Tues., Mar. 1, 2022 thru Sat., Apr. 30, 2022
On Tuesday, March 1st, we left San Antonio and traveled 200 miles on I-10 East and 45 miles on I-45 South to arrive in Galveston at Stella Mare RV Resort. Our home for the next 2 months. We’re across the street from the Gulf, and we have a pond view out our back window. We regularly see 40 egrets coming in to roost for the night in the shrubs across the pond. Night herons also settle in there, and we often see various ducks, cormorants, and the occasional Roseate Spoonbill wading in the shallow waters. Pelicans sore overhead in formation. Ibis are plentiful, and a Great Blue Heron frequently walks past our back window looking for a snack in the tall grass by the pond. Noisy Grackles and Laughing Gulls are also plentiful. We could do with fewer of those! But we do love all the bird life! We also frequently walk down to the opposite side of the campground after dinner and feed the four horses that hang out by the fence looking for snacks. Apples and carrots are a favorite of theirs. Plus there is a very nice pool at the campground, which is supposed to be heated but is not, so it wasn’t until about mid-April that we were finally able to enjoy that sucker!
Galveston is known for being windy. The highest wind gust we experienced while here was 42.3 mph according to our weather station. However since there are no large trees around, it’s not as scary to me as when we were at Old Stage Campground in Madbury NH with 20 mph winds and surrounded by large trees.
Our pilgrimage to Galveston each year is to take care of our annual doctor visits. Since we are using Texas as our domicile and we are not yet 65 and we are on the Affordable Care Act, we must have our doctors in Texas. Galveston seemed like a good location to do that… the doctors and hospitals here are all part of UTMB (University of Texas Medical Branch) with proximity to Houston for anything major and you’re on the Gulf Coast. Pretty sweet!
Several of our days here were taken up with wellness visits, eye exams, and dermatology visits plus the ever popular mammogram for me. While here Gary also had an x-ray done on his lower back since he’s been having sporadic back pain recently which is tied to a spondylolisthesis (one vertebrae overlapping another) diagnosis from about 20 years ago. Age and some arthritis are kicking in to exacerbate the situation. He’s met with a Physical Therapist several times while here and has a home exercise program now which should help his symptoms. He also was having some mild discomfort in his chest. Our primary care physician, Dr. Xie, is of Chinese descent in her early 30s and utterly delightful. Upon meeting us she said “you can call me Dr. X.” Gary told her it sounded like one of the evil characters from a James Bond movie. She laughed. Dr. X did some preliminary tests then wanted to rule out anything with Gary’s heart so ordered a stress test. Weeks later it was finally scheduled and the doctors ended up not doing it because the blood flow in his left ventricle was at a lower rate than it should be. “We don’t want to give you a heart attack” is what he was told. “I appreciate that” he said. Then ensued a visit to the cardiologist. He’s now on a beta blocker to help with blood flow, and they did an angiogram (small tube in the heart with contrast material to see the big vessels). No blockages were found. Hooray! The doctors aren’t even sure the mild discomfort he was feeling in his chest was related to his heart, and now that mild pain has gone away. Go figure! That pretty much encapsulates our 2 months of doctors visits!
Besides Doctor visits we (that’s the royal we) also use the opportunity of being parked for two months to take care of some RV maintenance issues. In our case, it meant Gary installed a hitch at the back of our RV to carry the bikes there rather than on the roof of the truck, which is what we were doing before. Then he had to order and install a new bike rack for the hitch. The new hitch interfered with where we had been carrying the sewer hose storage so that had to be moved. Are we having fun yet? Gary also added more shelving in some of our closets for additional storage. We had the RV and truck washed and waxed and our carpet cleaned. We were happy to pay an outside company to do all of that. Then the Grackles promptly pooped on the RV the next day. What the heck?! Next year we’re having this done closer to when we’re leaving Galveston. We had another outside service come in to re-pack the brake bearings. Maintenance, maintenance! We also got admin stuff done like filing our 2021 taxes. Contrary to popular belief, full-time RV living is not all fun and games!
We were fortunate to be visited by friends while here…
- Cheryl & Joe’s dear friend Carol Ann from Florida was the first to visit for a week. She’s delightful! We thoroughly enjoyed her company!
- Carey, a dear family friend living on Galveston island, joined us for dinner one night and taught us a new card game… Play Nine.
- Then Mary, our Nottingham friend, surprised us with a two-week visit in her motorhome which then morphed into a three-week visit. She didn’t want to leave because she was having so much fun! We didn’t want her to leave either!
