Galveston Island, Day 1

Our adventure has begun! After a 10 hour trip, we arrived on Galveston Island.

 

I love the ocean. I think I have mentioned this a time or two. HA!  I love that first glimpse that you get of it, and it always takes my breath away for just a moment.  Like you are seeing a really old friend for the first time in years.

This is the first time we have been to the Gulf of Mexico. I DO admit I like the Atlantic Ocean better, but the Gulf has its surprised and benefits. The water and air smell different here. Salt and shrimp.  The sand is different, and is like powder. You can find hermit crabs like crazy. BIG honking hermit crabs.  My guys have toes like fingers, and can pick them up and bring them to the surface...I have to dive down to get mine.

 

 


This morning found us up and in the water by 9. Jacob was almost slapped by a big white fish and had no idea. He had come up from being underwater and was wiping his eyes, just as this fish jumped and flew by him, barely missing him. Dan and I yelled and then laughed. A lot.
There is also jelly fish. After running into numerous  weird "blobs" while swimming, and both boys getting stung by "something, but I'm sure if wasn't a jelly fish", Tristen CAUGHT one in his net. Jelly fish in the ocean..who knew! ;)

 

For lunch we headed down Seawall, and ate at Bubba Gumps for lunch. It was a fun atmosphere, with flip license tags that said Run, Forrest, Run! when you were ok, and you flipped it to Stop, Forrest, Stop when you needed your waitress to stop. I was feeling adventurous (I don't really care for fish) and tried a tilapia dish called Jenny's Catch with Lobster Butter Sauce.  It was pan seared tilapia over mashed potatoes with a sauteed spinach and cream lobster butter sauce. Absolutely delicious!



Danny and Tristen both had steamed crab legs, and Jacob had shrimp mac and cheese.






I can't remember what this drink was called..something Lava...but it was wonderful and it had rum in it...;P Oh..and don't look too close to my hair or my shiny face.  Its the only parts of me that does NOT appreciate the humidity here!





 

The birds here are amazing.  At Myrtle, there were seagulls around, but here they are brave and will share the water with you.  They also belly flop into the water, when they spot something. The first couple of times I watched in horror, as I was SURE that wasn't normal. It is.  Every house here has big fake plastic owls up on decks, to keep them away. I love them and their calls sound like laughter.  Something else that has been fun to watch is the Pelicans. They will fly  by, all in a line, and each one will swoop down into the water, beak open, fill it up and then take off again. They have several piers that are listed as bird watcher tourist attractions because of the birds that are waiting for the shrimp boats to return.




Pelicans flying by our dining room window

Tristen has become friends with the local seagulls. He drags bread down to the shore on his body board, and will take pieces and throw them straight up, and they swoop down and grab it, and run over to the water, get it wet, and then gulp it down. They just swarm around Tristen, and  he had people that stopped just to watch him.

 

 




We've checked several things off of our bucket list on this trip. As we were walking along  I told Danny that someday I wanted to go someplace where I could find a sand dollar. He went back out fishing, and I looked down and guess what I found? Granted it IS broken, and more like only a quarter of a sand dollar, but I FOUND a sand dollar! =D

And all Jacob has wanted to do it catch a fish out of the ocean.  There is a bait shop just across the street that the boys have visited several times, in awe of the different types of bait. Here they are using squid.  Apparently, its like the universal bait here, but for the Kansas folk, its warranted an examination of the contents of the container.

 

 

 



We are very much  enjoying our time at here. We are in a small town, with 983 people where we are at.  We can drive into city part, which is about 15 miles away.  But there are cute little mom and pop style stores with in walking distance. There is a bait shop right across the street, with wood floors and a older man who really wants to talk to you, and when he asks how you are, he really wants to know. =) He loves to talk fishing stories, which my guys just eat up.  Right down the road, there is a grocery store called Seven Seas. It reminds of the old Hoofers grocery store we had in town. The aisles are really small,  there are watermelon lining the floors, and you can find the coolest treasures in there, and the people all seem to know each other by first name. I love it.

We have the beach on one side of us, and THIS on the other:

 

We are, after all, in Texas.  These made me smile..what lucky cows, getting to eat grass and graze while looking out at the ocean!