I'm a Better Photographer Than I Thought

As I walked around with the boys, I decided to take some pictures of something besides them. I think these turned out pretty nicely. Yay me!

I thought these were some really cool-looking trees. Neat shapes with the really blue sky.
I love the shapes of the branches. If I was any good at Photoshop, I'd get rid of the stadium in the background.

More trees. Again...I thought they looked neat against the sky.

This is one of the azalea bushes in front of my dad's house. It looks like a good close-up shot, but if you'll look closely, you'll see a bee/hornet/thing in the bottom left corner. The bush was alive with buzzing and as I tried to get closer, one of those hornets buzzed me! I backed up and used the telephoto instead. I still like the shot.

This is an American Holly tree in front of my dad's house. It's at least 50 years old. I've always loved this tree. Pulling off the berries in winter and smashing them on the ground. (Gee...wonder why I have boys!) I want one of these trees in my front yard. Wonder if I can get mine to grow this tall....

Last Full Day in Texas City

We decided to stay an extra day so that we could visit with my sister and her husband. We needed something to do, so we found another park. Nessler Park. It's been around as long as I can remember. Unfortunately, the cool rocket slide is gone--has been for a while--but the boys fell in love with the merry-go-round thing. They spent most of their time on it. Have they really never been on one? What the heck kind of mom am I? :-)

Remember these ladder-things? Yeah, video games are cool, but they don't really take the place of a good park, do they? Yay for parks!

Spring Break Texas City

We went to the Museum today. Normally the train room upstairs is only open on Saturdays, but a man was there working on them so he turned on some of the sets for the boys and explained a little bit to them. They both seemed to really enjoy it. We also walked around the downstairs. They had a quilt show—quilts hanging everywhere—so it was hard to see some of the displays. I did find a photograph display of 6th Street back in the day. I recognized a bunch of the stores, including Rock’s Five and Dime. I used to love to go in that place. It burned down when I was a kid. Mom and Dad used to play bridge with the Rocks and the Phelps (who had a men’s clothing store downtown) and the Tripletts. After the Rocks lefts, the Merediths took their spot. He had a shoe store with a really cool “automatic” foot measurer. We also looked at some of the things from the Texas City Blast. And saw some pictures from school in the late 40’s and early 50’s. There was one picture of a 3rd grade class at Roosevelt-Wilson Elementary School from 1947, I believe. There were a couple of names that sounded familiar, but the teacher was Mrs. Kelso. She was my kindergarten teacher!

After leaving the Museum, we swung by Hoffman Lumber Company to see Dad, but he’d already left. I stopped by Gus’ Barbeque to pick up some lunch for me, and then we came back to the house to eat lunch. Made sandwiches for the boys and found Dad here too. We sat around for a bit while Dad ran some errands, and then went to the parks on the Dike. The boys had a great time knocking down ant beds with their sword and dagger.

Killing ants--Rahr!

Don't leave us!!!! (Papaw was already in the car--we'd called them several times.)

This is a big anchor in front of the TC Museum. It's not from the Blast ships, but it does give a good idea of how big those pieces were.

Trains at the museum - the ferris wheel and merry-go-rounds move and make sounds.

Spring Break Galveston

Galveston Seawall rocks. (Hee hee--double meaning there.)

Galveston Seawall - this is the seawall that the storm surge overtopped during Hurricane Ike.Moody Gardens Above is the visitors center. In the visitors center is the IMAX theater. We saw the Sharks 3-D movie. It was fantastic--easily the best 3-D movies I've ever seen. There are three pyramids: the Discovery Pyramid (which, honestly, was kinda lame), the Aquarium, and the Rainforest Pyramid. The Rainforest wasn't open yet. It's scheduled to reopen at the end of April. The IMAX had just opened the Saturday before we were there. Their basement had completely flooded and they'd lost all their equipment in Hurricane Ike.

The Colonel Paddlewheel boat. It goes around the back bay area behind Moody Gardens. It's a nice easy ride.

