Flashback Friday: Tugboat Parade

I mentioned the hot muggy weather when we were in Corpus last month when I took this picture.

This is the tale of the absolute opposite weather in Corpus Christi.  Well, except that, it was as windy if not even windier.  It was the coldest day I ever remember in Corpus and Cody would agree.  I don’t think I have any pictures to mark the day- a day that would wind up a famous legend in our family.  One that has become a part of the very code we speak.

My parents, grandmother, and brother were in town for Christmas.  We’d gone to the aquarium and found out that we’re having a lighted tugboat parade.  I love watching tugboats and so this was the ticket.  I talked everyone- my husband, my family, and my mother-in-law- into going back for the Tugboat Parade.  I couldn’t wait to see the tugboats. 

We came back to the aquarium that evening to enjoy the parade.  We wandered around the aquarium as we waited for night fall. . . so the lighted tugboat parade could start.  We sat out on the lawn- right about where I took the picture above (only it’s not lawn anymore).  It was so cold and the wind blew that cold damp air off the water.  We huddled up.  We drank hot chocolate.  We took turns going inside trying to warm up.  We worried about my Grandmother but she handled it just fine.

I waited to see the tugboats.

The parade was late.  From what we gathered, the coast guard had been called out and was late for the parade.  We huddled up.  We drank hot chocolate.  We took turns going inside trying to warm up.  We worried about my Grandmother but she still seemed to be just fine.

I waited to see the tugboats.

After hours in the cold damp wind, the moment finally arrived.  The parade began- the parade which consisted of two lighted coast guard cutters and one, count them, one tugboat.

I felt horrible about convincing every one to wait for this little moment.  We couldn’t believe that we’d waited all this time for 1 tugboat in a Tugboat parade. 

The parade would go down in infamy.  Now, when we do something, we say, “I don’t know this might be a tugboat parade.”  We judge things as being worthwhile or not by comparing them to the tugboat parade.  If it wasn’t very fun or what we thought, it was a tugboat parade.  And we’re always thankful when things surpass the tugboat parade.

(Little did I know that night that while I worried about my grandmother, my husband was quite ill.  He knew I loved the tugboats and never let on that he was not feeling well.  The next morning he awoke with 104° temp.)

Related posts:

1. Flashback Friday: Balloon Races- July 2008
2. Flashback Friday: I Nearly Died
3. Flashback Friday: Our Bell Boy
4. Flashback Friday: One Weekend, Just Me and Jack
5. October Began With A Trip Down South