With the Covid-19 pandemic effectively over for us (by which I mean both M and I have been fully vaccinated for months and most if not all legal restrictions in Texas have been lifted), we trekked to Galveston for a few days, something that was once an annual trip for us. I think this was our fifth Galveston trip as a family — our fourth was in 2018.

Though we locked ourselves down pretty hard for the first full year of the pandemic, our Spring Break trip marked the end of that, and was such a success that we decided to return to “normal” life. (Normal is, of course, relative. There were still signs of the pandemic everywhere, including the 5-10% of people who continued to wear masks [very often pointlessly harnessed under the jawline], the stickers and signs that continue to adorn doors and walls of businesses, the ubiquitous hand-santizing stations, the always-pointless plexiglass shields at cash registers, and the way people maneuver around each other. A few businesses we encountered still had abbreviated hours and/or low staffing.)

Outbound Trip

We left our house at 09:48 on Monday (14th) and made good time almost the entire way. There was a brief stretch of construction on TX6 that slowed traffic for a few minutes but that was it. We used the same route as last time — I-14 to Belton, I-35 to Temple, US190 to Bryan, TX6 to Hempstead, US290 into Houston, I-10 (briefly) to I-45, and I-45 to Galveston. Even in Houston, traffic flowed smoothly and we arrived at our hotel in Galveston at 15:09. (That’s five hours and 21 minutes, but we stopped 10 minutes in Bryan and 32 minutes at a Buc-ee’s in Texas City, so driving time was only 4:39.) The outbound trip covered 258 miles.

At that Buc-ee’s in Texas City, we bought matching Buc-ee’s T-shirts, both because we’re fans of the company and because we (sometimes) like to have matching shirts.

The Hotel

We tried a different hotel this time, the Hampton Inn & Suites on Central City Boulevard. Compared to the previous two hotels we’ve tried in Galveston, this one was slightly better in a couple of ways. For one, walking toward the beach took us directly to a crosswalk at Seawall Boulevard (the previous two hotels we used were on a very long block, halway between two crosswalks). And it’s across the street from Walmart, which is handy for those of us who forgot to pack deoderant (that was me). Hot breakfast has returned, post-pandemic, and that was nice too. Like the last hotel we used, there was parking beneath the hotel, so our vehicle was shaded most of the time. And, like the other one, there was a balcony, but this one was more shaded so it wasn’t quite so hot. The shower was also very nice, with sliding glass doors and plenty of room.

However, like both previous hotels in Galveston, this one had no vent in the bathroom so the bath towels never dry between showers. Again, there was nowhere to hang wet swimsuits or beach towels, but we’d learned our lesson and brought plastic clamps so we could clip all that to the balcony chairs and allow them to dry outside.

Rest Of Day One: Beach, Supper Search

Since it was nice and hot, we dressed for the beach, sprayed SPF50 all over ourselves, and walked across to the public beach. The surf was weirdly calm compared to our previous experiences — nothing like the wild waves from this photo of me, made in 2017 — but we had fun nonetheless, from about 16:00 to 18:00.

Then came the “hour of showers” (I think we’d be willing to pay more for a similiarly sized hotel room that had an extra shower) after which we set out to find a late (for us) supper. The kids wanted Sonic, which is right next to the hotel, so we pulled in there, but the drive-thru was wrapped around to the driveway and blocking all the booths. We decided to try somewhere else. M suggested a nearby McDonald’s for ease and cost and convenience, but I was in the wrong lane when we got to that intersection so we headed on, knowing that there was a second McDonald’s further on. That second one was farther than I remembered, so we eventually doubled back and ate at Chick-fil-A. I know, I know, we typically won’t do it — plus it’s Pride Month. Sigh. But they had outdoor seating. And parking. And their line moves fairly quickly in our experience. And it was getting fairly late for our kids. We swallowed our Pride along with the tasty chicken.

B was feeling a bit sick ever since we got out of the water, and sniffled the rest of the stay, but it wasn’t as bad as a few years earlier when he was down for the count.

Day Two: Beach, Seawolf Park, The Strand, The Storm

After coffee and breakfast in the hotel (very nice dining area), there was some discussion about our next step. B wanted to visit the hotel’s pool, but M and R wanted to return to the beach. (I was invested in neither option and began to suggest others.) What decided it was M pointing out that we have a pool in our neighborhood at home. “If we’re just going to swim in a pool, we could have stayed home.” So we returned to the beach Tuesday morning, and it was just as fun. This time we rented an umbrella and deck chair. Again, the surf was very calm.

This time, we anticipated the “hour of showers” and left in time to do that before lunch. (We’re not yet the type of family that can bring down a cooler and stay at the beach all day. Maybe someday.) RnB still wanted Sonic, and this time it was more accessible, so that’s what we did.

In the afternoon, we drove out to Pelican Island to visit Seawolf Park, which has changed just a little since our last visit. Now the part where you visit the submarine and destroyer is called “Galveston Naval Museum”. I thought now that RnB were a little older they’d get more out of it, but they just wanted to hurry through and get back to the car for more tablet time (B) and book-reading (R). Shrug — I was a kid once, getting dragged to one site or another, so I understand. More of the destroyer was opened up to visitors this time, but it was still fairly hot in there. And silly me, I left my camera at the hotel that day, so only mobile phones were used for photos that afternoon.

