Galveston Island

Growing up in Houston , Texas meant that you spent a lot of fun times all year around on Galveston Island , but especially in the summer time . Galveston was about 1 hours ride from almost anywhere in Houston , no matter where you lived ... back then ,lol . Houston was a little bit smaller in the 50's and 60's , than now .

I can remember camping out on the wild beaches when I was small . That was soo cool .There were sand dunes to explore , waves to jump over in the surf  as they rolled in from the Gulf of Mexico .Walked miles looking for sand dollars , sea shells , bird feathers ; drift wood washed up on the beaches , weathered grey and smooth .Building sand castles with moats that filled with water from waves that flooded into them .Fishing for speckled trout , red snapper ,shark ( well , not me ,lol ) catching crabs , shrimp , and getting fresh oysters to eat . OMG !!! If  you didn't want to go to all that trouble just pick a restaurant , they were all good .Still are , lol !

A special treat would be to drive through the historical district and gaze at Victorian mansions that survived the 1900 hurricane that almost wiped Galveston Island off the map.They have a genuine palace that I would daydream about living in , no matter that it belonged to the Bishop of  Galveston-Houston Catholic Archdiocese , lol . Small matter to a little girl .

No trip to the Island would be complete without a ride on the Bolivar ferry . Dolphins racing along side the ferry as the sea gulls made foraging attacks on any unsuspecting person having the audacity to try to eat while out side the protection of their car ! What an adventure it was to watch sea going ships making their way to Houston up the ship channel .

As I grew older , a teenager , if you weren't at the POOL( where ever that might be in Houston ) then you were at the beach in Galveston as soon as it was warm enough to go in the water .Then later, as a older person , ah hum,  a group of us would drive down to the Island to swim in the full moon light , have breakfast as we watched the sun rise over the Island , and count it a great end to a fabulous night ! That of course was pre-Jaws ! No way would you get me back in the water after that movie came out .

Moe and I had a few adventures with our friends there when we dated .When the kids came a long they were introduced to all that the Island had to offer, also .We had nighttime picnics on the beach , rode the ferry , feed the sea gulls , watched the ships. We had the beach all to ourselves once as a storm moved in to shore off the Gulf of Mexico .The other people  left the beach thinking it would rain all day . It didn't,only a half hour, but what a sight that was to see as the clouds roiled above us , the waves pounded the shore line , the roar of the surf deafening to our ears . The rain slammed into our car so hard , we thought there might be dents in the roof when it was all over , but there wasn't any .How cool was that ?

All this was brought back to mind when a good friend sent me a email abut Galveston Island .It really made me home sick thinking of all the good times I had there in my life . I thought I would share the email with you too , so you might make this trip with me . Click here to see a little of Galveston .Enjoy !

Censorship And Mystery Of The Sea

I have been made aware by fellow blogger PH , a.k.a. Anonymous, that not all his comments go through to my email box . He has very angerly accused me of censorship of the comments which I publish . Another blogger has also mentioned his troubles in getting his comments through to me also . Sorry to any and all of you that are having this difficulty BUT ....... the censorship is not from me , ok ? I have , will , and do publish ALL COMMENTS that I receive in my email box . Even the hateful ones .

MAYBE , and I say this cautiously , it is the server that exercises it's right of censorship in some instances ? I don't know , but I DO KNOW IT IS NOT ME DOING THE CENSORING . Having said this , I am pretty sure that some one will test this out by sending something rude or nasty just to see if I will keep my word . I will. Anyway , please feel free to make a comment on anything I write about .If it comes to my In BOX , I will publish it .

So , that is out of the way , now I'll change the subject , ok ? The weather . That should be a safe topic huh ? It has been coolish these last few days .Today it was windy and cold off and on with low clouds . LOL ! I should try out to be a Weather Woman on TV , lol .

Moe and I went to sit on the beach today to eat our lunch. We watched the wind blowing the low grey clouds here and there . No one else was there , it was just us . Like the beach belonged to us and we were the only people in the world at that moment .

I noticed a little ways out to sea , a float of some sort , much like the big ones you see on commercial nets bobbing up and down in the water . As I watched it , I noticed it was moving against the current and moving quickly ,at that . I was wondering how that could happen when all of the sudden I saw a fin slice up out of the water . It was black . It was only there for a second , then it disappeared, as if I imagined it .

I looked closely at the float just in case it happened again. I wanted to confirm what I thought I had seen . Nothing happened . I told Moe to look with me and he didn't even see the float at first , then he saw the float also.

. We sat watching the float bob around in the water aimlessly for a while , when two flippers sprung up out of the water in front of us and just as quickly , disappeared back in to the sea . This continued to occur off and on for around 30 minutes , until whatever it was moved too far out to sea to be visual any longer .

I am not sure if it was a dolphin we saw , or shark , or what , but it was thrilling to watch . All the times we have sat on the beach I have wondered if something like this would ever happen , sort of like a fantasy , and it really did happen today . How about that ? I guess this will remain a mystery of the sea .