Summer Mini-break

Most of the time my vacation time is spent visiting family of some sort. Not that I mind at all. I love my family and I love visiting with Danny's family as well. But sometimes, I feel like we need to do something...just the 4 of us. So we decided to take a little mini-vacation down to Galveston. Of course, we played the same little game we play with the boys every time we go somewhere: No, I'm not going to tell  you where we're going. We're staying in a place we've never stayed before. Just annoying stuff like that *GRIN* It gets the boys really excited and thinking about where we could be going and it's just plain fun for me and Danny!
Believe it or not, we've never spent the night down in Galveston. Danny found us a suite hotel, right across from the beach. As I told the boys, this was my idea of camping...a kitchen in the room. Although, I must admit, the kitchens in the RV's my parents had were bigger than this one:

We stayed at the Casa del Mar (61st and Seawall for you locals who are reading). It was a little small, but certainly clean and not terribly expensive.

The kids' favorite part was the bunk beds:

And the view wasn't too bad either:








We went down Friday afternoon and spent the early evening on the beach. Note to self: 1600 on is the best time to hit the beach. It's cooled off enough to be pleasant (not scorching hot!). And, because it's the Gulf of Mexico, the water is nice and warm - almost bath-like!

We picked the wrong side of the pier, so the water was full of seaweed (ewwww!). We fixed that problem by going to the other side of the pier on Saturday, so we had nice seaweed free water! HOWEVER...it was not a critter-free environment. The fish were really close in to the shore and jumping like crazy! And because the fish were in so close, so were the seagulls and the pelicans - all trying to get a good meal! One guy got slapped in the chest by a jumping fish! I wish I had my camera ready when that happened.

Saturday and Sunday we had all-day passes to Moody Gardens. Talk about a deal! We had unlimited access to the Aquarium, the Rainforest, the Discovery Pyramid and the Imax Theater. We even had access to the Paddle Boat and the Beach, which we didn't use.
We all loved the Aquarium the best. Right now they are doing a special exhibit on Sharks, in additional to all the regular critters: Seals, Penguins and lots and lots of fish! To continue with the shark theme, we went to the Sharks in 3D IMAX movie. That was well done and informative.
The Rainforest suffered a lot of damage during Hurricane Ike two years ago. Not damage to the structure, but to the plants, birds, etc. that were housed in the building. Unfortunately, the basement of the Rainforest pyramid flooded (with about 9 feet of water) and it destroyed the HVAC system (temperature control). So a lot of what they used to have was moved out and has not been brought back yet. Moody Gardens is shutting down the Rainforest in September for some major renovations and it won't open again until May of next year. I hope they are able to bring back some of the other birds and fish that they had when I first went there 15 years ago. Now, that's not to say there wasn't anything to see. There was still plenty of vegetation and several waterfalls. The highlight though was the Macaws! They had 6 different types of Macaws...all in pairs. Those are beautiful birds!


To end our trip, we had an early dinner at Gaido's...one of the most well know seafood restaurants on the Island! It was well worth it, too! Danny and I each had a different preparation of Shrimp (mine stuffed with seafood, Danny's stuffed with cheese, jalapeno and wrapped in bacon), while the boys had "fish fingers"...the fish was fried Tilapia! And it looked fabulous! Definitely going to eat there again when we go back!