From there, we drove to historic downtown — The Strand — to visit the same ice cream and candy shop (“confectionary”) that we enjoyed the last time we were there. The giant paved chess board (Wikipedia) was still in the nearby plaza, but the two-foot pieces were missing. Again, we visited the Pirates & Ghosts attraction, and this time B was able to read quite a few of the plaques and posters and able to operate the audio wand for himself. He spent some of his own money in the gift shop there. Walking around the area afterward, we went into a handful of gift shops but saw nothing beyond the usual supply of T-shirts, coffee mugs, and shot glasses. (Yes, that’s standard souvenir fare, but I guess I was looking for something unusual.)

For dinner, we attempted IHOP on Seawall Blvd., which we’ve enjoyed before, but the doors were locked. A sign on the door, listing hours of operation, indicated that the restaurant was open some evenings, but not Tuesday evenings. (Perhaps they’ve had trouble re-acquiring staff after the lifting of pandemic restrictions?) As we were walking away, a woman came to the door to inform us they were closed, which seemed pointless since we had clearly tried the door and were in the process of leaving. We drove on to Denny’s, which I have heard called the “poor man’s IHOP” despite being almost as expensive as IHOP. They were short staffed but the dining room was nearly empty when we arrived so our order was taken quickly. But then the dining room began to fill up rapidly. The single hostess and server picked up the pace and impressed us all by handling the growing crowd with friendly efficiency, and the two employees in the kitchen began pumping out hot food in rapid succession. It was impressive. (I’ve been in a restaurant kitchen before when crowds showed up; I know how difficult it can be to switch from “slow night” mode to overcrowded mode.) But not as impressive as the storm that suddenly blew through, clearing the beaches and sidewalks with a fury of blowing, stinging wet sand. From our window seat, we could see parked cars rocking in place from the strong winds and unsecured belongings flying down the street as if in a hurricane. It only lasted twenty minutes or so, but it was fun to watch and it left behind some beautiful evening clouds (see photo below).

We returned to the hotel, thinking the storm would continue, but after a few minutes of viewing it from our balcony, it looked like the lightning was staying closer to Houston (to the north), so we ventured back out and took a long walk along the seawall. B counted lightning strikes and kept saying things like “I’m too young to die!” despite our assurances that the chances of him being killed by lightning were astronimically low.

We stopped in Walmart on the way back to the hotel and bought each child a souvenir — a keychain for B and an oversized sleeping T-shirt for R. We reentered the the hotel at 21:00, which is a little late for RnB, but they were soon sound asleep. All of us slept well that night.

Day Three: The Ferry

Before pointing the minivan back toward Killeen, we drove to the northwest tip of Galveston Island, where TX87 connects to the mainland (Bolivar Penninsula) via a ferry boats (see my photo of one of the ferries from 2015), because RnB don’t remember riding it before (they were too young then). The ferry is free because it’s part of the highway system and the only route around Galveston Bay. We remembered our lesson from last time, when we drove across and then had to wait in a 45-minute line of cars to get back, so this time we parked and walked onto the ferry, so we simply rode it across and back without much wait. I won’t say RnB really enjoyed it, but they did spot a few dolphins playing in the water nearby, which sparked their excitement, and at least now they’ll remember having been on a boat. (To my knowledge, this is the only boat they’ve ever been on.)

Driving from the hotel to the ferry, waiting, and riding the ferry combined for only 90 minutes of our day, and we left the ferry parking lot at 10:35.

Inbound Trip

We made it off the island and through Houston without incident (not counting the truck-thrown stone that cracked our windshield directly in the driver’s line of sight) and stopped at Buc-ee’s in Waller, Texas, at 12:22 for gas and food. (We were all four wearing our Buc-ee’s T-shirts on this day.) I calculated 22.4 miles per gallon on that tank, which included the entire trip down and all our driving around the island, as well as back to Waller. That stop was about 23 minutes all told, and we again headed northwest, eating our pulled pork sandwiches on the road. We again encountered highway construction on TX6, which slowed us but traffic never came to a complete stop. During this stretch we fortunately made an emergency restroom stop for one child, and forty minutes later the other child had to go in Cameron.

But we arrived home at 15:47, five hours and twelve minutes after leaving the ferry parking lot. Finding everything as we’d left it, we immediately began doing laundry and unpacking.

Conclusion

It was a good, short vacation trip that didn’t break the bank. Fun was had by all, though I think the only time all four of us enjoyed ourselves simultaneously was at the beach or during a couple of the meals. Compared to our previous Galveston trips, I noticed a stark relief for M and I (especially M) now that the children are older and require less care, less constant observation, etc. — the first time we went, B was still in diapers! Each time we visit Galveston, the beach is larger — because they keep dumping more sand along the seawall to expand the beach (the stretch we enjoyed in 2021 didn’t even exist in 2015).

If you still follow me on Flickr, expect the rest of the photos to show up there in the coming weeks.

(And, the day after we returned home, we learned that Juneteenth has been declared a federal holiday, which is relevant because Juneteenth was first celebrated in Galveston.)