Have you ever been to Galveston Island?
It’s a really fun place to visit.
I’d been there a couple times before for vacation, but never for just a Saturday outing.
Now that Hisa and I live only about a 40 minute drive from Galveston, however, we decided to do just that.
Despite the crazy heat, we had fun. We checked out some of the awesome old houses in the historic district before heading over to The Strand.
This is the Bishop’s Palace. It’s like a miniature castle. It was beautiful, and not something I expected to see in Galveston.
Can I live here? Please?
The Strand is part of the historic district near the waterfront. It’s streets lined with historical buildings (kind of like an old downtown) that are filled with all kinds of shops and restaurants.
Our favorite place was La King’s Confectionery. Besides being located in a cool historical building, it’s set up like a confectionery (candy store) from the 1920′s. Even the employees uniforms!
One wall was almost completely filled with the candy case, which had every kind of chocolate treat you can imagine (all made in the store). I may have drooled a little, I’m not ashamed to say.
The other wall had a coffee counter (with all kinds of coffee drinks and smoothies), a soda fountain counter (they made soda drinks, floats, shakes, and malts), and a huge ice cream counter.
Hisa ended up having a fruit smoothie and I ended up having some pumpkin pie ice cream, which was fabulous I have to say. There was also a guy making taffy with what looked like an antique taffy making machine. He would throw wrapped pieces of taffy at people watching as he made them. I caught mine. Hisa dropped his. I just thought I’d throw that in there.
After The Strand, we thought we’d check out Moody Gardens, but it ended up being quite expensive, and more than we wanted to spend, so we headed to the beach instead.
We didn’t have time to swim this time around, so we just walked along the beach some, but I told Hisa I want to come back to swim before the summer is over. The beaches at Galveston are not the most beautiful (brown water), but the beaches are fairly clean, there’s a lot of cool restaurants along the beach, and the warm is so warm. That’s my absolute favorite thing about swimming at the Gulf. I hate swimming in freezing cold oceans (i.e. the Pacific), so I love that the water in the Gulf of Mexico is beautifully warm in the summer.
Hisa walking along the beach and being followed by a mysterious arm…
Living near the ocean is cool.
Except for hurricanes. I hope we don’t get hit by any this year…
Menu Plan for August 13 – 17:
Mon: Italian sausage, sun-dried tomato, and spinach quiche; and tossed salad
Tues: Chicken gyros
Wed: Savory waffles topped with roasted sweet potato, crumbled Gorgonzola cheese, cubed ham, chives, browned sage butter, and a poached egg; and roasted asparagus
Thurs: Meatloaf, baked sweet potatoes, and corn on the cob
Fri: Meatloaf sandwiches and tossed salad
