Galveston in general reminds me of a little bit of New Orleans mixed with a larger portion of Key West, but with a generally more run down feel. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve enjoyed it, but Texas doesn’t compare to Florida as far as beach towns go.
Nonetheless, our few days in Galveston have been a great start to our trip! Hurricane Patricia is already making her presence felt here in the form of strong winds and angry seas. Our hotel is perched right on Seawall Boulevard and we have a front row seat to the constantly rolling whitecaps and the occasional daredevil with his surfboard ignoring the red flags in search of a perfect wave. And the inside of our hotel is no less interesting with its 2 interior brick walls and 1970’s decor. It is very clean but ridiculously outdated. But we can take almost anything for a couple of nights, and if we were in Belize we would probably think this room was not bad at all!
Our time here seems to have been centered around the history of the island, which is really fascinating. The railroad museum was a look into the past- not just of trains but of the passengers who rode them. Seeing private train cars (owned by the wealthy like private jets are today) were the most intriguing to me. Christian loved it all, like life sized train sets for a grown up “little” boy.
Our subsequent tour of the Moody Mansion was no less interesting. A grand 28,000 square foot mansion owned by one of the most prominent families in Texas. The house was breathtaking, but it was the stories of life 120 years ago that really captured my attention. Our tour guide brought the stories to life as if she’d been there, and the 2 plus hours we spent there flew by.
We took the obligatory free ferry ride to Bolivar Peninsula from Galveston. The ferry ride seems to be most well known for the scores of dolphins you see in the harbor, and we weren’t disappointed. A few of them even did some flips up and out of the water for us. A drive through the beach town of Crystal Beach on Bolivar Peninsula proved less impressive. For those of us spoiled by the beach towns of Florida, the beach and water both left something to be desired. But the houses all built on stilts to escape the inevitable flood waters were multicolored and plentiful.
We are looking forward to boarding our ship tomorrow. We’ve never been on a repositioning cruise. We will begin in Galveston and end up in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 11 days. The only hitch tomorrow may come from Hurricane Patricia, thankfully we are nowhere near landfall, but the bands from a storm that big will affect us for sure. So I’ll choose to look at it as another (unexpected) adventure.
