The Last Hurrah – Aunt Lili Visits Houston

Wednesday, April 20, 2011Wednesday, April 20, 2011 by Sparkbark | 1 Comment

My sister Lili flew in on late Thursday afternoon and we went to Mega Mel’s Cafe in Tomball and then to the boys’ favorite tire park (Jerry Matheson park, also in Tomball). We are going to miss those places. I heart Tomball. If we ever have to move back to Houston, that is where we would go! Then, Friday, we got up early and drove to San Antonio and went to Six Flags for the day and wore everyone out. Saturday we drove to Kemah Boardwalk for the Crawfish Festival with Zydeco music and, no, I did not eat any crawfish. We went to one of the best restaurants for my birthday that I have ever eaten at: Saltgrass Steakhouse. It was very yummy and I only had the steak salad! Sunday we went to church and then looked for dolphins as we took the ferry across Galveston to the Bolivar Peninsula and spent the day at Crystal Beach. It was a wild ride (with lots of time in the car!) but we had such a great time with Lili here to celebrate my birthday. When we dropped her back off at the airport on Monday, I think it felt like she had just arrived — what a whirlwind tour. It was nice to have a visitor before we leave for Oklahoma.

Touring the Houston Area: Galveston, San Jacinto & Battleship Texas

Tuesday, December 29, 2009Tuesday, December 29, 2009 by Sparkbark | Leave a comment

Today we went to Galveston. We were chilly. Not negative 7° F chilly, but cold nonetheless. When the wind blows off the ocean and it is 45° F, it gets pretty cold into your bones! We wandered and the kids found seashells. My Dad really seems to enjoy the ocean while my Mom stays as far away from the water as possible! The poodle even hit the sand for awhile but they quickly headed back to the car. Then we drove down Seawall Blvd. and ate for the 2nd time at Fisherman’s Wharf restaurant. We love eating there and looking out over the gulf. It is fun to watch huge ships pass by. We heard if you try the ferry (which is free), you can see dolphins swim along side – really?! Can’t wait to find out. We will definitely go back when it’s slightly warmer. We drove down the Strand but it was really getting rainy so we headed toward home.

On Saturday, we spent some time at the San Jacinto Monument and touring Battleship Texas and we thoroughly enjoyed that, too. The boys thought it was a gigantic jungle gym. I think it brought back Navy memories for my Dad. We are so glad we found out that if you buy a state park pass, it gets you a tour of the Battleship and into the monument area for free – otherwise an adult is $10 per ticket. It also gets you into any state park for a year – what a deal! We can also bring up to 15 friends for free each time we go. Afterwards, we drove to Joe’s Crab Shack in Kemah on the Boardwalk to celebrate Donnie’s birthday. What a fun, carnival, Coney Island type atmosphere! We plan to head back there on a sunnier day later this week. I’ll try to post more pics but I’m actual living faster than blogging, so it’s all good. Lots of catch-up to do once the parents head home. If you’d like to see more pics, you can click on any of the pics above and it should take you to our flickr account. If I don’t post again before January 1st – HAPPY NEW YEAR to all!!!

Galveston Schlitterbahn II

Saturday, August 29, 2009 by Sparkbark | Leave a comment

We had a Second Day pass that needed to be used in the next week or so, so we decided to head down to Galveston today to Schlitterbahn. We had to make one stop on the way, however, and since our GPS is broken and needing to be sent back to HP for repairs we had to take written instructions (gasp! the stone age!). Hmmm…not so good. We took every back road possible and we could have reached our destination a gazillion times faster if we’d have just looked at a map and taken the highways. Oh well. We scored some great deals at the XPEDX Retail Store in Houston then on to Galveston! The boys had a blast and they were so easy to locate in their new rash guard shirts. I hope Cole doesn’t mind matching his brothers. He doesn’t usually care about such things (and I know I’m lucky!). At least, he doesn’t care enough to TELL me. Plus, it’s better than being sunburnt (sunburned?). All in all – a very great day.

Oh! One kid funny: The highway was closed in one spot so there was a massive delay and Don was a true Texan in his SUV and crossed the grass/curb median to the frontage road just like everybody else…Cole asked if it was illegal to which I replied, “Yes!” and to which Gabe replied, “Uhhh….I’m not going to jail!” It’s good to know he’d stick with you through thick and thin!

Galveston & Schlitterbahn for the 4th of July!

Wednesday, July 8, 2009Monday, July 6, 2009 by Sparkbark | Leave a comment

We had a blast. It wasn’t quite as fun as Noah’s Ark in the Wisconsin Dells but it was really fun! Afterwards, we wanted to eat at Joe’s Crab Shack so we followed Lole’s directions (our GPS is named Lole) and she took us along Seawall which was crawling because of fireworks off the beaches of Galveston and it ended up we couldn’t get to the restaurant because it was blockaded so we went to the next nearest one and when we got there it was boarded up from hurricane Ike damage and hadn’t been repaired (probably never will be). You can see the mark on the wall is well above my hand where the water line was during the hurricane. There were a ton of cars in the parking lot, though, so we asked a kid what all the cars were for and he told us he worked at one of 3 restaurants nearby so we walked to one called Fisherman’s Wharf (next to Willie G’s Steakhouse) and we had a great time – it was right on the harbor and had a neat ship we could watch just outside our window. The kids thought it was really fun and great food.