January 23 - 24, 2011 - Galveston, oh Gal-veess-TONNNN!

The drive through coastal Texas from Corpus Christi to Galveston is interesting but uneventful.  We try to chase down a couple historical markers, but you never know if the marker is on the road or pointing to something miles off the road and we soon give up the chase.

Galveston is at the eastern tip of another barrier island, with nothing protecting it from the gulf storms.  I remember it from my army days as a moldy mess of decaying wood with no appeal, but we enjoy Galveston this time.

There is always someone that wants a crab-cooker house.

Remains of For San Jacinto front a cruise ship leaving Galveston.

We camp about 15 miles southwest of town at the very nice Jamaica Beach RV Park.  As we drive to town we see a lot of recent construction seaward, mostly nice looking 2-3 story places, maybe duplexes or triplexes, with an additional floor at ground level essentially left undeveloped to not provide resistance to storm waters.  All windows are equipped with storm shelters.  Very few people around - again probably the season and the economy.

We drive to the road's end, passing large condo developments and hotels, some quite new, others not old but with damage.  Very few people anywhere and lots of signs of arrested development.  Hurricane Ike and the economy have taken their toll.

At the road's end we watch a cruise ship exit the bay as the winds howl and the skys start to drizzle.  In the foreground is all that remains of Fort San Jacinto, started in the early 1800s and closed in the 1950s.   Several forts have been built on this site, all eventually washed away by changing shorelines and great storms, most recently Hurricane Ike in 2008.  It is dark now and we go back to camp, driving along this enormous seawall that tries to protect Galveston.

Could you possibly put some more poles in this picture?

In the morning with a heavy rain we return and visit the refurbished and elegant 100-year-old Hotel Galvez, looking somewhat like Pasadena's Huntington Hotel with a massive updating.  Galveston was just about wiped out by hurricanes in 1900 that killed 6000 people, and in the 20s and 30s it recovered somewhat with a reputation for anything-goes and bootlegging.  Hoodlums openly hosted parties at the Galvez.

We continue to the old downtown and enjoy the architecture of these old iron-rail buildings, now occupied by chic stores and restaurants.  We notice stumps of large trees in some areas and later learn these were killed by saltwater seepage after Ike.  But this old area seems to have a practiced grip on recovery.

Marcia points to our cafe's high-water-mark from Ike.

The next day clears somewhat and we go back to the city for a tour of a drilling museum built in to a retired 1960s jack-rig, designed for shallow waters.  We learn a lot and a little, as the museum is sponsored by Exon, Chevron, Halliburton, and Schlumberger.

In the afternoon we beach-comb, Marcia finding many shells to her liking and I present her with a gift of one I really like.  That night Marcia discovers the shell is occupied so she pokes at it but the guy won't come out.  She leaves the shell outside overnight, and he is still there in the morning.  We are not feeling right about all this, so on the way out of Galveston we deposit him back on the beach.