Historic Galveston and Matthew at the Beach

On Sunday through Tuesday of this past week, we took a short vacation to Galveston (only 1 1/2 hours away from home). We decided to experience Galveston differently by staying in a harbor side hotel instead of on the seawall. We had a great view of the harbor and the cruise ships coming in. Fortunately, Matthew's midday nap came at the same time that the sun and temperature were unbearable. We saved our outdoor activities for mornings and evenings. Monday morning we took Matthew to the beach. He had a lot of fun playing with a new toy dump truck his Deda bought for him. We also dipped his toes in the water and he didn't cry this time the way he did in December.

Besides the beach we visited the Great Storm /Pirate Jean Lafitte Museum. We learned more about the history of Galveston and the effects the disastrous hurricane of 1900 had on the island. We also learned more about Jean Lafitte, Galveston's Pirate from the 1800's, who had a camp near the hotel that we stayed. I am sure you realize that Matthew was too young to take this in, but he actually seemed to enjoy his new surroundings and he sat in a movie theater for 45 minutes. He didn't fuss much because we bought him a "pirate rubber ducky" that he munched on the whole time. He even posed for this photo in the gift shop, although you can see that he is tired.

We also spent a lot of time at the Galvez pool (the sister hotel of Harbor House where we stayed). On the last morning we went to the beach but our stay was cut short by some squalls from the approaching Hurricane Dolly which actually hit near Brownsville on Wednesday morning. Fortunately the storm died down and the clouds made the temperature bearable so we took a 45 minute dolphin cruise with Matthew. He seemed to enjoy the cruise but I did spend most of my time entertaining him with the stuffed dolphin we bought before the cruise. I named the dolphin Fonzie.

Tony was particularly proud that he captured a photo of a couple of dolphins.

Later that day after Matthew's nap we went to the Titanic exhibit at Moody Gardens. This fascinating exhibit had many artifacts from the actual Titanic and replicas of a stateroom and steerage cabin. The exhibits involved a lot of reading which for some reason didn't please Matthew. I had to bounce him in his "Jeep Carrier" to keep him from fussing while I read. As we were leaving we decided to visit the rain forest. We were glad we did. Matthew seemed very interested in the plants, birds, reptiles, and ocelot. Even though Ozzie the Ocelot had marked his territory and his den smelled like a litter box that hadn't been changed in weeks. Our last stop before leaving Galveston was a trip to Hooters on the Seawall as you can see from the previous post.