Grandpa Goes To Galveston
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About this ebook
Galveston, an island city near Houston, Texas makes news when hurricanes hit. The best news is that the rest of the time Galveston is a great place for hitting the beach in the warm gulf waters, eating fresh seafood or visiting one of the many museums in town.
The author has flown in to Houston 5 of the last 7 years and driven in from Phoenix, Arizona the last two years. He stops for fresh shrimp before he even checks into lodging.
This book gives a week of sample days in Galveston from breakfast to dinner with entertainment ideas and recreation tips in between. You'll appreciate the tips on driving in the area.
John D M Myer
Grandfather, EE, Programmer, Teacher, cat lover, and finally at a ripe old age an author. Played sports and had a dance band in high school. Got same advice from my coach/father "Back up ten and punt" for all questions. Still have that NY snow shovel that I brought with me to AZ over 35 years ago. Love to travel to Galveston, Cancun and Hawaii. Married over 50 years.
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Grandpa Goes To Galveston - John D M Myer
John D M Myer
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2012 John D M Myer
ISBN 978-1-4659-9535-3
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Why go to Galveston?
Chapter 3 Where is Galveston?
Chapter 4 What is there?
Chapter 5 Typical Galveston Vacation Days
Chapter 6 Where have we stayed?
Chapter 7 Where do we eat?
Chapter 8 What do we do?
Chapter 9 Hurricanes from 1900 to 2011
Chapter 10 Nearby Galveston
Chapter 11 Driving to Galveston?
Chapter 12 Flying into Houston?
Chapter 13 Bus or Train anyone?
Chapter 14 Do I need a car?
Chapter 15 Cruise Lines
Chapter 16 Tips
Chapter 17 Timeshare
Chapter 1 Introduction
As a long-time resident of Arizona I am not a shill for the city of Galveston, Texas. No comps for meals or lodging have been received and my only income from Galveston comes from the sale of this book. That said, you will notice quite quickly my appreciation of what the city has to offer tourists. Whether from nearby or thousands of miles away there is much to please the visitor in and around Galveston.
In 2011 we visited Galveston for the 7th time in the last 8 years. In the following chapters I'll tell you how we got to Galveston, where we stayed, where we ate and what we did while we were in the area.
If you don't care about driving a long way to get to Galveston skip my chapter on our 1250 mile drives. I've tried to separate most of those things we did outside of Galveston into separate chapters so skip those if they don't interest you.
This is not a guidebook in the traditional sense but certainly can be used as a supplement to any guidebook. We don't try to cover every place in Galveston concentrating on those places where we have personally experienced their services.
I've avoided most of the Tex-Mex so-called Mexican restaurants in the area as my experience with them has been universally bad. I learned to like and eat Mexican in El Paso, Texas and in Mexico. Tex-Mex is fine if you grew up on it, but Sonoran or Chihuahuan is what we love.
Pictures created a dilemma with so many different types and quality of ereaders out there. I decided to put most of my pictures either on my web site or in a separate low priced ebook. Many high-quality pictures of the Galveston area are available for free on galveston.com and various venders web sites. I'll provide links for you on the website when they are posted..
Enjoy Grandpa Goes To Galveston and look for our soon to be released ebooks of a similar nature on Cancun, Hawaii's Big Island and Hawaii's Kauai. We've made 8 trips to Hawaii and over a dozen to Cancun so expect the same viewpoint of a frequent visitor.
Included in lodging are timeshare resorts. Many guides won't and don't mention them. That seems silly to me as many of these resorts offer rentals. Usually a timeshare unit is at least equal to a one-bedroom apartment and most often it is a two-bedroom unit with an adequate kitchen, living room and frequently a patio to enjoy the view.
Do we prefer Galveston to Cancun or Hawaii? In some ways we do as we find it easier to get relatives to meet us there and we do enjoy the water, food and fun things to do. Both Cancun and Hawaii offer much to ocean lovers and seafood lovers, which we certainly are. Hawaii is a slightly longer flight as is Cancun. Both end up being far more expensive for us than Galveston which helps us enjoy our Galveston vacations.
Our habit is to return each year to those restaurants and places of lodging that provide a good experience. We are at best middle income level so price is important to us. Menu choices change often as do exact prices. This led me to not mention too many names or prices on entrees but rather post links to all the menus mentioned in the book on my author's web site .
Chapter 2 Why go to Galveston?
The above photo was taken aboard the Colonel, a paddlewheeler sailing from Moody Gardens pier. Moody Gardens pyramids are in the background.
Back in the year of our 25th anniversary my wife suggested we go to Hawaii, where I had never been. We've been 8 times total now.
Back in the year of our 35th anniversary my wife suggested we go to Cancun. I had to consult the world atlas to find it. We've been back over a dozen times since then.
Back in the year of our 45th anniversary my wife suggested we go to a family reunion of sorts near Lake Jackson, Texas. Once again I got out the atlas. We searched for time share resorts near Lake Jackson. We found one just west of the toll bridge at the west end of Galveston Island, where I had never been. It was within an hour's drive of family. One of the local family members suggested we spend a day at Moody Gardens in Galveston, a relatively short drive from our resort.
Most of you will travel to Galveston by going through Houston just 40 miles northwest of Galveston. You'll then rent a car in Houston if you didn't bring your own and drive that last leg on Interstate 45, which ends on the island of Galveston. We did all of that except instead of I-45 we drove down Texas 288, a nice 4-lane limited access road from Houston to Lake Jackson. Why do I mention this approach?
This different approach to Galveston took us into Galveston from the west along the Gulf of Mexico, over the San Luis Pass Toll Bridge. From Surfside well into Galveston the shore was lined with houses built on stilts. Some sections had no homes but where they were, they were elevated. I've seen such homes before but never to this extent. Those elevated homes range from minimal to magnificent. If you are based in the city of Galveston, do take a few hours to make the drive west to Surfside at least. The peaceful scenic character of the western entry is quite a contrast to the busy beach resort town atmosphere in the city.
We've stayed in the city a number of times and enjoyed those stays. But we always think of the beaches and the homes on stilts when we think of Galveston. The Gulf, which produces the Gulf Stream of course is always warm and usually calm. Waves are not a surfer's delight but great for swimming and just playing on the sandy beach.
Seafood is the obvious choice but being in Texas, Galveston serves great beef also. Over the years we've added a number of favorite restaurants to our must do list for each visit. Your younger kids will be relieved to know that the usual fast food outlets are in town. Mario's on 6th and the Seawall has become our favorite for pizza as well as a number of other Italian dishes. Shrimp and Stuff on 39th and O is now our traditional first stop
when we hit town. Often that is even before we check in. There we get our annual poboy fix.
I've spread things out over many chapters to allow you to pick and choose with no particular order in mind. My goal is to not try to cover everything but give you the benefit of my experience during my visits. Some of you will have no interest in the driving to Galveston chapter but I hope some of you will find it useful.
On the issue of photographs