Monday, May 8, 2023

road trip to Galveston

Since we weren't boarding our cruise ship until Tuesday morning, we decided to head down to Galveston a day and a half early to explore a bit.  The beach doesn't really compare to what Kevin and I are used to in California, but it's still beautiful and the sound of the waves is always calming to my soul.  
I love how much our kids love the beach, and Brooke got right to work on writing her name in the sand.
Colby saw Brooke and wanted to do the same!
Kevin was sure that if he held up a pretzel, one of the seagulls would swoop down to grab it.  They were definitely thinking about it and flew near him, but none were brave enough to go for the final grab.
Colby picked the sweetest wildflowers for me, but since I knew they wouldn't last, I asked for a picture instead.  One thing I love about Colby is his thoughtful heart.  He seems to get a lot of fulfillment and joy from surprising people and is one of the most generous kids I know. 
Kevin was a good sport and stopped along the side of the busy road so we could get a picture with the dolphin statue.  When we drove down in 2020 we took similar pictures with this statue, so it's basically tradition now.
As we drove along Seawall Boulevard, we came across this amazing shark head.  The kids definitely wanted a picture by it, and I love the faces they made.
Based on my research of "Things To Do In Galveston", we decided to go check out the ship Elissa, which is one of the oldest ships sailing today.  Launched in 1877, she is now a museum ship at the Texas Seaport Museum.  We didn't want to pay to go inside the museum, so we opted for a background shot from a nearby restaurant.  Since we didn't want to feel foolish for going inside the restaurant, we opted to share a very expensive brownie and ice cream sundae. 
After dessert, we headed to another one of the top tips, which was to play a game of chess at Saengerfest Park.  It was located on the corner of 23rd street and The Strand in Galveston's Historic Strand District.  We were having a very strategic game of boys vs. girls and Brooke and I were about to win, when another family stopped and basically started interrupting our game with their comments and suggestions.  Brooke, with her competitive spirit, was not pleased.  I was also a little annoyed, but tried to be as pleasant as possible to the random strangers.  Oh, and in the end, the boys won, which frustrated my girl.
We then walked into a few of the pirate shops and took full advantage of the photo ops.
The last item on our list was to walk through Murdochs, which is dubbed a "Galveston Institution."  I have never been inside such a huge gift shop, but I was quite impressed with their collection of shells, all sorts of home decor items, and your typical beach souvenirs.  
We enjoyed an evening stroll along the beach, then ended up at Bubba Gumps for dinner.
It was a beautiful day exploring Galveston, but we were all pretty anxious and excited to start our real adventure aboard The Voyager of the Seas!!

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