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  #461  
Old Posted Jun 26, 2015, 5:17 AM
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johngenerali/DSC01447_zpskhub2915.jpg[/IMG][/URL]http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b549/johngenerali/DSC01452_zpsvqmjrttq.jpg[/IMG][/URL]URL=http://s1291.photobucket.com/user/johngenerali/media/DSC01452_zpsvqmjrttq.jpg.html][/URL]




[IMG]http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b549/
johngenerali/DSC01454_zpsuw8ogz2n.jpg[/IMG]






All photos taken by me 6/25/15 while on vac. in Port A visiting Corpus.
Way off topic since not related to Austin, but these are still one of my favorite tower pairs. I've been going to Port A every year since the 80s, and the downtown skyline has not changed. It has been almost completely stagnent for 30 years. But even though I think they could use a couple of new modern towers as what's there is pretty dated, there are a few block of towers giving a decent canyon effect. For what and where it is, I love this town.

Last edited by the Genral; Jun 26, 2015 at 6:16 AM.
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  #462  
Old Posted Jun 26, 2015, 6:11 AM
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Ah, Corpus Christi and Port Aransas. Two of my favorite places. Yeah, I grew up going down there with my family. My dad's family had been going there since the 60s. My grandfather was an artist, and he painted a scene of one of the bait shops near where the ferries are. I love that place. Can you believe Corpus Christi had a taller building than Austin did from 1988 to 2004? Until the Frost Bank Tower was built in Austin, the taller of those twin towers (Shoreline Plaza) was taller than anything in Austin.
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  #463  
Old Posted Jun 26, 2015, 6:22 AM
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Funny. My family has been going down to Port A since the 60s as well. If nothing unfortunate happens, my parents may actually buy a condo down the beach from Port A in a couple years when their current house is paid for. I'm really hoping this happens. haha
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  #464  
Old Posted Jun 26, 2015, 6:30 AM
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Ah, Corpus Christi and Port Aransas. Two of my favorite places. Yeah, I grew up going down there with my family. My dad's family had been going there since the 60s. My grandfather was an artist, and he painted a scene of one of the bait shops near where the ferries are. I love that place. Can you believe Corpus Christi had a taller building than Austin did from 1988 to 2004? Until the Frost Bank Tower was built in Austin, the taller of those twin towers (Shoreline Plaza) was taller than anything in Austin.
I'm sitting on a 5th balcony of the Sandcastle Condos in Port A. I don't know when you were here last Kevin, but this place has grown, new construction everywhere and tons of people driving around town in those large propane or gas powered carts. Its so laid back here, I could live here. And Shoreline Plaza just looks big, especially from the bay. I didn't realize it had Austin beat in height for
so long. What amazes me is how dt Corpus has stayed the same while Port A. changes every year.

picture by me from my balcony

Last edited by the Genral; Jun 26, 2015 at 6:40 AM.
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  #465  
Old Posted Jun 26, 2015, 6:32 AM
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Funny. My family has been going down to Port A since the 60s as well. If nothing unfortunate happens, my parents may actually buy a condo down the beach from Port A in a couple years when their current house is paid for. I'm really hoping this happens. haha
I may be following a few years after that!
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  #466  
Old Posted Jun 26, 2015, 6:51 AM
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I went on a fishing/beach trip with my brother and sister and their families in April to Sargent, Texas. That's about 60 miles down the coast from Galveston. While it was nice, it felt completely different from Port Aransas. We rented a house on a tidal creek. The fishing was crap because of the weather. it rained most of the weekend, but it was nice. Still, I missed the sights and sounds of Port Aransa where you could actually see palm trees and hear seagulls. I swear, I love that place. I can remember about 20 years ago we took a trip down to Port Aransas. We stayed in our RV in the RV/tent park just up from the beach. We hadn't been there very long when a guy came along to say that his dog was missing. Of course there are coyotes on the island, so anything small would be eaten. I had brought my bicycle along, and so I set off to ride around a bit to look. Well, I screwed up and wiped out. I went down as I turned too sharply. I scraped all the skin off my right thumb and all the skin off between my knuckles on my left hand nearly to the bones. So I had to go see the pretty nurse in the ranger's station. lol My folks wanted to know after that if I wanted to stay or go home. And I was like, are you guys crazy? First of all, I don't want to ruin your trip, but if I have be laid up in pain not being able to do anything, then this is the best place I can think to do it. I couldn't fish because I had bandages on both hands, so I soaked my hands in the sink in the RV and my mom cleaned put fresh bandages on. Then when they'd fish on the channel I'd crawl up on the roof of the RV and lay there and watch the ships come by. It was a bummer and the scrapes sure did hurt, but I didn't want to be anywhere else. That was 20 years ago and I still have the scars between my knuckles.
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  #467  
Old Posted Jun 26, 2015, 7:19 AM
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Yikes...Scar suveneres, yeah I like to hang out by the jetty and watch the ships and the people fishing. I prefer the pier because I always seem to snag the rocks from the jetty. I actually haven't seen too many people riding bikes, but those carts are all over the place. I also haven't seen a single cop which is good because drinking and driving on the beach goes without saying. Fortunately, beach access road 1a is right next to where I'm staying so I don't have to get on 361 or any of the streets to get back to the condo. Btw, in case anyone is coming down...the beaches are in the best condition I have ever seen here from Port A to N. Padre Island. No seaweed, no sand drifts, and smooth packed sand drive paths from dune to the water. Breakers are a bit small, about 3 footers, but the wind is kicking up so all that could change. Ferry times are ridiculous so if you take the scenic route, take 77 to 37 and avoid it, the wait times are up to an hour, even around 3pm.
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  #468  
Old Posted Jun 26, 2015, 7:35 AM
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Yeah, the beaches were beautiful down in Matagorda when we went. I didn't see any trash at all or seaweed. There were a few Portuguese Man of War, but they were small.
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  #469  
Old Posted Jul 10, 2015, 11:08 PM
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Waco gets a national park (monument)! I never heard of this place, but this is great news for Waco.

