Morning Beach Walks and Pretty Old Houses

I woke up this morning and there was SUNSHINE!  So, I made coffee, put on the cropped yoga pants and a t-shirt, grabbed the camera, and headed out the door.  The tide was still a bit high, so I had to go a bit east to find some beach, but I finally got my feet in the sand.  It was all pretty packed from the rain, so no toe squishing.

That's the phishing pier there.  I kind of want to go out there and check it out...maybe tomorrow.

Unfortunately, the sun didn't last for long.  This beach is unique in that there is a HUGE sea wall behind you as you face the water. Portions of it have been painted with colorful fishy art.

 There are also several jettys as you go and they are kind of cool -- made of huge man-made boulders of pink granite (so they're square instead of round).  I decided to walk out to the end of one of them because I saw a huge group of brown pelicans hanging out in the water at the end of it.

Of course, the pelicans took off before I made it all the way out there.  I really need to get a longer lens so I don't have to try to sneak up on the wildlife.

There were also some other nifty things seen during my morning walk

This is another flock of terns, which are a bit friendlier than the ones yesterday...they let me get closer.

Here's a fishing boat on its way out for the day... I ended up walking about a mile down the beach before I turned back. I made some bacon and eggs, ate, took a shower, and headed out to the historic district of Galveston.  

Today, I was going to look at old houses and take some pictures.  First, I went back to the site of the Tourist Information Center, which is connected to one of the cool old mansions on Broadway: Ashton Villa.

During Hurricane Ike in 2008 the ground floor flooded and is still undergoing restoration, so it was not open for visitors.  It is one of the first brick structures built in Texas and it has some nifty wrought ironwork.

The next house I went to was The Moody Mansion.

However, they only did guided tours and the next one wasn't for an hour and a half.  I didn't feel like hanging out that long.   I decided to come back tomorrow.  The ticket booth was in the Garage where they had some nifty old cars.

Here is a nifty Studebaker

and a nifty couple of Cadillacs...I think the Moody family had a thing for green cars.

I headed out to the coolest house anyway...The Bishop's Palace originally known as Gresham's Castle.

This one had a self-guided tour and I got to buy a discounted combo ticket for my return trip to the Moody Mansion.

Unfortunately, no inside photos allowed, but it was REALLY cool.

As I mentioned before, there are lots of architectural treasures in Galveston.

Religious architecture later...I'm tired and my feet hurt.  I went back to The Strand to go shopping and have dinner.  So, I walked a lot more.  ouch.