Galveston

It's raining in the ATX! Yeah baby!!

Spent a couple of days in Galveston with Cathy. She recently moved from Houston to this awesome old Galveston neighborhood, where a few houses are completely boarded up and need restoration, but most have been restored to better-than-pre-Ike condition. The houses are beautiful colors that would look tacky in suburbia, but look quite charming on the island. Her place has a clawfoot tub, glass doorknobs and bedroom doors that have keyholes. So neat! We walked the area a bit. There are neighborhood cafes and all sorts of hidden treasures tucked in there. It's also walking distance to The Strand.

We rode the Bolivar Ferry back and forth to Bolivar, which is my all-time favorite free Galveston activity.

Hello seagulls.

My second favorite free Galveston activity is Seawolf Park, where you can walk around a WWII sub and the USS Stewart, a destroyer escort ship. Really interesting! It's especially great for kids, but fun for adults as well. You can take a look from the ferry.

We hit a couple of great beaches and bayside spots too. East Beach is the big teen hangout... well, it was 30 years ago. It was completely empty during the school day on Monday. Creepily so, as a matter-of-fact. I have so many fond memories of walking East Beach through spring break crowds and regular weekend crowds, too. Now they're turning some of it into condos. Meh.

The other teen hangout used to be Stewart Beach, when it wasn't full of families with little kids. Stewart Beach has a big building with bathrooms and food and showers. There are no amenities at East Beach.

We visited The Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig Museum and Education Center for the first time. It is supercool.

No longer a working rig, the Ocean Star sits in port.

That is some HUGE equipment! (That's what she said.)

Here is the career display. When you press a button, an oil rig worker comes up on the mirror and tells you about their job on the rig. The first one we saw was a female engineer in a lab coat. She tests sludge or something, to make sure everything is working as it should. We wondered if it would be interesting being the only woman on a rig full of guys who have been without their significant others for a month.

The next button we pushed showed the roughnecks, the physical laborers who do all the tough stuff. They're immensely strong, muscly types who get all dirty and oily during their shifts, and from the photos on the other wall, shower up nicely and tan on the top deck during their hours off. Then we thought maybe it wouldn't be so bad being the only woman working there.

We mused that if we kept pressing career buttons, there would be a "rig ho'" that might be a fabulous job opportunity for the right person. She would wear a bikini and cowboy boots.

We had a great time at Crow's on Tuesday night! Cathy's friend was playing there.