Galveston, Texas

 The above picture was taken from the balcony of the resort we stayed at while in Galveston. My sisters Julia and Linda flew in from St.Louis and joined us at the resort last Thursday. Unfortunately they left the snow and cold in St.Louis only to find Galveston not much warmer. But John and I kept reminding them that at least in Galveston there was no snow on the ground!  Saturday the sun did come out and we were able to enjoy a walk on the beach. Our brothers Wayne and Jared, with their spouses, were also able to join us for the week-end so our focus was not too much on the weather but rather on enjoying our time together. Galveston has a lot to offer besides the 32 miles of sandy beaches. By 1890 Galveston was the largest and wealthiest city in Texas. Today there are still reminders of that past in the Historic Downtown Strand Seaport District. We spent some of our time wandering the quaint shops there and admiring the old Victorian iron-fronted buildings. We also found many large Victorian homes in the surrounding neighborhoods and toured one of them, the Moody Mansion. The  Moody family owned a large financial empire at the turn of the century.

 Galveston has experienced two devastating hurricanes, one in 1900 and the another in 2008. The latter one uprooted many of the town's trees. Months later sculpture artists breathed a second life into those trees. There are nineteen of those sculptures located in various areas of Galveston  and we were able to find most of them.  We would have loved to have walked the streets of the city to see them, but a cool brisk wind forced us to opt instead for a car tour of the sculptures.