Gulf, Here We Come, Oil Or Not

From 2010 05 Houston - Galveston

We hadn't been to Galveston since before Hurricane Ike. Given that another hurricane season is upon us and the BP oil spill is threatening to change life around the Gulf forever, we decided not to wait any longer to make another visit to Galveston.

After the jump, our trip to Houston and Galveston over the Memorial Day weekend.

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First stop, Houston. We visited the 75th Division HQ and Museum, home to Walt's WWII helmet that sports bullet holes from his combat in the Battle of the Bulge. Sadly, the building was closed for the weekend.

Then, we toured Rice University and, afterward attended the Conference USA baseball tournament championship game between Rice and the University of Southern Mississippi. Sadly, Rice lost 7-4. Taking our bad luck as an omen, we decided it was time to get out of Houston.

Next stop, Galveston. Galveston still shows some scars from Hurricane Ike, but in many ways, life has returned to normal. We visited the Moody Gardens pyramids housing the aquarium and the rain forest. Afterward, we cruised Seawall Boulevard. There was no parking to be had for miles along the beach. We strolled the Strand, busy as ever, and stopped for an ice cream at La King's Confectionery, which looks like it did before Ike, indeed, it looks like an ice cream parlor did in the 1920s. We ended the evening back on the seawall, enjoying the cool of the evening, watching the last swimmers stretch the day's fun into dusk, and viewing the monument to the hurricane of 1900, which took the lives of more than 6,000 residents of Galveston. Galveston has suffered in the past, and it may suffer again in the future from oil, wind and water, but when life is good, it can be very good indeed in Galveston.

For more photos, look here.