Day 8 - 6 Jan - Still in Galveston (Jamaica Beach)

The sun was shining today, it was 78 degrees, and we decided it was a perfect day to wander through the historic section of Galveston. The city has quite a history, and there are quite a number of houses and business from the mid-1800's that have been restored and look so beautiful. Photo is the bay on the north side of the island which has oil rig repair docks.

Galveston's history goes back further than the 1800s but has gone through a couple of calamaties, including the Sep 1900 hurricane which killed an estimated 6,000 people. We went to see an hour long movie recommended by the visitor centre and it was quite amazing. Apparently right after the hurricane, Thomas Edison sent one of his apprentices here to take photos which is why there is any photographic record of the event.

When the storm hit, most of the eastern end of what was then Galveston, was flooded and the storm washed houses inland, creating a wall of debris that in turn, brought other houses down. The clean-up started the next morning and as more and more dead bodies were collected, it soon became apparent that there was nowhere to bury them. Someone decided it would be a good idea to load them on a barge and take them out for burial at sea, except that come high tide, they all washed up again on the beaches! The bodies were then piled up and burned. Many of the millionaires who survived the hurricane put up a significant amount of money for the rebuilding of the city. The 18 ft seawall was built after this hurricane and proved itself when another hurricane hit a few years later and only 8 people died. It looks like it was built yesterday. When we walked through the historic section of town, many of the downtown buildings had a plaque on them as having survived the 1900 hurricane.

We found the nicest ice cream parlour...little tables with iron chairs, servers behind the long counter wearing white jackets and hats, and they had everything from sodas to cones. Oh yea, they also had the biggest, best, most amazing banana splits you can imagine. Guess what we had? Actually, we shared one and it was fabulous. I sure hope any of the stuff I brought for Puerto Vallarta fits by the time we get there!

After three days here, we are back on the road tomorrow. Jamaica Beach is definitely worth considering for a long term though. I could easily imagine staying here for a month next year. There are lots of great restaurants, shopping and 32 miles of beach to explore. Wonder where we'll end up tomorrow?