Vacation: Time to Get Away
Day 5 (May 13 ) Relax Day
On Tuesday, we relaxed. We slept in and laid around in our pjs most of the day. Mom and Dad did make it to the beach for a little bit. We played some games and mostly just chilled all day. Sometimes you need that.
Day 6 (May 14 ) Cool Tours
On Wednesday we went on the Cool Tours Land and Sea Tour of Galveston. We met our tour by Pleasure Pier and went all over historic Galveston. Our land tour guide, Sue, was a hilarious older Southern woman. She kept us cracking up as we learned about the island. As a native, she could tell us all kinds of cool facts, trivia, and a little bit of scandal related to the island. We were able to see many historic homes that had survived several hurricanes. One of the coolest things to see came from the last hurricane, where many trees had been damaged, and they hired sculptors to make cool things from the damaged trees. We were on the bus for just a little bit before we boarded our Baywatch Dolphin Boat Tour. It was a little chilly and unfortunately our family had to sit on the back deck of the boat. We did get to learn more about the Galveston area and we probably had the best view of dolphins. We saw several as we were cruising. After the Baywatch Cruise, we head to Olympia Grill on Pier 21 for lunch. They had delicious Greek and seafood for everyone to enjoy. After lunch, we walked the Strand and checked out cool shops. Our favorite was La Kings Confectionary, where we stocked up on various candies and got to watch them make salt water taffy. We had to cut our wandering short to make it back to finish the tour. We were the only people on the end of tour so we had Miss Sue all to our selves and her stories got more salty as she realized there were no kids on the bus. After the tour, we shopped the gift store by Pleasure Pier for souvenir tshirts. Next part of the group headed to Bubba Gumps for happy hour and part went for a stroll. We enjoyed several cocktails and dinner before calling it a night.
Day 7 (May 15) Pleasure Pier
Thursday was our last full day of vacation so we had to figure out how to spend our last day. We opted to head to Pleasure Pier for the afternoon and then head out to dinner. We arrived at Pleasure Pier close to the open and were slightly disappointed to see so many groups of school kids there. However, it still wasn't too terribly crowded and we never had to wait very long to ride any rides. The rides were impressive, but very short. My favorite ride was probably the giant swings because it gave such a great view of the entire pier. We rode several rides, enjoyed funnel cake, and had a great afternoon until it closed. Next up, we hit the beach for some group photos in our souvenir shirts. Finally, we celebrated the end of our trip with a yummy dinner at Willie G's Seafood and Steaks. We went to bed pretty early as some of us were leaving early.
Day 8 (May 16) Travel Home
On Friday, Mike and I packed up all the remaining food and closed up the house before we hit the road. The rest of the crew was long gone before we even thought about waking up. We stopped in Sugar Land to eat lunch at Earl of Sandwich with Ashley and Jason before we made our way home. It was a lovely lunch at one of our favorite places with some of our favorite people! We all got to dish about our recent vacations and had a great time. Finally, we headed back to Austin, picked up Cecil, and crashed on the couch. It was a great trip and we were all so tired. Thank you, Thank you Mom and Dad for an excellent vacation!