Celebrate Valentine’s Day with a visit to one of nature’s wonders. Texas’ Aransas National Wildlife Refuge is the winter home for one of North America’s most magnificent endangered species, the whooping crane. These enormous cranes migrate every fall from Canada’s Alberta and Northwest Territories provinces, 2400 miles, to the shallow waters of the coastal salt marsh.

We will depart Houston on Friday morning for a motor-coach ride to Rockport where we have engaged Captain Tommy Moore and his boat The Skimmer to take us to the winter grounds of the whooping cranes. Dr. Felipe Chavez-Ramirez, the director for Conservation Programs of the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory, who holds a PhD from Texas A&M University, will be our expert guide.

Friday evening we will enjoy sunset cocktails at a waterfront house on Mustang Island and then dine in Port Aransas. On Saturday, early risers can walk to the beach  before breakfast. While the whooping cranes are the centerpiece of our visit to the coast, we will see shore birds, egrets, herons, and gulls as we spend the morning exploring the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail. We will wrap up our journey with a special lunch and a bus ride back to Houston.