The Ray Adventures: Rockport and Galveston

It was time to hit the road for points east. We had a great time in Rockport, great times with friends and lots of laughs.

Saturday, January 3, Football season is coming to a close, I watched as many games as I could get away with before Gary got cranky. We walked Luci on her favorite road, she watched out for those scary ponies but they were not around.

Sunday, January 4^th, a pretty nice day so we started it off with a walk down Fulton Beach Road, there weren’t too many birds out. We skipped the ice cream social but we rode our bikes down to the clubhouse to play Pegs and Jokers for the last time. The girls triumphed. As we were playing I was BBQ’ing a turkey breast. The timing was perfect, by the time we got back it was just about done. I did another excellent job!

Monday, Jan. 5^th, Started the day with our final walk down Fulton Beach road then Gary spent most of the day putting away our outside “stuff”, I think we must have dragged out most of our things during our 9 weeks in Rockport. RJ had told us about the Spoonbill’s they had spotted in LaMar, we haven’t seen any this visit so we decided to take a look. No luck. Turns out we were in the wrong area. We met a couple of “birders” at the viewing area who told us some of the names of the shore birds we had seen on our walk down the fishing pier. Of course the names escape me now. On our way back we decided to go to the fish market for some Grouper for dinner when I found some jalapena relish that I’ve been searching for, I haven’t found any since Las Cruces last spring. That made me so happy I suggested to Gary we go to MoonDog’s for the last time. Got out of cooking dinner. Yea!

Tuesday, January 6^th, our last day here and it was a gorgeous day. I went to Stitch and Bitch for the first time this year to show off the quilt I just finished. Got rave reviews. I made my last trip to Pawlek’s Meat Market, we just love their pork chops so I picked up five packages. Gary finished putting things away while I did the laundry. We managed to take Luci on her last walk down the back roads, again no ponies to scare her. At 4:00 we met about 20 of our friends at the Adult Clubhouse for happy hour and pizza from Panjo’s, our favorite pizza parlor. Bayview RV “Resort” needs a lot of TLC, they are finishing up the clubhouse with a revamped pool, hot tub and an outside kitchen. Now if they would fix the roads. We had a great visit and said our good byes to everyone. The evening was a perfect way to end our time in Rockport.

Wednesday, January 7^th, it’s a sad day but we have to leave Rockport. RJ and Gail stopped to say good bye about 9:00, followed by Bob and Sharon and Betty, Dick and Ruth. Betty threw herself in front of the coach to stop us from leaving, I don’t think we would have noticed an extra bump in the road. We finally pulled out of the RV park about 10:15 for our relatively short drive to Galveston Island State Park only about 200 miles up the Gulf Coast. We had to stop in the little town of Palacious, we’d forgotten to check the “drip catcher” before we left. Well I walked in the back to find water splashed on the counter. We stopped for left-over pizza in Bay City, arriving at the park about 3:30. There are two parts to the park, one on the ocean front and the other on the bay, we decided the bay side may have less wind. The cold front arrived about the same time as us, it was quite windy and cold. The forecast looks real ugly. During the night we pulled in the big slide, the wind was beating it to death. Galveston population is over 47,000 and the elevation is 17feet. Jean Lafitte and his pirates established a settlement in 1817. The town was abandoned and burned when the US forced Lafitte to leave a few years later. He was a baaaad pirate I guess. During the Civil War Galvaston was a principle seaport and by 1890 Galveston was Texas’ largest and wealthiest city. The island has had its’ share of hurricanes, in 1900 tides of 15 feet killed over 6000 people. Hurricane Ike in 2008 flooded the island town. The coastal homes are mostly built on stilts and painted very “Caribbean” colors. Great pride has been taken in restoring the Victorian neighborhoods, especially The Strand historic district. Galveston has quite a Mardi Gras tradition, celebrating with parades, musical entertainment and costume contests. In the Strand district there is one remaining Mardi Gras arch that was built in 1867.

Thursday, Jan. 8^th, We woke up to 34 degrees outside, the good news was the wind died down so we could open the slide again. We took Luci to Bone Voyage Doggie Day Care for the day. We drove to The Strand Historical District, the 36 block area has shops, restaurants and galleries. The areas architecture is best known for its iron front buildings. Our first stop was the visitor center to plot our tour. We had lunch at the Star Drug Store, which was built in 1886, sold in 1906 to a druggist who put in the horseshoe shaped soda fountain. The drugstore changed hands a few times but was fully operational until 1986. They altered history by becoming the first desegregated lunch counter in the area. Hurricane Ike flooded Star Drug with 6 ½ feet of water. With the help of family, friends and co-workers it reopened 3 month later. I had a cup of tomato bisque soup, very different from what I’m used to, the soup was brothy not creamy, with diced tomatoes, bacon and basil. Yummy and it warmed me up. The Grand Opera House was built in 1894. The 1900 storm caused major damage to the opera house but within a year it reopened. In 1986 restoration began to take it back to the glory days, in 2008 Hurricane Ike came through causing extensive flood and wind damage, community efforts are ongoing to bring it back to its Victorian-era grandeur. We thought it was beautiful. We visited the Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig Museum and Education Center. It’s a retired jackup drilling rig, a hands-on way to learn about the offshore oil and gas industry. There are three floors of displays and an outside area showing you the equipment needed for drilling. The drill bits amazed me how large they are. The top floor was the layout of the living areas including the kitchen and bunks. The workers are transported to the rigs by boat or helicopter, when we were in Rockport we’d watch the helicopters take workers out, if you went by boat they had a personnel basket that lifted you off the boat to the top. In the picture I am standing inside, we saw a picture later, the workers actually hang on the outside. No thanks. Talena gave us a gift card for a restaurant group in Galveston, one of which was a sushi steak house, we thought we’d have an early dinner about 3. We walked in the restaurant, the lights were off but nobody was home. (sounds familiar) We discovered the restaurants close at 2 then reopen again at 5 during the winter months, so we killed time looking at shops. It was too cold to walk around. We were glad we waited, the sushi was delish. We picked up Luci about 6:30 and headed home.

Friday, Jan. 10, We woke up to rain and cold. Yuk. We’d purchased an Island Pass that gives deep discounts to Galveston’s attractions. We decided to go to the Moody Gardens and Aquarium. Three glass pyramids are the centerpiece of the 242 acre resort. The 12 story Aquarium has fish from the South Atlantic, North and South Pacific and the Caribbean. It made Gary miss his scuba years. The Rainforest Pyramid has streams, waterfalls, exotic plants, fish and birds. There was a free-roaming monkey, black with a white face. (forgot his name too), a staff member directs you around him and warns you not to touch it. It was nice and warm inside, we dreaded walking to the car. Brrrrrrrr! The weather keeps getting uglier and uglier. We headed back to the coach to warm up.

TTFN

Gary and Pam

Gary took so many pictures it was hard to decide which ones to pick. Enjoy!

Back roads pond turtle