Trip to Galveston

Andy and I really didn't take a "vacation" this summer.  We usually take a big trip with just each other and then a camping trip with Andy's parents.  Honestly, we thought neither would happen due to us completely moving our life to Katy.  We decided we would take a short trip to Galveston last week for some alone time away from reality before school gets going in full swing.  Andy's parents watched Maddie and Lonestar for us while we were away, and even volunteered to keep them another night so we could spend an extra day and night in Galveston.  It was a very relaxing and much needed trip after the craziness of moving.

We are convenient store junkies when we travel.  It
never fails we stop somewhere to get a drink, candy,
and some chips usually.

Fred Hartman Bridge on the way to Galveston

Welcome to Galveston!

We arrived on Wednesday afternoon and headed to the hotel to check in.  We decided to go to the pool for a little while before dinner.  We ate at Fish Tales, which normally has delicious seafood.  This time around we a some problems with our meal.  Typically we order salads with our meal and request that they come before the actual meal.  A young girl delivered our food before the salads, and I told her that I was not ready for my meal because our salads hadn't come yet.  Now Fish Tales has a open kitchen area so we can see when the cooks put the food out for the servers to pick up.  Andy watched her walk over to the salad area and pick up our two salads to bring back to us.  We are assuming that they had been sitting there for a while.  The girl left with our meal and put it under a heat lamp.  Andy called our waiter over and told him what had happened and that our food was sitting under a heat lamp.  Andy asked him to have our food re-cooked.  I mean, who wants seafood that's been sitting under a heat lamp!?!  Yuck.  This is when it gets really good... Andy watched our waiter speak to the cook about our food, he watched the cook make the motion like he was going to throw our food into the garbage, and then he watched the cook put our food back under the heat lamp!  He even looked at our table as Andy was watching him.  Seriously!?!  After that, we spoke to a manager and she comped our food which I find highly embarrassing.  I hate causing a big scene and I hate people giving us things for free.  But, our request was not abnormal.  I would understand if had been eating at Chili's where our meal would cost 20ish dollars.  This was a seafood restaurant where our bill was going to be over $50 for just two people, and the behavior of the cook was wrong.  Unfortunately, I really like Fish Tales, but I don't know if we'll be eating there again.

At Fish Tales
Andy always makes fun of me because
I always take self-portraits of us. Oh well. :)

After dinner we went to the local putt-putt golf course.  Andy usually kicks my butt, but I did have a 4-stroke lead over him at one point.  Then I choked and he ended up beating me by 2 strokes.  It was really crowded, but we definitely had a good time.

Thursday we spent the whole day in the car.  Well pretty much the whole day.  We woke up early and went to the fitness center.  Then we headed over to Bolivar Peninsula because I had never been.  That's the part of Galveston that was mostly under water from Hurricane Ike.  It amazes me how quickly coastal towns bounce back from natural disasters.  We had to ride the ferry to get to the peninsula, so that was pretty cool.

The wind was a little crazy on the ferry!

We ate lunch at Stingaree's seafood restaurant.  This was the meal we were looking for at Fish Tales the night before.  We shared a seafood platter of fried crab, stuffed crab, shrimp, crawfish, stuffed shrimp, fish, and shrimp etouffee.  It was very yummy.  I was not a fan of the stuffed crab and stuffed shrimp, but everything else was really good.

After lunch, we drove around on Crystal Beach and headed back to the main island.  Then Andy drove me down to the San Luis Pass and showed me all of his fishing spots when he takes his kayak out.  We saw some large (and really I mean massive) beach houses!  Of course we talked about what it would be like if we could afford a beach house.  I told him that I would never want to live in a coastal town but a beach house is not a bad idea.

All of the driving around made us pretty tired, so we headed back to the hotel to hang out at the pool again.  The hotel bar was having happy hour so we had a few drinks.  Then we had a quiet dinner at Chili's.  We also decided to go to the movies.  I can't tell you the last time I went to the movies, maybe a year or maybe two years.  We went to see Grown Ups 2.  I was disappointed.  There was no plot or goal for the movie to get to.  Were there funny moments?  Absolutely, there were several.  But overall, I would have rather saved that for the $1 rental from RedBox.

When we left Chili's this was the Salt Grass sign...
Or should I say "Sal Ass."  It stayed like that for the
next night as well.

Friday we headed to The Strand to browse all of the shops.  We stopped at this super cute old-fashioned themed ice cream shop.  It was so adorable.  All of the workers dressed the part of the ice cream shop workers from the 1950s.  I wanted to spend some time actually laying out at the pool to get some sun, so we headed back to the hotel mid-afternoon.  After the pool, we rented a bicycle to ride on the Seawall.  Ha.  We had to ride into the wind going down the Seawall, and that was probably one of the most difficult bike rides ever.  The wind was brutal.  It was much better coming back when the wind was blowing with us.

Saw this at one of the shops on The Strand.
Cracked me up!!  I know, I know...
you're thinking "math nerd."

Hanging out at the pool

Our bicycle!

This night was going to be our night out on the town since several places had live music on Friday night.  We went to this restaurant called The Spot.  Well, it's not just a restaurant... It's one restaurant and about four bars all crammed into the same building.  It's crazy!  The whole building is about three stories tall and there are so many little nooks and crannies throughout.  You order your food at the counter and then find a seat.  Your food is ready when the buzzer goes off and you walk back to the counter to pick it up.  Trying to find a seat was ridiculous.  Remember, there are three stories.  You don't have a waitress or hostess to find the next available seat for you.  You are on your own.  This kind of stuff really stresses me out because it's just mad chaos.  Thankfully Andy found us a table.  I mean, there were groups/families of 15+ people trying to find tables, and the entire group would walk around which just made it more chaotic.  Despite all the madness, the burgers and fries were delicious.  I would eat there again, but maybe like middle of the afternoon since it might be less crowded then.

After dinner, we headed to one of the bars located in the same building.  We had to wait for a little bit to find an open table.  We were there about an hour before the live music started.  It really started to get crowded, like abnormally crowded.  And we were the youngest people by like 15 years.  Ha.  Little did we know, there was a class reunion from 1983 happening at that exact same bar.  That explained why I felt so young.  I thought it was hilarious to watch all these "old" people.  Oh yeah, I did have a frozen strawberry mojito.  It was probably the most interesting tasting drink I've ever had.  Not sure if I would get another one.

At the bar with the 1983 class reunion!

Saturday we headed back to Tarkington to pick up our animals and have dinner with Andy's parents.  Overall, it was a great trip and some good quality time before the craziness of work starts back up.

This will sound so conceited, but I really don't mean it that way...
I think I love taking selfies of us because we're just too darn cute!