Tuesday, December 4, 2012

THE Trip, THE Encore' :: Galveston Texas

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

A few years back Man and I drove through Galveston on the way from the Rio Grande Valley (Texas) to Gulf Shores Alabama and points east.  We did not stop, nor have the time, but, I remember driving through to the free ferry, the houses, the churches, the missed photo ops!  I have been wanting to come back and take some serious time visiting this remarkable area.  Well, I got to see it this trip, but, we had to make some changes to our proposed schedule so we ended up with only had 2 nights and 2.5 days to visit the area.  So after our little ferry ride from Port Bolivar, we drove to Jamaica Beach to our campground. We set up the rigs for the stay and decided since we still had several hours of good daylight we were going for a ride.  Off to downtown Galveston we went.

On the way to our campsite we passed this amusement park built on a pier, Pleasure Pier, which it appears to have just opened this year.  I was shooting into the sun, so mostly this is a silhouette.  I did get another photo later, so stick around:


Once downtown we were not disappointed, lovely churches.  First two photos, believe to be Lutheran churches.



Below, a Catholic church.  (Sorry bout the utility pole, it is tough shooting from a moving car in a busy downtown city area.)  We had no idea where to park, and felt we did not have the time to find a parking spot so we could walk around.  Oh, Galveston, I hope I can visit again sometime and do your beautiful city photo justice.


Large beautifully maintained mansions, some obviously having been transformed to businesses.




A close up of the turret in the home above.


There were some terrific buildings in the downtown business district, I love this, all those ads, I know some of those products!  LOL



After driving around for a hour or more, we headed back to to the beach, had dinner, and snagged this photo of the amusement park at dusk:



Before our dinner we also walked on the beach, photos soon.  Maybe even a sunset to share - -



*That disclaimer thingy:  Pleasure Pier did not ask me to visit, photograph or chat about their amusement park, they did not give me any goodies either for mentioning them in this blog.

** We arrived in the Galveston area on November 16, 2012.
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1 comment:

Amanda said...

Pleasure Pier was built on the site of the Flagship Hotel, which was destroyed in Hurricane Ike in 2008. The Flagship (an icon from my childhood) was built there in 1965 - on the site of an earlier Pleasure Pier originally operating in the 1940s!