Our plan was to get there around lunchtime and grab some lunch first. But when we turned onto Seawall Boulevard and Naomi saw the Gulf, she started to flip-flop in her carseat - "I want to go to the beach now!!!" Can't blame her - Living in landlocked states for 5 years, the girl has been waiting her whole life to get to the beach! So we jumped out and ran to the water so she could get her first touch.
Next, we went to the Rainforest Cafe for lunch. The restaurant, with its animatronic elephants, snakes, and gorillas, thunderstorms and forestation thoroughly frightened the kiddos for the first 10 minutes... and thoroughly delighted them for the rest of our lunch!
Oooh! A volcano!
Naomi samples her first calamari - Yummy!
We sat by fish!
Next we walked on to the ferry that goes between Galveston and Port Bolivar - a free, fun ride during which we saw tons of seagulls, pelicans, big ships, and best of all, dolphins.
Check out this video of the dolphins surfacing all around the ferry - We saw many closer to the boat, too, but of course I could never catch them on the camera!
After the ferry ride we headed to our hotel. The boys napped in the room and had deep discussions on the balcony, while the girls went for a swim in the pools (Does Naomi ever run out of energy?)
For dinner we ate at Cafe Michael Burger, whose Tiki Burger was rated #23 by Texas Monthly magazine... Gotta do our research to learn about the new culture in which we live (grin!).
And now that the sun was not so intense, we finally went to the beach...
Building sandcastles was a hit - Johnathan got pretty serious about his building projects.
We stayed until it was too dark to play anymore. Didn't take the kids too long to fall asleep that night!
The next morning... Back to the beach! We had so much fun flying our kite...
(This seawall was first constructed after the devastating hurricane in 1900. The residents of Galveston put up the curved wall to deflect storm surges and hurricane waves. They also raised the entire island several feet, lifting all the buildings and pumping sludge from the sea floor and letting it dry out to elevate island against the seawall - Yes, I've been watching Weather Channel documentaries!)
The kids also loved "bodysurfing" - We floated over the gentle swells out in the warm water. Schools of hundreds of 6-8 inch fish (mullet, I'm told) were out feeding on the top of the water in the morning. We could walk right up to them and watch them jump out of the water around us!
Surf's up!
Naomi and I sifted for tiny seashells to fill our bucket.
What a treat! From the mountains of Colorado to the Gulf waters, we love enjoying what God has made.
Sounds like a great mini-vacation! So.....do you find yourself thinking about how cute THIS and THAT picture will look on the blog??? I am so gald you decided to blog so that the distance between us doesn't seem quite so far!
ReplyDeleteYou caught me! I almost feel like I need to carry my camera around permanently in case a blog-worthy story pops up unexpectedly... Is this normal?
ReplyDeleteReading yours does make the miles seem fewer... Until I look at Savannah's picture and think, "She didn't look that old when we left!" Sniff, sniff.
Cool! I just saw that same documentary and when I saw your blog picture I was like, "Cool! Look at that wall...it's the same one I just saw on the Weather Channel!! Awesome!!" You know, Rachel, it might make us a little dorky - but it's fun how you and I seem to get excited about some of the same kind of stuff!! :O)
ReplyDeleteLove seeing the kids - thanks for posting!!
That looks like a BLAST! I love the conversation about blogging! HAHA! Ya, I have to admit I try to catch everything so I can share it on my blog! We need an addiction group. haha. I don't have a problem, right?!
ReplyDelete