Monthly Review December

Monthly Review December

Places visited:

• Moody Mansion Galveston, TX
• Highlight, beautiful house and the Christmas decorations were a bonus that enhanced the home
• Lowlight, we had a taped guide program to listen to, it may have been nicer with a human guide
• The self-guided tour was informative with the use of recorded messages for each room pointing out smaller details in each room.
• Firestone Galveston, TX
• Highlight, a rotation of tires only costs $9.95
• Lowlight, they could not repair the screw in our tire, so we need a new one and they don’t carry the one we want
• Wal-Mart did carry the tire, there was a long wait, so we left it overnight, picked it up to find out it was not a Goodyear tire, later swapped it for the spare.
•  Oil Rig Museum Galveston, TX
• Highlight, it is on the port and it was great to see the port and to walk out on a rig
• Lowlight, audio tour cancelled due to CoVid
• Jim’s pick, and he enjoyed it and I enjoyed being in the port.
• Galveston Island State Park Galveston, TX
• Highlight, Picturesque setting, large open marsh area with bay views
• Lowlight, a little mucky on the trails, but to be expected in a marsh
• Campground was open and sunny with beautiful view of the bay we ate lunch at one of the campsites
•  Space Center Houston
• Highlight, walking on the space shuttle, seeing Saturn V rocket, and everything else having to do with space travel
• Lowlight, the tram ride was underwhelming, just a means to get to the Saturn V
• Jim loves NASA and all the space travel so to see all the items there was great
• Bishop’s Palace Galveston, TX
• Highlight, Gorgeous home, the woodwork was incredible
• Lowlight, a guide would have been nice, due to CoVid only had a piece of paper with a few notes.
• I highly recommend a visit here if you like historic homes
• Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge Lake Jackson, TX
• Highlight, We spotted multiple alligators, saw flocks of egrets on a sunny day
• Lowlight, paperwork mentioned migrating birds in winter that had yet to arrive
• Very nice 7.5-mile auto trail that leads through a great marsh
• Naval Museum Galveston, TX
• Highlight, Jim & I got to tour the submarine USS Cavalla and the USS Stewart, a destroyer escort.  We were the only ones there and got to discover each one at our own pace
• Lowlight, missed having retired veterans around who would tell stories from their experiences like the ones in Charleston at Patriots Point
• After touring the ship and sub we watched boats in the Texas City Channel and saw several dolphins in the water.
• Bolivar Peninsula Galveston, TX
• Highlight, the ferry ride across the bay, it is always nice to get out on the water
• Lowlight, not a lot on the peninsula although the park and jetty were nice
• The ferry is free so no loss on taking a ride on it.  You can even go on without your car.
• Bryan Museum Galveston, TX
• Highlight, the collection is well laid out in the original Orphans Home
• Lowlight, I can’t think of one, except that there were other people there, I have gotten so used to being in empty places that it gets weird when others are around
• The museum is small which makes it easy to get through without being exhausting.  The historic building is beautiful and its comfortable to be there.

Our overall favorite place of all the places in December was Bishops Palace.  There are many historic buildings here and I liked all of them but when we were outside of Bishops Palace I felt in awe of this place, it is gorgeous, massive, intriguing.  The inside was even more compelling, so many hand-crafted details everywhere you looked. 

My favorite trail was the auto trail at Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge.  Beautiful weather, flocks of birds, alligators viewed not once but twice.  Met a lovely older couple while viewing the mother alligator and her babies.  It was a very pleasant day.

Jim’s favorite trail also more transportation related rather than walking.  I like the ferry ride to Bolivar Peninsula which included an unexpected visit to Fort Travis Park.  It was fun to see the bay/harbor side of the island with all the ship traffic, etc.

Our favorite day in our December travels was the 15^th when we toured Bishop’s Palace and then walked around the East End Historic District during the day sighting sculptures from storm damaged trees and Christmas decorations.  We went to Jimmy’s on the Pier for happy hour dinner and then returned to the East End to see the Christmas decorations lit up at night.

My favorite picture:  Taken on our first day here, it reminds me of the windy weather here and daily walks on the wide, flat, sandy beach here.