Winter Texan Times

Mission Food Park open for business

mfp 02 The all-new Mission Food Park hosted its grand opening this past weekend and is looking forward to serving the community. Mission Food Park, powered by the Mission EDC, is located at the CEED building on Bryan Road and U.S. Business 83. The site is the permanent location of Jitterz coffee bar and local brewery 5x5 Brewing Co., which will be operating during the food park hours. The food park will host a variety of food trucks including Queenie, Motoramen, Sahadi’s, and Pineapple Ninjaz.

RGV Transportation Museum reopens for the season

caf pt 22 The Rio Grande Valley Transportation Museum recently reopened with a big event that featured a live presentation by the pilots, including flyovers in that museum’s vintage Ryan PT-22 aircraft. The Ryan PT-22 is just one of the several World War II era planes that museum has to view – and they are all in working condition. The museum is located within the historically significant Port Isabel Cameron County Airport, on Veterans Drive, two miles north of FM 510, and off of Buena Vista Blvd.

The museum houses World War II exhibits and artifacts that have been donated by local families. Display cabinets have been arranged to display significant events leading to and experienced during the war. Among the exhibits is a display of Flying Tiger artifacts, an enlarged photo of the first bomb dropped on Pearl Harbor, a display of the Women of the Army Air Force who flew every aircraft in the US military arsenal, as well as a Home Front display.

STC Theatre goes virtual

stc theatre South Texas College Theatre has taken a leap into the virtual world this season.

While patrons cannot come together in the college’s beloved performance spaces at the moment, STC Theatre have figured out creative ways to produce some innovative and entertaining productions for folks to watch in the comfort of their own home, or wherever their desire to see theatre strikes them.

Mr. DeMille, parks are ready for their … to stay 6 feet apart

We are ready for you here in the Valley. Our parks are ready. And our Wintertainers™ are ready to entertain.

The general feeling is we will see a great season this year. I don’t want to say, ‘despite the circumstances,’ but, we have to be upfront here and say that we know what the situation is, and we know you have a decision to make.

Activity Directors, Wintertainers™, and Stakeholders have had two meetings that Teresa Stoffel, creator of Winter Texan Times Activities Group on Facebook, has organized. In both meetings, everyone has had a positive attitude that we will see smiling faces soon – or we will assume you are smiling behind your mask.

Valley Symphony’s Fall concert season begins

vso dsc 5591 The Valley Symphony Orchestra’s fall concert season begins this week with chamber work by “the greatest composer you’ve never heard.” The VSO will present three fall concerts online and broadcast on television beginning October 23 at 7 p.m. Though the Symphony is unable to hold in-person performances due to public health risks associated with Covid-19, Maestro Peter Dabrowski has planned a series of chamber concerts that will be specially produced and presented for all to enjoy, thanks to donor and sponsor support.

“We need music now more than ever,” said Maestro Dabrowski, music director and conductor of the Valley Symphony Orchestra for the last 20 years. “Listening to beautiful live music is a way for us to both mourn and celebrate, to remember what it means to be human. I cannot imagine a more necessary time for music than right now for the Valley.”

Beautiful weather for a trip to SPI

turtle trail spi img 3724 South Padre Island is beautiful this time of year – and the temperatures just keep getting nicer as we get closer to December. I had the chance to take a short trip to the island recently and I did not want to leave. The temperatures were in the 80s and there was a pretty good breeze the day I went. I, unfortunately, had to get back to the office, and home, to tend to other things and could not stay as long as I wanted to.

This short trip was to see a perfect outdoor activity for this type of weather – the Sea Turtle Trail. The Winter Texan Times had received a news release from SPI’s Convention and Visitor’s Bureau about a recent installment to the trail and decided it was something we needed to go out and see for ourselves. This is a trail that you can walk or cycle if you have the time. The locations are spread out on the island – furthest point south is Beach Park at Isla Blanca, and northern point is SPI Convention Center. They are nearly five miles apart from each other. I was able to visit all but two turtles while there and was quite impressed with the beauty of them.

So, what are these turtles I speak of?

Welcome back

By Carina A. Brunson

Hello and welcome back to south Texas! We are so happy to see your smiling … eyes. We are so excited about what this year will bring, even if it will be a bit different. The Rio Grande Valley is such a great place to be. Great weather, great people, and great friends. I am with y’all, I would much rather be in Texas than shoveling snow up north.