- Our friends Olivia, Cesare and their daughter Celia drove down from Austin for a visit. Just a day after Celia’s 24th birthday. Love this family! We’ve known Olivia since she was about 12 years old!
- Cheryl & Joe’s daughter Sarah visited for a week with her friend Tucker in mid-April! During that time we celebrated Gary’s 64th birthday on the 10th! I made him his favorite quiche for breakfast, he got to play with his new GoPro, and we had a fun dinner with everyone! He also made out on the deal with a new Carhartt shirt from the Hannafords. His shirt of choice!
- We celebrated Easter a day early since Sarah had to catch an early flight back to Boston on Easter Sunday. A wonderful day with great food topped off by Cheryl’s delicious carrot cake and lots of laughter.
- Lois & Greg joined us one evening. They are previous work friends of Cheryl who happen to live on the island. Gary & I thoroughly enjoyed them both!
This campground was a great spot for a home base in Galveston for two months.
We did manage to get in some sight seeing on the island as well…
Moody Mansion & The Strand
Saturday, March 12th, Cheryl, Joe, Carol Ann (a friend of C&J’s visiting from Florida) and Gary & I visited Moody Mansion. Built in 1895, it was bought in 1900 by W.L. Moody, Jr. (one of the wealthiest men in the country) after the Great Flood of that same year that killed over 6,000 Galvestonians. The home is absolutely beautiful. Afterwards we headed downtown and saw another “mansion.” This one a $150 million yacht called Boardwalk, owned by Tilman Fertitta, owner of the Houston Rockets and a gazillion restaurants. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed a tour of this one.
We walked around the historic Strand (downtown) for a bit. The Strand is a National Historic Landmark that harkens back to Galveston’s heyday in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Many of the buildings here are more than a century old and striking. The Strand was named after a street in London that was a popular shopping and theatre district for the upper class. By the 1850’s Galveston was the established trading center of Texas, and the Strand was crowded with merchants of mixed backgrounds, from African to Italian, earning it the title “Wall Street of the South.”
The art district is also in or near the Strand with many galleries. After exploring the Strand we had a late lunch or “linner” as we call it at Taquilos, a Tex-Mex restaurant. A delightful day spent with friends!
Sunday was Carol Ann’s last day visiting the Hannafords. She had pizza delivered for all of us to enjoy and then we had a campfire at the Hannafords. It was a chilly evening by the fire but we persevered! After all we’re hearty New Englanders!
East & West Beaches
Thursday, March 17th, Gary & I visited East Beach in Galveston. Great spot to see all the cargo ships heading up to Houston. The Houston Shipping Channel is one of the busiest in the nation with 50 ships a day passing thru. We saw 9 ships just in the short time we were walking East Beach.
Friday, March 18th, Cheryl, Joe, Gary & I took a 32-mile drive to the West end of the island and visited Surfside County Jetty Park in Surfside Beach and walked the .75+ mile fishing pier. Such a cool spot! We watched dolphins swimming back and forth feeding and pelicans diving for food. Plus we spotted a new bird that I was able to add to my life list… a Ruddy Turnstone. Windy day, but another great day with friends!
Sunday, March 20th, a surprise was in store for Gary & I! Our friend Mary has arrived in Galveston for 2 weeks. Woohoo! Kudos to Ellen and Cheryl & Joe for keeping this quiet! They all knew but we did not! Cheryl was a sweetheart and hosted dinner for all of us.
Tuesday, March 22nd, Cheryl, Mary & I did a 3-mile walk on the beach and seawall to see the stormy seas still churning from the day before. Galveston’s concrete seawall was built in 1902 after the horrible 1900 storm where 6,000 people lost their lives. Engineers raised the island’s elevation using pioneering materials and methods of the time. The seawall is 10.3 miles long and is considered the “longest continuous sidewalk in the U.S.” Other beach walks ensued with Gary & Joe joining us. An adult beverage at Galveston Island Brewing followed one such walk.
We didn’t do much bike riding here in Galveston, but Gary & I did get a fun 6.5 mile bike ride in with Mary one Friday afternoon. We drove down to the upscale community of Beachtown and saw where the other half live and then road on seawall down to East Beach. Beautiful day! We saw egrets, ships, and one very friendly raccoon.
Birding
Wed., March 23rd, Gary, Mary & I visited LaFitte’s Cove in Galveston. It’s a birding sanctuary in the middle of a residential community minutes from the campground. We saw ibis and two new birds that I was able to add to my life list…. a Northern Parula and a Hooded Warbler.
