~John Dunne
I haven’t been to the island of Galveston, Texas for years and had the opportunity to spend a long weekend on the Gulf Coast of Texas with Galveston being the primary stop. The road trip in itself was so much fun thanks to some wonderful people. During the trip, we ate enough seafood to supply iodine for a small city and I highly recommend Willie G’s on Pier 21 for their gumbo. I haven’t had Shrimp Gumbo that good since the last time my sweet grandmother made it and she always made the best. I miss her and her gumbo.
We visited Moody Gardens and toured the Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition. In quiet reverence, it told the heartbreaking events of April 14, 1912 aboard the RMS Titanic. As you gazed upon the different items brought up 12,500 feet from the bottom of ocean floor, it was amazing to realize that someone actually held, wore, or used it as they while traveling on the ‘ship of dreams’. It brings home the fact that life is fragile, life is precious and to enjoy every minute of it.
Galveston has changed so much in the ten years I last visited. They have added so much sand in certain places to supply a ‘beach’ for the sand and sea worshippers, that in some places, the seawall is no longer seventeen feet high. But Seawall Boulevard is so much more now than the tiny tourist shops renting rafts, surf boards, and seashells.
We walked the beach about 10:00 pm one night and we stopped to gaze at the stars. The sky appeared huge with the stars twinkling on a black background. Beautiful! We were enjoying the feel of the waves rushing over our feet and the sand’s sucking motion when the waves receeded until I felt something moving under my foot.
I glanced down and there was a big ass, foot long, white, fang nashing, neon (Trust me, it WAS glowing in the dark!) snake trying to burrow under my left foot. Needless to say, I screamed, everyone else screamed (probably including the big ass snake before it disappeared in the sand) and I almost killed myself and everyone else trying to get traction in the sand to hoof it out of there.
Definitely ruins a romantic evening.
~Sandy
