Galveston Island State Park, Galveston, Texas
A hot-tempered man stirs up dissension, but a patient man calms a quarrel. ~ Proverbs 15:18
It was a great day for walking around town. “Town” is about 12 miles away, so it’s really more of a day trip, especially since there was soooo much to see and do!
The best place to begin at any town, is the Visitor Center. Such lovely and knowledgeable ladies who work here in Galveston! They had no problem sharing and showing us additional information about the house they’re currently using as a Visitor Center. It’s inside the Ashton Villa! Remember that picture of the house with the buried fence from the other day? That’s it!
We didn’t even know that fact when we took the picture. : )
Now they use it for special occasions like wedding receptions.
but she told us we could peek through the windows.
Well, why get married at Christmas then???
Funny, but while they mentioned the Great Storm of 1900 (more info on that at a later date), they failed to mention the rampant and “legal” prostitution that went on for 70 years. More on that in a later Special Edition.
We left the VC to go in search of tree stumps. I’m certain you’re questioning that right now. 😊 Following the devastation of Hurricane Ike in 2008, some of the residents who still had tree stumps left, hired artists to carve figures into them. Some were wonderful and some were just ‘ehh’, you can decide what you think, since all art is subjective.
It took us quite a while to see all those stumps! Walking and driving up and down streets in a residential neighborhood. Some of the homes had sidewalks to walk on, some did not. So that was fun. Fortunately, my tan canvas “street-walking” shoes didn’t get grass stains on them.
We also checked out a few other sights while we were walking about.
This is called “Island Totem Pole”. In honor of her late husband, Roger Case. The Case family retired here from Michigan and the totem pole represents everything her husband loved about Galveston.
“Birds of Galveston” 
“This large Live Oak contains 17 birds on the branches … 
…and relief carvings of several small plants and animals around the trunk”
We have enough pictures of just the outside, imagine if we’d gone in!
“Great Dane” 
The homeowners own a beautiful, gentle, gray Great Dane hamed Hunter. The tree had actually grown around the fence at the spot where the paws grip the fence.
This is a newer sculpture 
The VC added this address by hand to our map.
“Two Crested Herons” 
“The homeowners chose Cranes to mimic their tall narrow house. They are seasonally dressed for many occasions.”
I’d best hurry, Blaine’s leaving without me! : )
This sign was outside this house. 
See the plaque in the middle of the top step? 
Hurricane Ike storm surge!
“Pod of Dolphins & Mermaids” The Dolphins represent the children and the Mermaid represents the mother of this family. This had been their “family tree” and they are very happy to still have their tree, even in its new form. 
There’s a turtle hiding in the base, too!
“Monument To Galveston’s Trees” 
You can still see the base of the trunk in this one.
“Grandmother Reading to Her Grandchildren 
The Andoue family donated the money to the playground park in her honor. 
One, it’s housing another tree sculputre, but Two, it’s all decorated for Mardi Gras!
King Vidor, one of the directors of “The Wizard of Oz”,
was born in the front downstairs bedroom of this property.
The Tin Man even looks rusted!
“Pelican Sitting on Piling”
Moving from town to the Gulf now. . . . .
I think you can take a ride on her, but she’s also a museum of sorts.
Up next. A tour of a retired offshore oil drilling rig, named the Ocean Star, which was built in 1969 in Beaumont, Texas.
But first, we had to get past the pelicans. There were quite a few resting and preening on the rocks along the way to the entrance. Those white ones are huge; especially when you see them sitting next to the brown ones! The friendly woman at the entrance to the museum told us they come in from Canada to escape the cold weather, and they also bully the brown ones. This woman also gave us a great tip for a restaurant!
See Blaine?
There was a ton of information in this rig-turned-museum – – – much of which I didn’t understand. But that’s okay. I was still a bit awestruck.
The rig is called a jackup drilling rig, because it can be moved around. It works kinda like jacking up your car. These types of rigs are generally used for exploration, rather than the actual sucking up of oil for processing. And that’s about all I can personally tell you about the operation. 😊 See and read and learn for yourselves, at least as much as I’m sharing.
The paper they gave us didn’t have an explanation for the 2nd floor. It has a conference room on it, but that’s all we know.
Each bit costs about $115,000!
This is a lenticular image.
Now that makes me sound really intellegent doesn’t it? hahaha
We definitely felt we got our money’s worth. First, we were entitled to the senior rate of $8/person, but because we stopped at the Visitor Center and told them we planned to go, we also received an audio tour gadget for free.
It was time for us to eat after that, so we walked over to Fisherman’s Wharf (yes, that’s the name of the restaurant), where we not only had scrumptious food, but a very unique and interesting view! There was a barge sitting right outside our windows doing cement work between the restaurant and the water, and then, once they quit for the day and sailed away, dolphins came out to fish! The dolphins surfaced too sporadically to get a picture, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. 😊
Now they know how zoo animals feel! : )
It sounded so good on the menu, we each decided to get one.
No pictures of the dolphins though. Too unpredictable.
Presumably for the Elissa.
Now we needed to walk off our dinner a bit. Too bad it had cooled off while we were eating! We took a scenic route back to the Jeep by walking up The Strand – a road (named Strand) that showcases the old historic district.
Since we were driving back that direction, we decided to see if there were any houses of ill repute left standing on Postoffice Street, but that didn’t happen, because on those five blocks (between 25th & 29th Streets), there now sits an electrical substation. However. When we were searching for stumps, we came across this house that we felt could certainly pass as one! Bet the current owner wouldn’t be too happy with our assessment.
Another lovely sunset, but not as lovely as last night!
