On the Road — Galveston

Terry and I’ve been traveling.  All the way to Texas.  Did I ever mention that we lived in Katy, Texas full time for about four years then part time for another five?  No?  We have many many really good friends in the Houston area so we decided to hang out with some of them.  (Maggie stayed home with her BFF Yvonne.)  Our first two days we stayed in Missouri City with our old neighbors and former golf partners, Rod and Mercedes. 

So all that time we lived there we made a few trips to Galveston and the first was Maggie’s introduction to the beach way back in 2003.  

Our first visit to Galveston
Look how young we all were!

Since that first visit, Galveston was hit in 2008 by “giant” Hurricane Ike which caused extensive damage.  Rod and Mercedes took us to Galveston for a day trip and we were happy to find the island restored and perhaps even better. 

We walked along the seawall;

Pleasure Pier
Pleasure Pier

 

Car off the seawall
OH NO! They need guardrails on this seawall!

went to Moody Gardens;

Coral Tree
Coral Tree

 

Penguins
These King Penguins were hatched right here in Moody Gardens 15 years ago!

 

Sea Star
Sea Star. Did you know that they aren’t called Star Fish anymore? News to me!

 

Shark Tank!
Shark Tank!

 stopped by the Strand;

Tremont Hotel
Tremont Hotel, site of our friends’ honeymoon 27 years ago.

 

did some shopping;

 

Mermaid Print
Bought this for Maggie’s mermaid friend.

 

Shop on the Strand

then ended the day with dinner at the Olympia.

The view
This is my attempt to get a picture of the dolphins that were playing the whole time we were at dinner.

statue

 Possibly more about our Texas adventures to come tomorrow.

A Visit to DC

I love to go to DC in April.  The cherry blossoms are blooming along with the tulips and other spring flowers that I can’t have in Florida.

Cherry Blossomstulipstulipswhite tulips

tulipsflowers

Jes, Andrew, and Mattie the Cattie recently moved to DC so Terry, Maggie and I went up for the weekend to help them get settled.  Our niece Jodi lives there, too, so we had a fun family gathering.

Mattie the cattie
This is Mattie the Cattie’s first glimpse of Maggie. Not a happy look!
Maggie and Mattie
Mutual disdain
Maggie and Me
Maggie and I at the Farmer’s Market in Dupont Circle.
Maggie in Dupont Circle
Maggie loves the city!
The whole family
All the gang in DC!

Maggie and Mattie never did make friends but they were able to stay in the same room together.  We had a great time and plan on visiting often!