DAY 116 : October 31/22 Monday. Corpus Christi, Texas -- HALLOWEEN!

 

Beautiful morning on Mustang Island. View from our bedroom deck at the first Airbnb was lovely. Tonight's move will have an even nicer view of the beach once we hear word we can move over to it. Feeling a bit in limbo yesterday and today with knowing we'd have to move into the next townhouse later today and it being the all anticipated Halloween today! 

To pass some of the morning, we carved pumpkins with the kids... the same pumpkins we'd been carting around with us since Virginia. The kids had bought themselves a carving kit at walmart with their alloted funds and were excited to get to work. We had plans to roast the seeds since we had access to a real oven (but that little exercise never did manifest).  Kiddos carved away at the first AirBnB, using our trusty old table cloth that has seen better days. 

It wasn't too long before we got word that we could move to the officially booked AirBnB in the same Lost Colony complex. It was just up the hill closer to the beach, with a stunning beach view from the big deck. Tastefully decorated, it felt great to get into a space we could settle into for a few days. Thank you Uncle Mikey! I loved the quilts they had for the bedding and took note for such similar bedding for home once summertime hits again. 

Gorgeous views of the beach where we could watch the daddy and Uncle Mike launch and land their kites when the wind cooperated. And the fridge was officially filled with all the delicious beverages!

Later in the afternoon, once we settled into the new digs, we prepared our costumes! Oliver was pretty much set for his, and Amelia helped Jonathan create the final details and accessories for his Rattle Bunny costume - based on her drawing in her Junior Ranger book about the creature she created! Super fun. Meems did her own face paint again - executed brilliantly! I fashioned a very quick witch hat out of purple cardboard and taped it to one of Amelia's hairbands to go with the black/gold stars dress. 

We had originally planned to drive our rig somewhere and park it and maybe hand out candy and also trick or treat. We would spook up the rig for this and had been buying things accordingly and setting up spooky stuff at each campsite we stayed at. When it came down to the actual moment of "Halloween" night, however, it was all a bit uncertain as to what was best. The day had been good, but also a little uneasy with not having a direct plan that we knew would work. We were putting our trust in driving 45minutes to a neighbourhood (Wood River) recommended by the tourism centre gal. In a last minute decision, we quickly decorated our front stairs at the AirBnB for a spooky photo op and brought our white light up ghoul lady with us in the RV. -- deciding that handing out candy (we didn't have much anyhow since doling it out at the KOA) would mean splitting up for trick or treating. 

The kids did a fantastic job spook-ifying the steps and seemed okay with the decision. Then we said bye to Uncle Mikey for the evening and off we went in our little house-on-wheels to find Wood River and see if Marisol had given us legit advice!

By 5:40pm we were out the door and at 6:30pm we were pulling up to the community of Wood River before the sun went down. We saw so many people walking the sidewalks in costumes! It was a good sign!  a little overwhelming at first, but great.... we parked over by the elementary school and hung up our light up ghoul in the passenger window as an omen of good "halloween" faith, and ventured off in hopes of candy, kind people, and a good time. 

The first few house had friendly people sat on their driveways in front of their open garages, with tables of candy and what looked like other food and drinks for their personal parties. It was interesting to see inside the garages... many of which were filled with sports paraphernalia and trophies and big screen tvs. Kinda fun. Once the kids got warmed up and we felt slightly less overwhelmed and like intruders into this lovely neighbourhood, we walked deeper into the streets and the amount of people increased. It seemed that there was no door-knocking here, it was all people on their driveways or sat out in front of their doors (the mild temperatures helped that!) and had bowls of candy to hand out. Everyone was super sweet. 

As the sun set, the neighbourhood hallween decorations and lights really came alive. Quite a few people were driving around the streets in their Gators (side-by-side ATV's)... with little kiddos in the back, or just adults with drinks in hand as their older kiddos walked the sidewalks. Kinda funny! Not something you'd see in Vancouver, but here in Texas, folks love their gators and golf carts!

There were some AMAZING haunted houses set up further into the neighbourhood. One large pillared house that stood out (most homes were bungalows in the first area). It was so scary and had lots of cool effects and a life size Michael Myers stood out front (Ollie loved that), and around the side was a huge zombie cage with moving parts. Super spooky!!!

One area had a free to walk through haunted zone, with a maze set up with black fabric. They did SUCH a great job... probably had about a dozen people working in it dressed in amazing creepy costumes like fake antique dolls or creatures from the deep. Each "room" of the maze had a different theme as was super well done. Very simple and effective. A big hit for sure. 

At one point it started raining with some big raindrops, but it passed over within a few minutes. 

Another fun thing was as we were walking back towards the rig... we could hear the theme music from the movie, "Halloween" playing and then a car slowly drove up beside us and when we looked inside the driver was dressed as Michael Myers! He turned his head super slowly to look at us through his white mask as he rolled by, then slowly drove away. Super creepy and very fun!!

  

The kids trick or treated for about 2 hours in the lovely community of Wood River (thank you Marisol!) and then we got back in our little home and drove to find a mexican restaurant for some food. I google searched along the route and found one that appeared to be very close to the hwy... turned out to be in a gas station and was a huge no-go. 

Then we found Taqueria La Cabaña! An authentic Mexican restaurant with a very welcoming staff - looked family run - and only a handful of local families inside eating and hanging out. When we sat down in the booth, a sweet little boy in costume came over and gave two goody bags of candies "for the kids". We ordered quesadillas for the kids, veggie enchiladas for me and a burrito for Jonathan. Our bill came to $20! Delicious food in our bellies, we paid the bill with a big tip, and headed back the 45+ minute drive or so to the AirBnB.

Back at the house, the kids did the dutiful counting of candies! Very happy with the stash, Amelia had 199 pieces and Oliver had 163 (plus all the ones he ate en route). Some of it got sorted and the rest would be organized neatly in the morning. 

What started out as an uncertain Halloween day away from the comforts and familiarity of home and neighbourhood, ended with a very fun evening well celebrated. Tired kids and parents hit the hay.