The boys on the boat. They were pretty bored by this time. You can only watch a paddlewheel for so long. And they know better than to feed the sea gulls--unlike many of the other tourists on the boat.

Texas City Dike

The above picture is taken right at the start of Dike Road--which is just past the Seawall or leavee. Notice the little palm trees. This is facing toward Texas City, not toward the bay--for those that that means anything for. :-)

Curl's was a bit farther down the dike. If you're standing on the levee, it was on the left hand side with the other business--bait shops and such. On the right hand side was where dozens of shrimp boats would dock. At the very end of the dike was a big boat launch place.

The dike today. You can't get past the levee onto Dike Road. Well, you could probably walk out there, but the road itself is blocked and closed to cars.

Looking over this way is where the fishing and shrimp boats would normally be docked. There was also a gazebo and other pretty things this direction.

These pylons are all that is left of any of the businesses that were out here. My dad explained it best. When you look at the devastation on the bay side of the seawall and then look at the lack of devastation in town--the seawall did it's job and saved Texas City. There's literally nothing left of the dike. The waters even tore up the blacktop on the road in many places. But Texas City was relatively spared. There were a lot of downed fences and power was out for a while, but overall...it could've looked like the above pictures.

For those of us who grew up in Texas City, this is really sad. I remember going to the beach on the dike. My parents used to buy shrimp straight off the boats and bring them home to head them and then freeze them. The powers that be aren't sure when or if they'll be able to rebuild. Interestingly, people are still out there. They can't go on the dike itself, but they're fishing off the levee now. Can't use their boats or anything like that, but they're finding ways to use what they have. It's a pretty awesome, meaning "full of awe" not "wow," display of the power of nature. We think we know so much. We think we are in control. Nope. Not always. We still have a lot to learn.

Spring Break 2009

We never do anything for Spring Break, so we broke with tradition this year. The younger boys and I headed to Texas City to visit my dad and see the beach and other fun things. Once I got back, I realized I never got any pictures of the boy with their Papaw. Sheesh! But I got lots of other pictures and I'll be sharing them in separate blog posts--probably by date, but maybe also by subject. Who knows? So, to all three of my readers, get ready for an onslaught of postings!

Spring Break and Other Random Ponderings

Another possible title would be--whatever's flowing out of my brain at the moment. This is a complete and total "free write." I'm crazy to publish it, but I probably will.

As much as I despised last week with all it's rain and cold temperatures, I'm so glad it happened last week. This week is--SPRING BREAK!!!!! And on Monday it's sunny and 63 degrees outside. I've been for a good long walk with Larry. We'll go again this evening. I'm doing 16 bajillion loads of laundry in preparation for tomorrow's trip to Texas City. I'll take lots of pictures.

We'll be staying with my dad--checking out the beach and the dike, maybe SpaceCenter Houston, not sure what else. My sister and her husband are coming in on Friday when we were planning to come home, so we'll play all that by ear. It'll just be me and the younger boys. I'm hoping for a good few days--warm and sunny please.

The only problem is Internet withdrawal. My dad doesn't have internet. And there's not an open connection anywhere near him. I guess I could swing by Starbucks once or twice. Would it be worth spending the money on a hotel just to have the internet? Nah...probably not. Probably. Maybe. I'll think about it.

So, for the rest of today, I need to take the car to the car wash and oil change place and go by the bank. I keep waiting for Richard to get home so he can go with me. I absolutely hate getting the oil changed and the car washed by myself. They always treat me like an idiot--which, granted, when it comes to my car, I am--but that's beside the point. Right now though, I'm afraid that Richard's going to come home with an aquarium and fish and he won't be able to go with me. It's only a 600 mile trip. I don't really need to get the oil changed, do I? And what's the point of washing it right before a trip? Yeah, I'm a chicken. I don't like feeling stupid.

Ok, I think I'm done randomly typing stuff. Maybe. Maybe I'll just pluck up the courage to go do what needs to be done with the car. I don't even know where to pull up! ARGH!!!! Eh...maybe I'll just take a nap instead.