Peggy had the choice of where to go today and she chose downtown Galveston. We began our drive by going to the furthest northeast point of Galveston Island and gazing out over the shipping channel that leads from the Gulf of Mexico into Galveston Bay, Trinity Bay and up into the Houston area. Many anchored and some moving freighters in addition to a monster dredge were spotted. The dredge seems to be clearing out the sand from the channel bottom and piping the spoil over to the beach along Galveston’s Seawall and Pleasure Pier shoreline a few miles west.
We soon retraced our steps back into the city of Galveston and took a long cruise down Seawall Boulevard which has many businesses and hotels on one side and the Seawall, the Pleasure Pier and the Gulf on the other. Near the pier we found the business end of the dredge pipeline where many pieces of equipment toiled to distribute the spoil onto the beach. They had to work fast because the pipe was spewing out enormous volumes of wet sand in a continuous stream.
Along the way we spotted the Gumbo Diner and their sign touting their beignets, basically really tasty pieces of fried dough with powdered sugar on top. Once inside, I noted they also serve chicken fried steak which I am on a quest to find the finest example. It ain’t at the Gumbo Diner but their garlic mashed potatoes, fries and fish were very tasty. The beignets were also pretty tasty but I am quite sure they are bad for me and maybe everyone.
Since Peggy was driving, we then started a chaotic but rewarding amble through many Galveston streets, admiring the spectacular architecture of the buildings in this little coastal town. There must be 1000 really gorgeous houses in superb shape and probably twice that number that are, sadly, deteriorating. Although most of the residential structures are two-story rectangles, the architectural wizardry used to make each one unique is astounding. There must have been a plentiful supply of good architects here in the early 20th century.
Seawall and house pix can be seen if you click here