http://www.myfoxaustin.com/story/295...s-calif-nevada
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  #470  
Old Posted Jul 10, 2015, 11:13 PM
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This is a shot of Corpus' "other skyline" not shown in Genral's photos. I love these industrial shots.


http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/may2...05-26-093.html
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  #471  
Old Posted Jul 11, 2015, 3:10 AM
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https://youtu.be/xU7kplHtC98
Found this while trying to research highrise contruction costs. Its a video of the construction of a 30 story building in 15 days, in China. Its obviously time lapsed so it will only take a couple minutes to watch.
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  #472  
Old Posted Jul 12, 2015, 7:40 AM
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Having lived in China a number of years, I've seen how they do construction on a lot of buildings. I'm terrified to go in some high-rise buildings here...the exceptions, of course, are a lot of the landmark towers that go up in larger cities like Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, etc., that have a lot of foreign backing, thus a lot more oversight. A while back they talked about a new world's tallest to go up in Changsha that could be built in like 10 months or something...scary to think about the quality of that work. Don't know if anything ever happened with that one.
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  #473  
Old Posted Jul 13, 2015, 6:35 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The ATX View Post
This is a shot of Corpus' "other skyline" not shown in Genral's photos. I love these industrial shots.


http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/may2...05-26-093.html
I don't, it's ugly and puts a lot of pollution in the air and it smells nasty. I'm so thankful that Austin has nothing like that nor would I ever want to see anything like that here.

We also enjoy visiting Port A. We usually go at the end of Summer when it's not as crowded.

I think Corpus has a fairly impressive skyline for a city it's size. Another city with an impressive skyline is Shreveport, Louisiana which only has about 195K although it's metro is closer to 400K. They also have a large oil refinery. It looks creepy at night with all those orange lights on and flames shooting from some of the smoke stacks. It also makes the air smell rancid especially at night. Was visiting my sister and nieces that live there back in May and I was out earlier in the evening with my nieces. Got to my sisters house a bit after midnight, opened the car door and discussing rotten egg smell was just hanging in the air. It was just horrible, it litterally made me want to throw up.

With the increasing fracking and expansion going on south, southeast and now east. I'm starting to notice more nights where the air here is starting to smell like that although not as intense. Our air quality is rapidly declining and people are feeling the effects of it, I know I am. The air quality will continue to deteriorate here in Austin as a result of what's happening in the Eagle Ford Shale and now Bastrop county has been opened up for fracking. Don't forget for most of the year our winds are from the south and southeast meaning all that pollution is being pushed right up the I-35 corridor.


Sorry went off on a tangent there but this is the off topic thread after all lol.
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Last edited by Jdawgboy; Jul 13, 2015 at 6:56 PM.
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  #474  
Old Posted Jul 13, 2015, 8:50 PM
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Originally Posted by Jdawgboy View Post
With the increasing fracking and expansion going on south, southeast and now east. I'm starting to notice more nights where the air here is starting to smell like that although not as intense. Our air quality is rapidly declining and people are feeling the effects of it, I know I am. The air quality will continue to deteriorate here in Austin as a result of what's happening in the Eagle Ford Shale and now Bastrop county has been opened up for fracking. Don't forget for most of the year our winds are from the south and southeast meaning all that pollution is being pushed right up the I-35 corridor.
What pollution?

You realize you can't smell methane, right?
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  #475  
Old Posted Jul 17, 2015, 6:13 AM
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  #476  
Old Posted Jul 17, 2015, 3:02 PM
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Talking

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  #477  
Old Posted Jul 17, 2015, 9:05 PM
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They found it dead in North Austin on the I-35 access today. It was fun while it lasted, though, except for the guy who got bit of course.

http://www.klbjfm.com/blogs/cjs-blog/rip-austin-cobra

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  #478  
Old Posted Aug 5, 2015, 5:22 AM
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I read this report in July regarding Google bringing a self-driving car to Austin. Tonight, I spotted two outside of University Park (not in action unfortunately)! I didn't find it too surprising they're resting here, as Google has employees in the building. I expect to see them again so I will try to catch them in motion. Sorry for the blur. Has anyone else spotted them?



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  #479  
Old Posted Aug 5, 2015, 9:36 AM
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What pollution?

You realize you can't smell methane, right?
If you can't smell that nasty oil refinery smell at night then you have a problem with your nose, there is more than methane being released into the air. Its ridiculous to say otherwise.
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  #480  
Old Posted Aug 5, 2015, 9:38 AM
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What pollution?

You realize you can't smell methane, right?
If you can't smell that nasty oil refinery smell at night then you have a problem with your nose, there is more than methane being released into the air. Its ridiculous to say otherwise. I can smell it right now outside.
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