Texas

Oh, Galveston

Last weekend Chris and I decided to go down to Galveston for the weekend. I’d been wanting to see two friends of ours and we decided to invite them to meet us for lunch down on the Seawall, a place called The Spot. It was a common place for us to go during college and a place we like to go when we return for visits.

We met our friends and got to see new babies and chat for awhile during our meal and then afterwards when we walked across the street to the beach. My friend Erika’s daughter, Kayla, had a blast playing in the water and I think it would have been awesome had the weather been warmer and she could have really played more. Everyone had other obligations so we split up after the beach. Chris and I really had no plans. I wanted to walk around on The Strand, go to the beach and just chill.

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I didn’t take too many photos on The Strand but as we were walking down to a boutique home design store I looked up on the wall of this building and saw a sign designating the water depth during Hurricane Ike a few years ago. I had Chris stand under it for effect. It is the sign right there under the lamp.

Ike killed a lot of the vegetation on the island causing Galveston to lose many historical live oaks. When you come across Broadway and turn onto 61st, crossing Offats Bayous, to the east there used to be homes lining the bayou with many trees. Those are long gone and it is very strange to see a bare area. Other buildings were lost, and with that places we used to visit are gone, restaurants and the like.

Galveston was always a strange island, you could go a couple blocks and be in not so nice area, drive a few more blocks and be in a nicer and/or historic area and just keep repeating this throughout the island. After the storm it seems, both from visually seeing but also from talking with my friends, that the middle class of Galveston is shrinking. It is quickly becoming more skewed to lower income and the historic upper class that has owned the island for years. And then there are the tourists.

Of course, usually a place has more meaning when the people that assisted with the memories are there. After 10 years most of those people are gone, though some still linger nearby.

Moving on…

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I also wanted to go in Col. Bubbie’s, the local army/navy store. When I sailed on the Texas Clipper II during the summer of my freshman year of college I went there to buy some of the uniform I needed to be up to code for the Texas Maritime Academy. The place is wall to wall with old war items from all sorts of countries.

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Need a WWII stash of desert cakes?

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Or a Confederate frock?

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Or perhaps some emergency canned water made in Williamsport, PA. (We liked it because it was made in Williamsport where we worked some this last Fall).

Chris was itching to fish after we had visited The Strand so I let him drive all the way down to San Luis Pass. I had some crocheting to do and he could wade on the back side of the island for awhile.

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A few hours later he arrived back at the truck with a bunch of fish. When I went vegetarian I made an option that I would eat fish he caught. And when he made it a few nights later I didn’t even bat an eye. It was so good!

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Speckled trout

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Sunset was picturesque off to the west and the wading birds added to the scene.

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I can’t wait for the weather to warm up a little, I would like to camp on the beach somewhere soon.

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