Galveston

Last year we rented a place on the beach for a long weekend and enjoyed it so much we did it again this year.  Last week we drove down to Galveston on Friday morning, got a bite to eat, then spent a few hours on the beach before checking into the beach house we rented.

Carmen had a great time at the beach, but Olivia nearly had a full-on panic attack because she was afraid the ocean was going to come and wash away all of our things (which I had put a good distance above the high tide mark), but we eventually got her into the water.

The beach house was pretty nice, with the glaring exception that we did not have, nor did we get after calling the owner several times, the wireless internet we were promised.  Grrr.

On Saturday we went to the historic Strand district of Galveston.  They have lots of old buildings, interesting stores, and museums to look at.  Here's a building that survived the devastating hurricane of 1900 (lower plaque) and that also shows the high water mark of the flooding from Hurricane Ike (upper plaque).

We also stopped by the Railroad Museum, where we had fun taking pictures with these guys in the lobby (a restored train station).

And we took a look at the bay and pier area, where we found the historic ship Elyssa.

The historic buildings on the Strand weren't as cool as I had hoped, but the Bishop's Palace did not disappoint.  It's a mansion on Broadway built in 1892 by a rich Galvestonian lawyer and politician that was subsequently sold (basically given) to the Catholic church to be used as the Bishop's house.

It's beautiful on the outside, as you can see, and the inside is even better.  We took the tour (no pictures allowed, unfortunately) and the whole interior is covered in beautiful hand-carved hardwood, stained-glass windows and really cool architectural features, like the first known instance of recessed electric lighting.  We're thinking about buying it for our summer home.

We spent Saturday evening at the beach, but I have no photographic evidence.

On Sunday we attended church at the Galveston Ward, and it started to rain during church.  We played in the beach house after church, then after the rain died down we went out in the evening for a walk on the beach.  I opted not to bring my camera, because it was still raining a little, and of course it turned into a beautiful night, with a colorful sunset in one direction and a huge rainbow going out over the ocean in the other.  Here's the view from my camera phone.

We had the beach to ourselves (literally) on Monday morning for one last chance to build sand castles.

The kids had a great time and it was hard to drag them away.

In fact, Carmen was having so much fun she forgot to, uh, well... I have a great picture but it's too inappropriate to post on the blog, but suffice it say the trail of brownish-orange stuff you see in the following picture is not mud.

It wasn't actually too hard to clean up, however, since in a gag-inducing act of service the seagulls started to eat it up like doritos.  State bird of Utah everybody!

All in all, a fun weekend at the beach.

Holiday weekend

We didn't really plan anything for our three-day weekend, mostly because I hate the thought of battling the inevitable crowds anywhere remotely fun, but it ended up being a great time to get some stuff done I should have done a long time ago.

On Saturday I dropped the blue car off at the dealership to have them fix the transmission, which had started to "judder" at low speed. It was something I'd been meaning to do for months, but it was good timing, because the big plastic splash guard under the car decided to fall off on my way to work on Friday, and was being held on with zip ties. Plus, since I didn't have to work on Monday there was no rush to get the car back.

After dropping off the car we ate at the Humble Inn in downtown Humble since we were close by and Amber had always wanted to try it. The food was pretty good and it has great Texas ambiance and a decor. We'll have to take our next visitors there.

After lunch we went bowling, where we had lots of fun, but the prices have us seriously considering purchasing our own bowling shoes. We had the bumpers up and a ramp for the girls and, I'm ashamed to say, with some aiming assistance Carmen was the winner. It's a good thing we were at "Humble" Lanes.

Sunday was my aforementioned day of resting in nice weather. We also had a failed video chat attempt with Grandma Anne, which spurred me to thing number two that I should have done a long time ago.

After mowing the lawn on Monday we loaded up the van and headed over to our nearest big box electronics retailer and bought a new dual-band wireless n router. The one I'd been using was embarrassingly ancient and to my chagrin, some of the problems I had been cursing our internet provider for magically went away after I got this hooked up. I had a sneaking suspicion this was going to happen. Again, I should have done it a long time ago.

After playing with my new toy for a while, we ended the day by picking up the blue car. The transmission was fixed for free under extended warranty and the splash guard was salvageable so I just had to pay $27 for some new bolts. Not a bad way to end the weekend.

The end is near

I think summer may finally be coming to an end! I haven't blogged anything for a while because it feels like all we've done is sit inside being hot to avoid going outside and being super-duper hot.

Houston set every record in the book this summer in regards to heat. We had 24 straight 100+ degree days in August and 43 100+ degree days overall (so far), breaking records from 1980. June and August were the hottest those months have ever been, and of course the humidity just makes everything worse.

To add to the misery, we're also in a terrible drought. We haven't gotten a 1" rain event since Jan. 24 (223 days ago) and it's been 361 days since the last 2" rain event. The last 8 months have been so dry you have to go back to 1917 to find second place and it is still more than 5" ahead of this year. And of course all the tropical storms are going east this year.

So on Sunday when I went outside for a second I was confused at this strange sensation I felt, of not feeling like I was suffocating in heat, but instead feeling... comfortable. I grabbed a lawn chair and a book and sat in a shady spot in the backyard for several hours enjoying being free of my indoor prison. I outlasted even the girls, who eventually gave up on me after a couple hours and went inside.

It was quite pleasant mowing the lawn this morning and I didn't end up completely soaked through with sweat like normal. I also noticed people playing in the up-till-recently abandoned neighborhood playgrounds today.

Summer may not be completely through rearing its ugly head this year, but I'm thankful it's stranglehold is finally releasing. I'm looking forward to Fall this year.