Apparently, they had been undergoing extensive remodeling when Hurricane Ike hit and did even more damage.  We had never been to an opera house (didn’t even know Galveston had one) and we had received gift certificates to Joe’s Crab Shack for Christmas (thanks John and Pat) so we decided to take a drive down to Galveston for the day.

We arrived in Galveston around lunch time.  To get to Joe’s, we had to drive a short distance on Seawall Blvd, which, as it’s name implies, runs beside the beach along the Gulf of Mexico.  We caught a glimpse of something big washed up on the shore and decided to go back after lunch to see what it was.

The weather was beautiful!  We sat out on Joe’s patio enjoying the sunshine and surf (love the smell of the beach, don’t you???), getting sunburned while we got a full belly.  The beach is across the street behind Jake and I in the picture, but it’s hard to see with the glare of the sun…  (Oh, sorry to those of you in snowy climates … ) I had a cobb salad, Jake had a fish sandwich and Wes and Cam shared crabs.   For dessert, we had a Sea Turtle sundae and OMG, it was so good.  The best dessert I’ve had in years.

Anyway, after lunch we drove back down the beach to see what that big dead thing was.  Wes and I said it was a dolphin, but Camden and Jake predicted it would be a shark.  Turns out it was a dolphin.  There was only one and no one appeared to have called authorities.  It had no signs of why it died.  Lots of people were looking at it…  We also saw a big dead fish further down the beach.  (Last summer, we found a dead shark on the beach when we stayed at the time share in San Leon.)

We walked down one of the jetty’s on the beach.  They are comprised of huge squares of granite stacked next to each other.

By then, it was 1:30 PM and the opera house was only supposed to be open until 2 PM, so we had to skidaddle.  We weren’t sure where it was, but we found it.  It’s really pretty on the inside.  Everything is new and shiny.  They had cake and lemonade.  We got to go in the balconies and those cool seats they have on the sides (why can’t I remember what they are called???) You know, where the rich people usually sit???

Anywho … after that we went home.

Someone asked me how Galveston looks these days.  Actually, Galveston looks pretty damned good!  All the boats and debris that were piled along the freeway are gone.  All the piles of trash, debris and old furniture that were piled along every street are gone.  Most stores are back open again.  People seem to be getting their homes back in order.  The beaches, while they are not as big as they used to be due to massive erosion from Ike, are clear and clean and pretty again.

Well, the year we moved here (2003) we got a couple inches of snow on Christmas Eve! It was enough for some people to build snowmen.

This year on December 10th, we got snow again!  It had been SO cold all day long.  Very unusual for Houston.  It had been lightly raining all day.  North Houston and further north, had snow early in the day.  We didn’t get it down here until almost bed time, but when it started, it was really coming down.  Camden was already in bed and Jake had to come downstairs in his pj’s to see it!  The dogs thought it was all very fun and interesting.

We went to bed hoping it would continue to snow all night so we’d have a snow day the next day, but, alas, no such luck.  There was still some snow on the ground, but it didn’t last long.  Jake eventually went outside and threw some snowballs (some of which stuck to the side of the garage).

Sherri

One of Galveston’s big yearly “celebrations” is Dickens on The Strand, where you can dress up in Dickens era costumes and shop in Galveston’s old town district, The Strand.  The stores are usually open and there are also craft booths, food booths and lots of cool demonstrations and such.

Cam in his cool ear flap hat. It even has a llama on the ear flap.

Last year, we went for the first time.  I had no idea what to expect and was so excited to find many craft booths as well as an alpaca yarn seller.  Camden and Jake bought me some yarn for Christmas that year, and Cam also bought himself a really cool ear flap hat, hand knitted in pinks and blues – very bright and pretty!

Well, locals weren’t sure if The Strand would be up to visitors yet at this time;  it had been hit really hard by the hurricane.  It’s on the bay side of Galveston and has no seawall to protect it and had lots of flooding and all the really cool tourist stores were badly damaged.

We were excited to hear that the festival was going to go on, even though most of the businesses are not open yet and some will not be open for a long time.  I told my husband and kids that we were going to go down there and spend money and support the local businesses and let them know that we care about them, whether they liked it or not.  (Luckily, they all liked the idea and couldn’t wait to go check it all out.)

Jake in his fall colors ear flap hat that he purchased this year.

Anyway, back to present time …  The weather Saturday was great, we had an awesome time, and the alpaca yarn booth was there again, with their llama’s and their finished knitted products and their luscious, soft, lovely yarns.  We all (well, not Wes) rushed over and started fondling things.  Camden, immediately went for the yarn and bought me a skein.  Jake, was immediately looking for a cool, ear flap hat for himself.  And I picked up a skein for myself, too.  I was teasing them at lunch later about how it made my heart swell with pride to see them rush right in like that and buy stuff at the yarn store.

Also, during the hurricane, our neighbors, Wes and Jules, had some friends from Galveston living with them until they were allowed to go back on the island.  Turns out they own several restaurants and tourist shops on the island, so we had to stop in and say hi while there.

After The Strand, we went out to lunch on Seawall Blvd.  Wes and Cam were playing songs on the juke box.  Wes and I were saying how proud we were that Camden and Jake liked classic rock and were singing along to the songs Cam had picked.  One of the songs he picked was Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd, which you probably know is 9 minutes long, and we were teasing him, “Couldn’t you have picked a longer song for us to sit here and listen to?” before we left.  But, as it turns out, we were glad he picked such a long song.

As we were driving down Seawall Blvd towards 61st Street, we saw a huge Harley Davidson trailer and lots of bikers at a bar along the way.  We were wondering what was going on.  Just then we noticed, coming the other way on a Harley, was Santa!  Following behind him were hundreds of bikers!  They were escorted by police cars with flashing lights and fire trucks.  It was awesome.   We were honking and waving.  At that point, we were glad Camden had picked such a long song, because if he hadn’t, we wouldn’t have been there that long and would have missed the motorcycle parade.

Thanks for reading!  In the meantime, here are some cool links about Galveston, The Strand and Dickens on the Strand, and the alpaca yarn company.

This says it’s the official site about The Strand, but it’s not as good as the one below:

http://www.thestrand.com

This is the web cam.  It’s dark there now (it’s 5:50 AM my time) but I can see street lights blinking, so later on, you can see all the people there, too!  This is too cool and now that I know about it I can look at The Strand any time I want to!

http://www.galveston.com/webcams/thestrand/frameset.html

This is the better official Dickens on the Strand website.  It’s hosted by the Galveston Historical Society.  On the left, there is a link to a photo gallery, so you can see some of the people in costume and some of the other cool stuff down there.

http://www.galvestonhistory.com/Dickens_on_The_Strand.asp

This is the company we bought the alpaca yarn from, it’s called Mountain Dream Alpaca’s.

http://www.mountaindreamalpacas.com

but on the label, there is also the web address of this company:

http://lcalpacayarn.com/index.html
Looking at Mountain Dreams website, it doesn’t appear that they make the yarn themselves, or even dye it. They get it from these people.  Can’t tell if they made all those nice hats, scarves and more that they were selling in their booth or not.  But anyway, the yarn label says it’s 100% alpaca and it’s super, super soft.  I can’t wait to knit something with it all.  On this homepage, at the top left is a picture of several skeins of yarn … the one I bought myself is the blue and green one to the right.  I sort of peeked and saw that Camden bought me the variegated pink one.

And if you go here:

http://lcalpacayarn.com/products/index.html

you can see all their yarns.

Later,
Sherri