Checking out Lady Lex on the Beach

After surfing in Texas (yes Texas!) I went on a tour of the USS Lexington in Corpus Christie. It’s a world war II aircraft carrier that is, for some odd reason, parked right on the beach. How relaxing. And, if you’re a lucky lady you can even get married on the ship. You and your sweetie could take a stroll and check out the POW exhibit. How romantic. I’m not sure why anyone would want to get married aboard a vessel that is named the Blue Ghost?

It is about the size of a cruise ship and walking through part of it reminded me of that but these boys didn’t have the beauties aboard like I did. I’m sure their food was better though. Walking along the exterior flight deck it was hard to imagine these tiny planes being shot like rubber bands off of the deck. Landing a plane on here would be a lot rougher than the padded 747’s I’m used to.

I am always amazed by how Americans celebrate their wars and get such a kick out of them. It bothers me the way they make the place seem like Disneyland or some cheesy Hollywood action movie. I had reservations about paying the twelve bucks to get in because I don’t want to support this sort of thing but exploring the place for me was kind of like peering at a car crash through your fingers; You don’t want to look but you just have to.

All of the time, education, talent, money, recourses and training that have gone into this massive death machine seems like such a waste. So what if the Japanese won the war? I’m sure the food would be a lot better in the United States right now. I don’t know, maybe it is necessary. Hitler was pretty badass.

Hmmm ... I think I'll head to Blackbeard's on the beach and contemplate this over a frozen lime margarita without salt and some Pirate's stew.

Shiner the Special Cosmos

There’s one place in Texas that I have always wanted to go and I finally got the chance. Shiner. Shiner? What the hell’s in Shiner? Shiner is somewhere between Houston and San Antonio and, in my opinion, has the best micro-brewery in the United States. Shiner Bock is by far my favourite American beer, actually it’s the only American beer that I truly enjoy. It was founded by German and Czech immigrants so it tastes similar to the beers that I love from Germany and Scotland. The brewmaster’s name was Kosmos Spoetzl. Like pretzel. His name sounds like an evil genius character from an Austin Powers movie or the daily dinner special at a Bavarian restaurant. It was Saturday and the brewery was closed for tours but I still got four ice-cold free samples. Yummy.