This is our third time to Galveston in as many years. We love this city. It's a lovely getaway and it doesn't cost a lot of money. And, when you go in the off-season, the weather is mild and there are no people. We're staying in a new place, a condo right on the beach. The building is virtually empty. Our condo has a front balcony and a balcony that faces the beach.
Islander East. Our unit is on the left, second from the top all the way on the end. The condo has a manned entrance, a gate around the property, direct access to the beach and lots of other stuff.
This is a view of the ocean from our balcony.
This trip, we're doing all new tourist things. On our first day we took the ferry (it's free!) to Bolivar Point. I've only been on a ferry once before when we went to Port Aransas.
On that one you couldn't get out of your car. On this one we could. It was pretty windy and a little chilly. It's about a 20 minute ride. Very relaxing. The person in the car next to us was eating their lunch and reading a book.
Point Bolivar Lighthouse, built in 1852 was dismantled during the Civil War by the Confederate soldiers. It was rebuilt in 1872 and served until 1933. It survived three of the worst hurricanes: 1900, 1915 and then Hurricane Ike in 2008. I guess earlier hurricanes weren't named. During the 1900 and 1915 hurricanes, people took refuge in the lighthouse and survived the storms. This is now private property. The lens of the lighthouse is in the Smithsonian.
This is the Davis battery at Fort Travis. This is actually the second Fort Travis, the first being on Galveston Island. This fort on Point Bolivar was active during WWI and WWII. It was defended by four batteries: Davis (above) and Ernst which were completed in 1898, Kimball completed in 1925 and No. 236 completed in 1943. There were originally 27 buildings here. The foundations are still there and there are tags that tell you what stood there. All the buildings were demolished. Only these batteries were left. Unfortunately, (or maybe I should say fortunately) you can't climb on them.
This is the 6th Catholic Church that is part of the Holy Family Parish. It's Our Lady by the Sea. I've never seen a church on stilts before but everything here is on stilts. There wasn't much else on the island. I mean, people live here but there's no mall or major grocery store. If you're into seclusion, you can get a brand new house here for about $250K. I'll pass.
Ft. San Jacinto is at the end of Seawall Blvd. It was built in 1898 but destroyed in the 1900 hurricane. It was rebuilt during WWII. The concrete base that held 90 mm guns is all that remains. The fort was decommissioned in 1959. Now it's a great place to watch for birds or to watch the ships come in. We saw a raccoon eating cheetos, which was equally entertaining.
This is the remains of Maison Rouge, the home of the gentleman pirate, Jean Lafitte. He and his buccaneers settled here in 1819. In 1821, the United States asked him to leave. I guess he was unhappy about that because he burned his whole village before he left. This is fenced off in the front but open in the back. But there was evidence that someone was using it as a home base so I didn't venture in.
This is the Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig Museum. It's a cool lesson on how they drill for oil and what life is like on these platforms that are out in the sea. It's also where we got our first SENIOR discount! The guy asked, "any seniors?" We said no. Then he said, "it's 55 and older." I raised my hand. "Me! I'm a senior!". We both got $2 off! The Ocean Star is an actual drilling rig. It's a very cool museum and worth the price of admission.
There were tons of pelicans in the bay either sitting on these wooden pylons or just bobbing about in the water.
We went for a walk on Stewart Beach. During the summer, this lot would be packed full of cars. Now? All mine!
We walked about a mile or so on the beach and then came back via the seawall. It was great!
We went to the Galveston County Historical Museum which is located in the Old Galveston County Courthouse (only open M/W/F 10 - 5) and it's free! It's a small museum but it's got all these cool old photographs. This is St. Patrick's church after the 1900 hurricane. Several people went here to ride out the storm. A lot of them died when the bell tower collapsed.
This is a letter that someone wrote to a family member after the storm. It was pretty interesting.
They also had old newspapers.
This little article was tucked in at the bottom of that page. We thought this was funny. I highly recommend visiting this museum and it's free!
We went to Pelican Island and visited Seawolf Park. It's $10/car. I can only assume that during the summer this place is packed with families hanging out. Today there wasn't much going on. Just people fishing. It was another nice place to sit and watch the boats.
Pelican Island was the "Ellis Island" of Texas. In the late 1830's, incoming immigrants were quarantined to prevent the spreading of diseases. The quarantine facility was originally on Galveston Island. After several hurricanes demolished the facilities, a 10-building facility was built here on Pelican Island. It closed in 1950 but about 750K immigrants went through this facility during it's run.
This is a shipwreck in Galveston Bay. It's the SS Selma. It was built of concrete during WWI due to shortages in steel. It was launched in 1919 right at the end of the war so it never entered the war. It was then commissioned as an oil tanker. In 1920, it hit a jetty and tore a huge hole in the hull. Unable to fix it, the ship was purposely scuttled in the bay.
The Hotel Galvez (or Grand Galvez as it's now called).
We had drinks here in the Founder's Bar. One of these days I'm going to stay here. It's haunted, you know.
John on the Galveston County Jetty. We walked all the way out to the end. It was very windy!
On our last day in Galveston, we went on, what my mom would call, a "boogie ride". That's where you get in the car and just drive. This boogie ride took us to Alvin, Tx, home of none other than Nolan Ryan. This is the Alvin Historical Museum housed in an old post office building. Note the statue in the front.
A plaque telling Nolan's story. Also from Alvin is the pitcher of the 2023 World Champion Texas Rangers, Nathan Eovaldi, in case you were wondering.
Our last adventure was to the Rosenberg Library. This library is so cool. It houses so many artifacts of Galveston history. Anyone can come here to do research. When we were here last year, the 4th floor of the library was under renovation. The renovation is done.
The fourth floor is a museum. It's free. This is one of the exhibits.
This is the 1895 Galveston Orphan's Home after the storm. This home was further inland from the St. Mary's Orphanage. The middle of the building collapsed in the 1900 storm. The building was restored and is now the Bryan Museum, which we will be going to on our next visit.
This was one of the paintings that hangs in the museum. I didn't make a note of who did it but I think this is a random house in Galveston. This was my favorite painting.
One last look at the Gulf from our balcony. That's the walkway from our condo to the beach. We tried to walk over there earlier in the week but you can see that marshy area close to the beach. It was impassable last week.
If you're planning on going to Galveston, they have TONS of amazing restaurants (and I do NOT get any kickback's for mentioning them). We tried a bunch of new places this time.
- Fisherman's Wharf had a great happy hour menu. It's M-F, 11-6 and you have to eat in the bar/lounge. It was really good and pretty inexpensive. On Pier 21.
- Blvd Seafood - it's very small but they take reservations. We got lucky and got a table without a reservation. It was really good food, on par with Gaido's but a little less expensive. The ambiance is not as nice as Gaido's. On Seawall Blvd.
- Yaga's - we went here last time but it was so good we went back. Get the seafood flauta's! Yum. On the strand.
- Salsa's - It's Mexican and quite tasty. Relatively inexpensive and on seawall Blvd. They have a live Mariachi band and they were really good. I got a lovely serenade that reminded me of my grandparents singing with the Mariachi's a long time ago at a birthday dinner.
All of these restaurants were very good and local. So many more to try!
Well, Galveston. We had a great time once again. We'll be back!
