Galveston

Hello again.  

When our job in Houston ended on the 22nd of December, we traveled south to Galveston to stay for a week, figuring on seeing several of the sights there, and enjoying staying pretty darn close to the beach.  We found a site at Sandpiper RV Resort which was about 500' away from the water, but for some reason didn't put out the patio deck of our rig.  As it turned out, it was often foggy, and very humid, and we wouldn't have enjoyed being outside as much as we would've wanted.  In addition, the mosquitoes were relentless, and being out in them would've made things very unenjoyable.  From what we read about while sightseeing in Galveston, mosquitoes have been relentless there forever.  

RV site at Sandpiper RV Resort in Galveston, Tx.  Notice the moisture on the vehicles, it was that way everyday of our stay there.  Can't see the ocean from this viewpoint, but it's on the other side of our site about 500'.

The first morning after we got there, we went for a walk along the beach before the sun came up, because one of the brochures we got telling about Galveston, said we had to see a sunrise and sunset there.  We got to see the ocean (duh!) as the sun came up, as in the next pic, just like we were supposed to do.

While we were walking on the beach, we noticed houses on stilts nearby.  This was our first exposure to houses that were on stilts in Texas.  We didn't understand exactly how important those stilts were until we went to a couple of the touristy places and found out about the hurricane that hit Galveston on September 8, 1900 and killed upwards of 6,000 people overnight.  So, even though there is a sea wall where most of the city proper is, apparently the ocean can still make a deep push onto the island, and the following pix show what the houses close to the beach look like.

These homes are either rentals or vacation homes, I'm thinking.  Humongo jobs about 12', or higher, off the sand of the beach next to where we were staying.

Homes on stilts further southwest from our campsite.  Lots of homes this way in the area.

The above pix were on the beach side of the road.  But the picture below was on the opposite side of the road.  Maybe the architect wanted to be able to float away.

Not sure if it floats or not.  But it's unique!

As Galveston was, at one point, where more affluent folks lived many years ago, there were a couple of mansions still there: the Willis-Moody Mansion, originally built by Narcissa Willis who built the home after her husband, Richard, passed away in 1893, with the purpose of having room for all of her family to come live with her.  As she was estranged from her children for doing so with her deceased husband's fortune, none of them returned to live with her, and she lived in it for six years with a single housekeeper until her death in 1899.  Her daughter put it up for sale and had several bidders, among them William Lewis Moody, Jr., whose bid was $20,000 for the $100,000 home.  After the Galveston hurricane, all bids were pulled except Moody's.  The Moody family move in shortly thereafter, and William lived there until his death in 1954, at which time, his daughter, Mary Moody Northen acquired it and lived there until three years prior to her death in 1986.

The Willis-Moody Mansion, sometimes known  as just the Moody Mansion.  Mr. William Lewis Moody, Jr., was a philanthropist and entrepreneur founding a bank, an insurance company, and a large charitable foundation.

And Bishop's Palace, which was the former Gresham Castle.  Built for $250,000 from 1886 - 1892, it's now valued at $5.5 million.  The picture below doesn't do it justice for the opulence it had when it was built with steel framed walls that were up to 23" thick after the stone was added, and featured chandeliers that had gas and electric lamp fixtures.  For more, and better, pictures, I suggest going here.  

Bishop's Palace.

We also spent time going to Ocean Star offshore drilling rig museum on the north side of Galveston.  Prior to this, I didn't realize how much money is spent, and work is done trying to find oil offshore.  The museum is a great place to learn all about how oil companies go about doing that, and what life is like on an offshore oil rig.  It's a great place to learn all about that stuff, especially after seeing the movie Deepwater Horizon.

We liked being in Galveston, despite the constant humidity and fog which rolled in whenever it felt like it.  The worst part was the mosquitoes, as both of us had to host about 20 of them suckers with our blood while we were there.  But I'm thinking that if we'd stayed at a different RV park, one that was known for being next to a mosquito breeding ground (doing the research next time at RV Park Reviews, or something along the same lines.) would help.  It's a viable vacation or day off place to go to with a long beach, although it isn't very deep at times, lots of restaurants and lodging, and an amusement park, Galveston Island Historic Pleasure Pier.  If you're into history, there's quite a bit there and some really beautiful old homes that have been refurbished nicely.  Folks are friendly and courteous, and welcome visitors, as was evidenced by the numerous folks that visited Galveston while we were there.  I'm sure they'd welcome you if you went there also.