Family & Galveston, TX

Mon., Jan. 13th – Sunday, Jan. 19th, 2020

Today my brother Bob and his delightful lady friend Deb arrived from the Dallas area along with our cousin Dale and his lovely wife Delilah from Corpus Christi. Such fun to have everyone together! Andy & Linda are still here parked next to us until the end of the month. We all gathered for dinner in downtown Galveston at Willie G’s along with Carey and Denis. Carey hadn’t laid eyes on Bob in about 30 or 40 years so that was fun to witness. Our families lived near each other when we were all kids. A very fun visit at a cool location! Monday night was also the national college football championship. Sooooo some of the crew re-settled at a local pub to watch the game, and some of us (D&D and Gary & I, the non-college football fans) headed back to our respective home bases and called it a night.

Tuesday the family all visited Moody Gardens. It’s got everything… a first class aquarium, a simulated rainforest environment with tropical birds, and a 3D IMAX theatre where we saw a film on the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia. All of which we enjoyed. It also has a golf course, zip line and rope course which we passed on. Unbeknownst to us until we arrived, Tuesday is “senior day” with a significantly reduced entry fee. I tried to sweet talk our way in as Gary & I are “close” to 65, but it wasn’t working on the attendant. And apparently Moody Gardens doesn’t think seniors need to eat. We were planning on grabbing lunch there since an online search had showed several options available. But alas they were all closed, probably because it’s off season and mid-week. Soooo we had the next best thing, snacks for lunch i.e. junk food. You’d think the powers-that-be would understand that seniors, of all people, need to eat regularly! In the late afternoon we were all back here enjoying cocktails, dinner at our place, and a campfire. We brought from NH marinated steak tips and chicken from Tuckaway, a great butchery near us.

Wednesday was foggy. We’ve had several foggy days! The first activity was for the six of us (sans Dale & Delilah since they were staying at the other end of the island) to do a beach walk and get toes in the sand. It was foggy, but warm, and still enjoyable. After that we all met down by the waterfront at Pier 21. We saw the Elissa, an 1877 three-masted tall ship that’s one of the oldest ships sailing today. We hope to tour it one of these days but we didn’t do that on this day. Instead we watched as a bevy of volunteers climbed to the very top to change out a sail. Wow. And, they weren’t spring chickens. As Andy said, “it would have to be a volunteer because you couldn’t pay somebody enough to do that.” 🙂  

Also docked at the pier, and the irony wasn’t lost on us, was a $40,000,000 yacht owned by Tilman Fertitta, owner of both the Houston Rockets and Landry’s, one of the largest restaurant corporations in the U.S. Several of his restaurants are in Galveston. The yacht bearing the name “Boardwalk” was quite beautiful but no sign of the owner… just lots of worker bees cleaning. 

Viewing all that wealth worked up an appetite, we ate lunch outside overlooking the water at Willie G’s, which just happened to be owned by Tilman Fertitta. Afterwards, we watched a film on The Great Storm of 1900 (where 6,000 Galvestonians lost their lives). After that horrible episode in Galveston history, the Seawall was built to avoid future devastating hurricanes. The first section of about 3 miles was completed in 1904. The Seawall now runs 10 miles. 

Afterwards some of us walked around The Strand and enjoyed the architecture once again, stopping in at La King’s Confectionary for ice cream and watching taffy being made on machines that are over 100 years old. 

At the conclusion of that day, we were all once again back at the campground for dinner which was Andy’s yummy Chili and chatting around the campfire until the dampness brought us inside. The dense fog persisted all day to the point that it caused some disruption to the cruise ship arrivals and departures. Worse still, due to the fog. there had been a collision between a container ship and a fishing vessel with casualties. The fog persisted another day or so before it finally abated. 

Thursday we all met up at The Bryan Museum, housing one of the world’s largest collections of historical artifacts, documents, and artwork relating to Texas and the American West. All of these treasures were collected over the lifetime of by J.P. Bryan, a descendant of Moses Austin. The building itself is architecturally unique being built in 1895 to be an orphanage. It still has the original two staircases leading from the first to second floors… one for the “adults” in the front of the building and one smaller and narrower used at the back for the orphans with its well worn stair treads. We saw lots of saddles, spurs, guns, and three paintings by Andy Warhol along with unique work from other notable artists. Plus Gary & I got an elementary education in Texas history. The kind of stuff that kids learn in 3rd and 4th grade around here. Similar to me learning about NY state history when I was that age. 

After several hours at the museum it was time for lunch. We parked downtown and headed to Taquilo’s Tex-Mex Cantina with the “best margaritas in Galveston.” Although we’ve since learned that just about every restaurant in Galveston boasts of having the best margaritas so I’m not sure how much stock we can put into that assertion! But, the server was wonderful, margaritas great, and food delicious so no complaints. 

From there we all headed across the street to tour “The Grand” 1894 Opera House. A beauty which had sustained major damage in the 1900 storm. The theatre has gone through various iterations but in the mid 70’s a plan was undertaken to restore The Grand to her former glory. It’s well underway and live productions are once again in full swing in a beautifully restored 1894 theatre. It was a treat to see the interior of the theatre. 

After that some of us walked around the Art Galleries in downtown Galveston and admired the work of the local artists. Others of us planned to take a drive down to the other end of the island and see where Carey & Denis called home, but the dense fog stopped them from doing that. Bob & Deb and Andy & Linda made it as far as our campground and stopped there. They played cards while Dale & Delilah and Gary & I were checking out the galleries so everyone was happy. Dinner that night was snacks in our tiny home since we’d all had such a big lunch.

Friday dawned and it was time to say goodbye. We all met for breakfast at Miller’s, which is rated as having the best breakfast on the Island and lived up to its reputation! Then Dale & Delilah headed off to visit friends in Galveston and Bob & Deb headed home. The rest of the day for Andy & Linda and Gary & I was a quiet one of doing some of our respective chores. 

Saturday was a rainy day and A&L and Gary & I spent the afternoon playing Mexican Train which Andy won. Gary and I watched the Two Popes on Netflix that night. We enjoyed it. 

Sunday was spent watching some football playoffs and meeting A&L’s friends, Mike & Peggy, who had stopped for the night in our campground before heading into Louisiana and then into Florida. We enjoyed their company immensely and hearing about their time living abroad among other interesting topics of conversation.