Thurs., March 24th, we wanted Mary to experience visiting Smith Oaks Bird Sanctuary & Rookery on High Island. Hundreds of egrets, spoonbills and cormorants visit during March and April to nest. Just incredible to see them. We were a little earlier visiting this year than last year. No babies just yet but we saw momma egrets laying on their eggs and lots of activity as the spoonbills and other egrets were finishing building nests. Afterwards we stopped for a “linner” at Stingaree Restaurant & Marina on Crystal Beach and saw a barge pass by within a stone’s throw of where we were sitting. A great day!
A few weeks later we made another visit to High Island and Smith Oaks Bird Sanctuary. This time with Cheryl, Joe and their daughter Sarah who was visiting from the Boston area. This time we saw baby egrets. We even saw herons nesting, which was a first for us! It took awhile to get over to High Island via the ferry, but worth the wait! We enjoyed another “linner” at Stinagrees before catching the return ferry.
Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig & Museum
Tues., March 29th, Cheryl, Joe, Mary, Gary & I visited the Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig & Museum. Being in Texas several months every year and seeing offshore oil rigs regularly in the gulf, we wanted to learn more about these beasts. The Ocean Star is an older rig built in 1969 and in service until 1984. It’s a “jack-up rig” and can operate in up to 173 ft of water and was designed to drill a well to 25,000 ft. It’s one of the smaller rigs. Nowadays there are much larger rigs that can drill much deeper. Very interesting museum. We came away with a clearer understanding of what goes into finding and drilling for oil. Makes me want to find out about other forms of energy… Afterwards we had “linner” on the deck at Katy’s Seafood. The server should have been in stand-up comedy!
Bishop’s Palace
Thursday, April 7th, we visited Bishop’s Palace with Mary, Cheryl and Joe. Built in 1893 for lawyer and politician Walter Gresham, his artist wife Josephine and their 9 children, it is over 19,000 sq. ft. and has 50+ rooms. Wow! It was purchased in 1923 by the Catholic Church in Galveston and served as the Bishop’s residence (thus the name). It was opened to the public in 1963. Just gorgeous! Afterwards we had “linner” at Gypsy Joint. Very cool restaurant with a funky menu. Some of us purchased dessert to bring home with us. They shall remain nameless to protect the innocent.
Parks
On Sat., April 9th, we visited Galveston Island State Park with Mary, Cheryl, Joe, and their friend Tucker who had just arrived the day before from NH. There are walking/hiking paths, a fishing area, kayak launch points, and bird observation areas. Not that we saw any birds. Wrong time of day.
While in the Webster TX area on Wed., April 13th, Gary & I visited Challenger 7 Memorial Park, named in honor of the 7 astronauts who lost their lives in the explosion of the Challenger Space Mission. An event that we remember well due to the loss of Christa McAuliffe, a NH teacher. It was a nice stop but unfortunately the boardwalk was closed for renovations, and they had an infestation of gypsy moth caterpillars, which was freaking out hubby. Not to mention the sign that said “Beware of Wild Hogs.” We did see several deer which made the whole stop worthwhile.
Family & Friends
Gary & I headed down to Corpus Christi towards the end of April to visit my amazing Aunt Elizabeth and sweet Uncle Nick. Love these two. Great to spend time with them! Aunt Elizabeth spoiled us as usual. I took advantage of a hotel stay and got a bubble bath in. They are a rare treat with this lifestyle. After we left Corpus, we headed down to Port Aransas and took the ferry over to Aransas Pass and made our way back to Galveston.
We made the most of our last week in Galveston…
- We enjoyed a delightful evening with Lois & Greg at their home on Galveston island. They are friends of Cheryl & Joe’s and have a beautiful home on the island. We’ll look forward to seeing them again next year when we’re back here again.
- We visited our friend Carey who lives on the west end of the island. She has a beautiful beach house! We enjoyed a fabulous dinner, great conversation, and a beautiful sunset! Joe beat us again playing “Play Nine.”
- As our final outing in this area… Cheryl & Joe suggested we go out for ice cream. Gary & I said sure but then I thought hmmm… how about drinks and appetizers at the rooftop deck in the historic Tremont Hotel first. Followed by ice cream afterwards. It was windy as heck on the rooftop deck but fun!
And that sums up our two months here in Galveston! Phew! We will look forward to being back here again next March & April. Next stop… Houston for a week!
