Depending on traffic, it's about a hours drive from Houston to Galveston. Located on a barrier island, Galveston has a long and interesting history -- settled by a pirate, served as a major port and the capital of the Republic of Texas, and decimated (twice) by major hurricanes. Today, Galveston is a major tourist spot for Texans featuring a State Park along the Gulf and an historic downtown.
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| Shrimp and Stuff |
We happened to arrive in Galveston around lunch time and started our day in the Oleander City at Shrimp and Stuff on Avenue O. Shrimp and Stuff is a quintessentially beachy casual dining venue serving a plethora of fried seafood. They have both indoor and outdoor seating options. Since it was a pleasantly cool December day, we opted to sit outside in the little courtyard. The courtyard is filled with palms and other shade plants and a decorative fountain that the kids really enjoyed. For lunch, I followed one of my favorite menu strategies and ordered the restaurant's namesake dish -- shrimp, specifically fried shrimp. Hubby had a crawfish tail po-boy. We had coleslaw and hush puppies on the side. My land lover children, stuck with chicken fingers (the Tidewater gal was a little saddened by this), but they both tried (and enjoyed) the shrimp. The food at Shrimp and Stuff was solid and delicious. I really enjoyed the hush puppies, which had tiny pieces of jalapeno embedded in the fried cornmeal. This Texified twist on an old classic worked well.
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| Crawfish Po-Boy |
After lunch, we consulted Hubby's new hiking book, and drove to Galveston Island State Park. On our way to the park we passed lots of new development and also two fields of cattle grazing. I was surprised to see the cows grazing on the barrier island only a block or two from the Gulf. But, I realized that this is Texas, and cows are everywhere. In a way, the cows grazing adjacent to the enormous pastel beach McMansions, were the perfect example of new encroaching on old.
Arriving at the State Park, we checked in at the visitor's center (a small beach outpost). The cost to explore the State Park was $5 for each adult (age 13 and older). After checking in and receiving a trail map, we moved the car across FM 3005 to explore the wetlands. There are numerous trails on the wetlands side of the park. We started with a short walk to an observation platform that gave us a great view of the marshes below. The children really enjoyed climbing the observation platform. After our panoramic view, we climbed back down and took a short hike along the trails. There were two long bridges that allowed us to walk across the marshes and to get a close view of the tidal waters. We observed pelicans, mockingbirds, and the holes of crayfish or crabs. Our hike was cut a bit short when I started being eaten alive by mosquitoes. Texas hiking lesson #1 -- Just because it's December doesn't mean there aren't mosquitoes. Fortunately, I had some Deep Woods Off in the car -- because in Texas, Deep Woods Off is as necessary as a spare tire and jumper cables.
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| Galveston Island State Park Trails - wetlands |
We drove back across FM 3005 so that the children could take a walk on the beach. Not deterred by the signage warning us of dangerous waters and poisonous snakes, we pressed on to the sandy shores. Since it was a little chilly and gray, we almost had the beach to ourselves. I really enjoyed my first walk along the Gulf. The kids loved splashing barefoot in the waves and observing the variety of shore birds that gathered at the water's edge. The tide was going out, so there were some interesting seashells for the kids to collect. The kid's would have happily played on the shore for the rest of the afternoon. But, once my son's pants were completely covered in wet sand, we decided to call it a day and head back into town for some sugar.
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| Dunes en route to the beach. |
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| Signage at the entrance to the Gulf side |
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| Cacti in the dunes. Something I've never seen at the beach! |
Parking near The Strand, we walked to La Kings Confectionery. La Kings uses old time candy making techniques to serve a wide variety of sugary treats to Galveston's modern visitors. The store features a 1920s soda fountain serving a plethora of ice cream concoctions. There's a large section of salt water taffy, a counter of chocolates and truffles, and another case of hard candies. They also have a coffee bar providing moms and dads with the caffeine needed to keep up with the sugar highs their kiddos are sure to have upon leaving La Kings. Treats and coffee in hand, we walked back out onto the Strand to stroll a bit before heading back to the car.
Before driving back to Houston, we had one more stop -- Murdoch's Bathhouse. In the 1800s, Murdochs was a bathhouse. In 1910, Murdoch's added a gift shop and restaurant that still thrive today. Hubby and I had discovered Murdoch's on another brief trip to Galveston several weeks prior. Having been disappointed by a lack of shell shops at VA Beach several years ago, we were thrilled to see that the shell shops of our childhood still exist in Texas. We wanted the kids to experience shell shops as we remembered them -- dried out invertebrates, dead sharks floating in glass jars, shark teeth, conch shells, sea glass, and beach-themed trinkets. Murdoch's provided all of this and more. Not surprisingly, the kids loved it.
Souvenirs in hand, we said goodbye to the Gulf and drove home to Houston. The kids were both asleep before we crossed the bridge to the mainland, my four year old daughter clutching a dolphin shaped magnet. This gray day, filled with sand, shorebirds, fried food, and beach kitsch had been perfect. Texas forever.
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