Galveston Island--Day 1

We have been waiting all summer for the heat to dissapate and Dave to have a long stretch of days off so we can go camping. This weekend, we got lucky on both counts and headed down to Galveston Island for some fun.

Jed having a blast on the ride down

Crossing over the causeway from the mainland

Welcome to Galveston!

A paddle boat in the bay

I was amazed at the lingering damage from Hurricane Ike, which hit with full force in 2008. This is just a tiny sample of the destruction. Galveston and the other barrier islands have done a good job rebuilding but there is just so much still to be done.

We camped at Galveston Island State Park. We had a choice of staying on the bay side or the beach side of the island, and I chose the beach. Hello!

Our little campsite. It was so strange camping with ZERO trees for privacy or shade. I really liked having the grass, though. One lesson we learned right away? always keep fire-ant killer in the camping kit.

The beach was just beyond the fence and the dunes

After setting up camp, we headed down to the beach. I showed great restraint in actually setting up the tent before getting down to the sand. I love the beach so much! Smelling that awesome salty air was like going home to Midway. I didn't realize how much I missed it until I got to smell it again.

Since most Texans consider November too cold to visit the beach, we had the place almost all to ourselves. Our campground was full of retirees who liked sitting on the sand, well back from the surf. They definitely thought we were crazy.

It is hard to find sand toys for sale in the store this late in the year. So we brought our own from home. I was so glad we did--Jed (and Dave) had so much fun digging and filling the buckets.

Daddy had to help with the shovel since the sand kept sliding off.

Hands are much easier.

After we played in the sand for a while, we decided to take a walk.

Jed was afraid of the tide at first and only wanted to be carried.

Some shore birds. I had SO much fun identifying birds (although I forgot my bird book and had to write descriptions to guess from at home) and added several to my life list.

Jed eventually decided walking was okay

A sandy bum

Jed had sand everywhere!

After our walk, we went back to camp and made dinner. I was glad we'd brought our camp stove and lantern since the whole firepit was inhabited by fire ants. Jed thought the stove and lantern were great toys and was so frustrated that he couldn't touch them.

He thought he was being sneaky around the lantern and learned the hard way that we mean what we say about hot things! Poor guy. He didn't burn himself that badly--it didn't even raise a blister--and I think he cried more out of exhaustion than pain.

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It was a long, fun first day of our little vacation. Our first night in the tent was interesting--Jed migrated all around the tent in his sleep, we roasted in our sleeping bags, which, along with our pillows, were instantly damp from the humidity, and I kept convincing myself that I needed to pee and took that long, lonely walk to the bathrooms way more times than necessary--and shorter than we'd hoped (stay tuned until tomorrow for more on that), but it was fun to snuggle with my boys, and definitely awesome to be on vacation, away from the daily grind.