August 4, 2017 - August 8, 2017
Blog by Maggie and photos by Brandy!
I flew to Houston on Thursday (August 4) and arrived at my son's (Karl) house at about 2:30. After settling in I played with Acen (my grandson) most of the afternoon while Brandy (my daughter-in-law) made preparations for our trip to Galveston, cooked dinner, and caught me up on how the family was doing. Acen has become very verbal and has a great vocabulary...he has grown up so much since I saw him in December and for the first time he remembers me and is comfortable with me right from the start of our visit. Needless to say, with the time change, travel, and playing all afternoon I was exhausted.
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After diner we snuggled on the couch
and drifted off to sleep.
The next morning we did some grocery shopping for the trip and were packed and ready to go by the time Karl got home from work at 2:00 pm. Fortunately we missed most of the rush hour traffic (which can be brutal in Houston) and arrived at the condo in Galveston and were settled in by 5:00 pm. The condo was perfect for all of us including the two dogs. It had just enough room for relaxation, cooking and sleeping.
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This is the view from our balcony.
We were right across the street from the Gulf. |
After dinner we headed to the beach to do some exploring. Acen is fascinated with sea creatures and was thrilled when his dad found a crab hiding in the rocks.
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| Here we are searching for treasure on the beach. |
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| "What's in those holes, Grandma?" |
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| The sunset over the beach was beautiful. |
On Saturday morning we headed to the beach. The sand is different than east coast sand, but still lots of fun to play in.
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| Acen is collecting seaweed. |
It started to rain a bit so after lunch we headed to the pool at the condo so we would be close to shelter if it started to thunder and lightning.
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| The pool at the condo was spacious and never crowded. |
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We had fun in the smaller 3 foot pool that was fed by a "river"
and had a gentle slope into the water. |
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| This photo speaks for itself. |
The next day we spent the morning at the pool, but it started raining around lunch and we retreated to the condo. It remained cloudy and rainy all afternoon.
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We entertained ourselves with some you tube
videos of dinosaurs. |
We drove to a shell shop (Murdock's) to find some hermit crab food for the crab Acen and his daddy had found at the beach the night before. It was huge with a wide variety of clothing, toys, and decorative items. We found the hermit crab food, but the clerk informed us that the crab we had was a salt water crab and would require sand and salt water. Since salt water is not easily available in Houston we decided to free the crab and skip the food and cage. I bought a mermaid plaque for the boat and Acen got a large crab (which he took with him everywhere). We had dinner at Shrimp and Stuff and returned to the condo.
Next morning we decided to make it a pool day.
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Acen and Karl are looking for the rabbit they
found in the bushes next to the pool. |
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| Acen sees the rabbit. |
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Acen became comfortable enough in the water to
take off his water wings and jump to me from the rock ledge. |
After a dinner of grilled steak and asparagus, we walked to the beach to try and get someone to take a photo of all four of us.
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| Success! |
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| Brandy snapped this great picture. |
We all had a fun and relaxing time making family memories in Galveston. It was so great to spend time with my son and his family. But, inevitably, the short vacation had to come to an end. We said our goodbyes after shopping one last time at Murdock's Shell Shop (Acen snagged another crab). I drove to the airport to head back to Baltimore and Karl and his family headed home to Houston. We will have to take a trip like this together again soon!
Thank you for reading my Blog.
My next blog will be about my visit to Pittsburgh.
