Friday, 27 Jan 2012 - Port Lavasca, TX

Oh the places we end up! Where the hell is Port Lavasca and who's ever heard of it? Me, now.

Did the normal routine this morning and while Wayne occupied the bathroom facilities, I went out to watch the shrimp fleet come back into the pier, right beside the hotel, and get some photos. The port at Galveston is a heavy working port and a wonderful place to sit and watch the boats come in and leave. At any time there could be a cruise ship, a cargo ship, fishing boats, or pleasure boats in the river. On the other side of the river is the ship yard that repairs, builds, redesigns the big oil rigs in the gulf. It's a busy spot and like a campfire, you can stare at the river and all the goings-on for a long time.

I wanted to get to the Boliver Penninsula which is just a short ferry ride from Galveston and became much better known after Anderson Cooper saw the single house still standing in Gilchrist after Hurricane Ike destroyed everything else.

When we were there in 2009, it was tragic as cars were still piled on top of one another, houses were flattened and virtually no cleanup had been done yet. Well, if nothing else, Galvistonians are optimistic people because except for the odd house showing damage, everything is re-built and cleaned up and looking awesome. The only thing missing is.....GILCHRIST!! If anything was rebuilt they didn't put up a sign saying so and it looks like the town has either incorporated with another small community or gone. Everything else is new and beautiful! The rebuilt houses are still on high stilts but I suspect they are now built to be hurricane proof...if such a thing is possible built 100 feet from the gulf! As I said, they are very optimistic!

We went back into Galveston so that I could cruise the streets and take a few more house photos. I don't know who lives in them but there certainly is an element of money involved as they are generally HUGE. A good majority of them are still being renovated and/or painted and whoever has the painting contract on the island has a job for life! I was tempted to go to a real estate broker and tell them I was looking for a home...just to get a peek inside a couple of these places as the wood detailing inside is rumoured to be awesome...but I figured if the agent saw our 1996 Church-mobile, all semblance of being able to afford one of these places would be quickly done!

We decided we'd head for Corpus Cristie and hopefully get to the Whooping Crane reserve near there. Wayne programmed his girlfriend..aka Gertie..to take us the 'shortest way' so we got to meander through some back country that we'd otherwise never see. We ended up here at Port Lavasca in a beautiful room in the local Best Western and just finished another seafood meal at the local restaurant.

I'm not having any luck in figuring out why I can't post photos here so Facebook will have to suffice for now. I'll keep trying though.... That was our day. It was 70 degrees and sunny, so nice to be able to drive with the windows down and smell that fresh, sea air. We did stop at a shopping centre for an hour to stretch and although I came 'THIS CLOSE' to buying my girls new tutu bathing suits, I decided I'd better tough base with their Moms regarding sizes for this summer. They may only be 2 yrs old but they are already growing out of size 3 clothes!

Hope all is well there. Take care and until next time, hugs and kisses to all.