The Lost Oaks of Galveston

I have lots of pictures today. These were taken over a period of several days. The first ones were taken last weekend when I finally got to see a Roseate Spoonbill. It was funny because we had spent the day before searching for these birds all over Galveston Island and then I saw one in a little pond at the RV park where we were staying. I love the color of these birds and their odd, spoon-shaped bills.

We had some rain and high winds Monday and Tuesday but it has been beautiful the past few days. Wednesday we drove back into Galveston in search of "the lost oaks." Galveston was hit very hard in 2008 by Hurricane Ike. It flooded the island and destroyed a lot of buildings. There was about 5 feet of water in downtown Galveston. One of the most devastating things was the loss of thousands of old oak trees. The city removed many of the stumps but commissioned chainsaw artists to turn some others into sculptures known as the lost oaks of Galveston. These sculptures are scattered throughout the city and are kind of difficult to find. We had fun looking for them and found quite a few.

We saw an angel...

dolphins...

a geisha...

a pelican...

some herons...

 the tin man...

a dog looking over a fence...

and another angel...

Yesterday was Valentine's Day and our 14th anniversary. It was a beautiful day, sunny and very warm, so we spent the day at the beach just soaking up the sun and building another sandcastle.

I woke up around five this morning and went down to the beach to watch the sunrise. Once again, our sandcastle was still standing. 

I'll end this blog post with a couple of sunrise photos. I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day. We sure did!

Playing Tourist

We woke to sunny skies this morning but it quickly turned cool and overcast so we decided to go see some of the sights in the historic district of Galveston.  Galveston reminds me a little of Savannah with its beautiful old homes, wrought ironwork and gardens. All of the pictures today are from downtown Galveston.

We had lots of fun. After playing tourist in downtown Galveston we headed out of the city and explored some of the bay area of Galveston Island. We were looking for some Roseate Spoonbills that we heard can sometimes be seen in the coastal marshes. We didn't see any but we did see lots of herons, egrets and other birds. We used Larry's good camera to shoot them so I'll probably post a separate entry with the bird pictures when we get those downloaded. I'll end this entry with another shot of the gulf that I took when we got home. I don't think I'll ever get tired of this view!

Galveston

We left Kemah on Sunday and drove the motorhome to a beautiful, beachfront park in Galveston. We had planned to start moving west but, on a day trip to Galveston on Saturday, we found this park and were able to get a reservation. We're so happy we did that as we really love it here. It's raining today but it is suppose to be sunny for the rest of the week. Galveston has a pretty big Mardi Gras celebration so we really lucked out getting this site as most places here are booked up for the next two weeks.

I've been taking a lot of pictures of the beach and the gulf. The first was on Sunday when we first arrived. It was overcast but very warm.

 The weather on Monday was perfect. Sunny and warm with temperatures in the 70s.

 Here's a shot from Monday at twilight...

 We built a sandcastle Monday afternoon which was a lot of fun. I took about a hundred pictures of it so I'll try to narrow it down to just a few...

When we woke up the next morning the sandcastle was still there! I couldn't believe it didn't get washed away or stomped on. Here's a picture of it the next morning. You can see our motorhome in this picture, it is the second from the right...

Here's another shot of our motorhome that I took Sunday night...

The park we are staying in is about a mile from where the Galveston seawall ends. I took a walk up there yesterday and saw this man just as he caught a fish...

These pretty wildflowers were growing in the dunes near the seawall...

I always take pictures of flowers when I see them. This hibiscus was growing at a convenience store we stopped at yesterday afternoon...

We will be here until at least this Sunday. There is a lot more on the island that we want to explore so we may stay longer if we can get a site. We want to work on our sandcastle building skills and we might take in a few of the Mardi Gras festivities if they aren't too crowded.

Congratulations to the Ravens on their great Super Bowl victory and happy anniversary to my wonderful parents. Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed the pictures.