21 March 2023, Houston, USA, Galveston –

Galveston, oh Galveston … the strains of Glenn Campbell’s hit song echoed in our minds as we headed to where Houstoners go on weekends.  Apparently they don’t go there during the week – there was almost no traffic and very few people about, despite the fact that it’s still Spring Break.

First stop was the Ocean Star, a decommissioned oil rig that has been turned into a museum.  It has lots of information about the oil industry, and lots of pretty cool models of platforms – the sort of thing we used to have lurking around in the basement at work.  You could walk outside and see some of the equipment, gaze up at the derrick, and get a pretty good view of the large industrial port, where the USS Texas is in dry dock, alongside some rigs in for repair.  Galveston is also a cruise port, but there were no cruise ships in today – though we did see the tall ship Elissa, and a rather nice yacht that I could make myself quite at home on. We also saw several colonies of brown pelicans – my new favourite bird – cleaning and preening themselves on the rocks close to the shore.

Galveston, on the gulf of Mexico, is partly on the mainland, and partly on islands – Galveston Island and Pelican Island being the largest.  Galveston Island is full of contrasts. On its northern side is the historic port and downtown district, with former factories and warehouses converted to shops and hotels.  It reminded us of South Melbourne and Port Melbourne, with flat, wide streets. 

As you go south, you start to see some interesting and varied housing styles in the central section of the island.  Obviously some have been rebuilt and renovated after Hurricane Ike swept through in 2008, but many look like they’ve been abandoned, or not repaired.  There are also a number of very gracious stately homes and mansions, most notably the Bishop’s Palace and the Moody Mansion; and a lot of churches.  The island’s southern side fronts the waters of the Gulf, murky and messy today thanks to the cloud and wind.  There is a long sea wall, some large hotels, and the Pleasure Pier. It all looks very much like an English seaside resort.  We felt that Galveston hasn’t quite made up its mind about what it wants to be; I liked it very much anyway.

We took the car ferry from the north east end of the island, across a 3 mile stretch of water to the Bolivar Peninsula.  During the 20 minute sailing you can leave your car, and watch the swooping seagulls, as well as the other vessels making the crossing.  Ian discovered that eating a snack results in a recreation of the movie “The Birds”. We had a good view of the naval destroyer and submarine on display on Pelican Island.

The low lying Bolivar Peninsula is lined with beach houses on high stilts.  Most of them look new – Hurricane Ike decimated this area, with 80% of the housing lost to the 12 foot floods.  Everyone has built “up” to avoid a repeat.  We stopped briefly at the point where the road turns inland, to watch the wild shore and the small oil rigs that dot the Texas countryside. 

The wide flat road, lined with an marching army of power poles, was fringed by a wildlife reserve, and framed by an endless big sky.  It was much nicer, and more familiar, than the mess of concrete freeways closer to Houston – but inevitably we found ourselves back in the urban traffic, wending our way over enormous bridges, navigating spaghetti junctions, and taking wrong turns through the numerous chemical plants that line the Houston Shipping Channel.