Crystal Beach - Monday Part II

We got to our house on Crystal Beach, and everyone was thrilled with the location. Leo had had a little fit when I showed him the pictures that he did not think it was close enough to the beach. He likes to be ON THE BEACH for his vacations, you know. Blah. But it turns out that Mommy did ok, and this one more than met his criteria. We were on the third row back from the beach, but there were no houses on the lots in front of us....sort of. Construction was beginning on one. It was a very short walk to the beach - probably shorter than the walks from condos we've had in the past.

The view from our patio.


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Getting on the beach for the first time.


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Our house is the one over the left side of my hat. Not the big blue one....other side.


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All cleaned up and ready to go out to dinner.

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There was no wait for dinner and it wasn't crowded. I officially had a huge crush on this beach at that point.

Ships going by while we ate dinner.


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There were other boys to play with at the restaurant.

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FRIED PICKLES!!!!

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Sunset on a point-and-shoot.

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Another ship goes by...

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They got the ship to blow his horn. Yay!


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More sunset.


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Came back to the house...time to go crabbing!


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We only caught this one on the first night, and it died pretty quickly.


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Crystal Beach - Monday Part I

We decided to take the boys to the beach this year for the week before school started. Both boys had been asking for a beach trip, and that week just seemed like the perfect time.

When Todd and I were dating, we went down to Galveston for a long weekend. It was very crowded, and I did not like the fact that you had to cross a very busy road to get to the beach. I knew this WOULD NOT work with kids. But I was very dissatisfied with our last two trip to Gulf Shores because it is so very crowded and commercialized. Waiting two hours to get in at a restaurant is not my idea of vacation! The traffic at GS was often at total gridlock. Also, Todd is not a fan of the high-rise condo set up. And neither of us wanted a long drive with the boys. I happened to see a post from a mom friend about Crystal Beach on Bolivar Peninsula, and after asking around....we hesitantly decided to give a TX beach another chance.

We started out on Monday morning. We took Todd's truck. I read this book out loud on the way down - very quick read.


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After that we listened to audiobooks and I took a nap!!!

Trying to get everyone's picture in the truck.


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Some people would not cooperate.


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Todd and his "Dapper Hat."


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Self-portrait


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We stopped in Huntsville to see the Sam Houston statue. Todd was actually a little crabby about this at first...I had to tell him..."Get into it! Vacation! Memories! Smile through the pain for the camera!" ha. We had been in the truck with them for four hours by this point. The little area around the statue actually had nice shaded picnic tables - good info if we ever wanted to take food.


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There is a Big Face of Sam Houston that the kids can get close to, and they can climb up behind it and come out of the top of his head.


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Todd had to help Henry climb the scaffolding.


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There was a tiny museum with a lady who explained some things to the boys. Since I have not had TX history, I am clueless about most of this stuff.


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On the patio at the Sam Houston Visitor's Center.


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Todd went to college at A&M Galveston for one year, so he knows his way around town. He got us right through Galveston and to the ferry. I thought taking this ferry might be a bit of a pain...but it runs very smoothly! There are four ferries operating, and it never took long at all to get on one and get going. The ferries are free - our tax dollars at work!

In line to get on the ferry.


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Out of the car and going up the stairs on the ferry.


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On the upper deck.


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Coast Guard ships and office.

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Big oil tanker ships (I think?) passing us. The boys loved seeing all the big ships.


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Henry spots dolphins jumping. We saw them almost every time we rode the ferry.


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If you look closely, you can see dolphin fins.


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Another ferry passing us.


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