Woke up mid-morning, as usual –
we have not been able to make ourselves become human, we continue to stay up
really late and sleep in but guess that is just how we are wired. Anyway, we woke up mid-morning and Clark
asked me if I would like to go see the Gulf today, heck yeah! We got around pretty quickly and took
off. We headed toward Galveston on state
highways and county roads.
When we got to the bridge over
the intercoastal waterway, Clark got a little nervous. He does not like bridges and he didn't like
how high this one went up. He said he
was glad I was driving! We saw barges on
both sides of the bridge and then swampy areas all around it.
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| Bridge over Intercoastal Waterway |
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| Barges on the Intercoastal Waterway crossing under the bridge. |
When we got to the first place we
could stop as soon as we saw the Gulf, at High Island, we got out and took some
pictures. Listening to the roar of the
waves was awesome! I will say that the
Gulf is definitely a lot different than the Pacific Ocean in California which
has those massive rocks and waves crashing off of them, but it was still cool
watching and listening to the waves and knowing we were at the Gulf.
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| High Island |
As we drove along the strip of
land following the coast on the Bolivar Peninsula, we saw all of these houses
built on stilts. It is hard to imagine that
the water can get so high during the storms and I am sure they hope the waves
don’t get that high but I cannot even imagine living there with the threat of
hurricanes. Not to mention the buzillion
stairs to climb to get inside. Can you
imagine carrying your groceries up those stairs? I would have to install an elevator!!!!
We got on a ferry at Port Bolivar
which took us across to Galveston.
Neither of us had ever done that before so that was a neat
experience. I happened to be driving and
didn't care for that much so once the ferry was going we got out and traded
places so Clark could drive us off of the ferry and then through
Galveston. I was glad of that. I don’t mind driving on the backroads and the
old highways but I don’t like driving in traffic in unfamiliar places.
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| Waiting to get on the ferry. |
The ferry ride was so fun! We even saw a dolphin as the ferry was first
pulling away. There were seagulls
everywhere just flying right next to the truck.
Several times I thought one was going to fly in and join us. The size of the ships we saw was just amazing
– now that I did not see on the Pacific.
We even saw a pelican dive into the water and catch a fish. A seagull was all over him trying to steal
it.
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| From the ferry before we pulled away. Lots of people out fishing. |
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| Another ferry like the one we were on but going the other direction. |
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| Evidently, the pelicans can count - 3 to a sign. |
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| One of the big ships we saw from the ferry. |
We saw some pretty amazing homes
in Galveston. Some were very large with
big fences and gates around them. We saw
lots of old architecture in many styles.
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| Palm trees along Galveston Bay. |
We left Galveston and went across the bridge
this time. It was a pretty cool bridge,
unfortunately, Clark was driving. He did
okay though.
We went through a town called
Kemah where we saw some huge boats for sale and hundreds of boats in the
marina. Some of them were pretty good-sized
boats! There was also an amusement park
there.
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| Wow! |
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| Water tower made to look like a lighthouse. |
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| Roller coaster behind the marina. |
We stopped in Liberty and Clark
got shrimp and scallops – and also got to sample his first fried oyster – the meal
wasn't anything to write home about he said.
I had a baked potato and called it good.
We are now back home and writing
this blog all in about 10 hours. A fun
day and glad we went. Clark had a great
suggestion this morning. Tomorrow will
be a stay at home day. We need to wash
the RV and truck. The bugs we hit
tonight on the way home hit the windshield with such force it was almost
scary. I believe if we had been riding a
motorcycle, we would have been knocked clean off the bike! That windshield will be a joy to wash
tomorrow. Poor Clark!
