Well, we decided to spend a couple nights in Baton Rouge. We got out to the state capitol and some Louisiana food the full day we were there and discovered the roads weren’t that bad. We decided to leave the following day since Baton Rouge was supposed to get down to 19 degrees and Galveston was supposed to be around 34 degrees.
On the drive to Galveston we drove across a very long bridge over the bayou in Louisiana. Then we ended up seeing a billboard for the Gator Chateau where you can hold baby gators! Well, we had to stop and it didn’t disappoint. We even got to feed ducks and stretch our legs with a walk around the pond.
After that we continued on towards Galveston Island. Google kept sending us down the Bolivar peninsula to a take a ferry. We were rather skeptical that it would actually work out, but after some online research we took our chances. And sure enough, it’s a free ferry from the Bolivar Peninsula across to Galveston Island that Moby and Richard got to ride with us on!
When we got off the ferry, our tire pressure sensor began to beep and we ended up driving right to a tire shop and getting a new tire put on after finding a very large screw in the tire. Crisis averted. We finally got to our campground as the sun was setting.
We ended up deciding to stay in Galveston the rest of the week because of the cold temperatures. Galveston was at least staying above freezing!
We did school, went on beach walks, went swimming, mini-golfing, kite flying, did laundry, enjoyed beautiful sunsets, and did vehicle/camper upkeep. One night we played BINGO hosted by the campground. Matt won $25!
(Not all of them were sunny!)
One of the days we went in and toured Galveston (the campground was about 30 minutes out of town). We walked along the harbor, ate lunch, visited some historic places/plaques (Galveston is the birthplace of Juneteenth), and visited La King’s Confectionary. We also drove around and saw several tree stump sculptures that were created from trees that died in the storm surge of Hurricane Ike in 2008. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures, but you can check them out here.
From Galveston we headed to Brenham, TX and stayed with Matt’s aunt, uncle, and cousin. We greatly enjoyed the time with them, and appreciated their generous hospitality (including many fabulous meals)! But unfortunately we didn’t get any pictures with them.
Brenham is the home of Blue Bell Ice Cream, so we went and visited their factory/visitor center/gift shop/ice cream shop! With scoops for $1! Matt got cinnamon and mango. Reece got peppermint. Claire got cake batter, but ended up not really liking it and got a cherry vanilla instead. Libby got red velvet cake ice cream. It was tasty!
We also visited Washington-on-the-Brazos State Park one day. It’s the old town site where Texas declared independence from Mexico and wrote up their own laws. Texas became it’s own country for almost 10 years before joining the US, and Washington was its first capitol.
We ended up staying in Brenham for three nights, and then headed to Austin. We visited the capitol building and had dinner at Scholz’s Biergarten on recommendation from Uncle Richard. We really enjoyed it!
The next day we went to San Antonio and met up with our friend, Ken, who we knew from the climbing gym in Colorado Springs. He introduced us to Spam musubi (and gave us the tool to make it!), and he made food for us when Claire was born. It was great to see him, and he was an amazing tour guide. We wandered around the Pearl – an old industrial area of San Antonio that has now been turned into upscale restaurants, shops, venues, etc. It’s along the river walk just north of downtown, and we had fun watching lots of turtles and ducks.
Then we grabbed some lunch and headed to the Alamo. We toured the church and the grounds and got to talk to a couple living history people on the grounds. It was very informative. Despite a TON of construction on our walking route to and from our van, the city is really neat! We even went by a cool outdoor theater set up.
Looking forward to more adventures across Texas!
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