this party to get.

My immediate thought when I saw this girl was, "Aww, no one has had the heart to tell that little cutie her puppy has died."

Then I looked closer...

Isn't that just THE cutest thing you saw today, ALL DAY? Tell the truth!

This was the man behind the bash, Hash, his lovely wife, Angie, and their son, Jameel.

Our northern guests must have thought this was REALLY paradise - sunny, almost HOT weather, great free food and flowing free beer? What else could you want?

'Cept maybe a pretty girl, too.

Kareoke was rockin to Johnny Cash; Jeff Crocker provided the music.














This event proved that we are blessed with tropical paradise down here. The temperatures were in the mid 70's and there were clear bright-blue skies with not a cloud in the sky. Meet Norma and Marvin, from South Padre Island, who are friends with Arden, Annella, Theo, and Roger from Minnesoooota. They are staying at Padre Oasis yet, when you hear that, you look around you think, "Isn't the whole island an oasis?"

With this, I, Island Princess, must sign off for the evening. I must go back to my castle and work on the next exciting event I covered here in paradise. It has to do with Hot Diggity Days.

Perfect Weather in Paradise

This is a mini-blog because there is a problem uploading the rest of the pictures but I have to post this. Today my friend said she was treating me to lunch. She chose this place:

Apparently, we weren't the only ones with that great idea.

When you sit in this dining area,

this is the view you get:

You could also sit under an umbrella towards the pool.

When these people saw me taking pictures, they said, "Hey, Island Princess! Put us on Pure Padre!" so I am.

You don't suppose these young men should've been in school, do you?

So we went to this restaurant instead with this view...

You need to consider coming down to South Texas for your next vacation and spend a fraction of what a Hawaiian vacation would cost. The weather is perfect, food is great and you may even end up on Pure Padre!

South Padre Island Kite Festival '09

The "smart" people are not feeling any of the winter cold that the rest of the north is suffering from. They are on South Padre Island enjoying the sun, sand and beauty this place has to offer.

The kites were a feast for the eye.

There were gorgeous geometrical patterns.

Of course anything shark is cool.

The usually balmy tropical weather down here made it perfect and it was perfectly windy, too.

Anybody can fly a kite, well, not Charlie Brown, but most everybody can.

Who do you think of when you see this?

???

John Haga, from Grand Rapids, Michigan, had one of the nicest kites out there.

His buddy was helping his kite reach "the highest height."




















I get high with a little help from my friends.

I get by with a little help from my friends.

but the real party had gathered to watch the impressive shows















like this team of professional kite flyers who were doing fancy moves and stunts with their kites. Their kites flew in formation, followed each other into loops and danced around in the bright blue sky.

They performed their act to beautiful music that was piped out to the huge crowd of onlookers.

Kite enthusiasts were willing to share their knowledge with whomever asked.

This spinning kite was about 40 feet in diameter and could be seen from very far away.

This huge bouncing spinning wheel of color drew me like a moth is drawn to light.

People even brought their houses to the show and watched in the comfort of their own home.