We had our first guest last week, my cousin Tawn. It was a good time to visit. Not too cold, sunny days, and the second weekend of Mardi Gras. Galveston Texas has the second largest Mardi Gras celebration in the US, right after New Orleans and the Galveston celebration is much more family friendly! We bought balcony tickets overlooking the main parade route and the band stage.
So, regarding those balcony tickets.... We are spoiled by NASCAR. When you buy premium tickets to view a race, those include a commemorative souvenir, snacks, free soft drinks & water, and a nice area to sit and chat. Not here with their balcony rates. All you get is access to the balcony. No food, no reserved seating, no reserve or timed space on the balcony for the parades, etc. In our building they had between 15 & 20 tables spread between 2 rooms and those were grabbed by the first 50 people there. Those first 50 were also the balcony hogs and never moved, they just rotated thru their group of folks so no one could get on the east side of the balcony. There was no accommodation for the number of tickets they sold. One of the Crewe Bob-a-loo leaders was most unhappy as she'd paid a very large fee for about 60 of her group working parade floats and there was no seating available for the food she'd brought in for them. If and when we do this again, we will stay at street level with the masses.
There were so many people downtown on Saturday. The majority were families with a lot of small children. Some of those kids had sooooooo many beads around their necks that you couldn't figure out how they were still able to stand upright!! The kids would stand below the balconies and call out for beads. Mike bought us a large bag of beads and we had a very good time throwing them down to the crowd of people below our balcony. We threw our beads to the kids mostly and all 3 of us had pretty good aim. We still have about 1/3 of them left if anyone wants a few strands??
The crowd below
I bought Tawn and I each a mask at the 23rd Street Star Café. It seemed the later in the day it became, the more masks we saw. We finally gave up around 7 PM and came home. Got a good picture of Tawn in her mask with Mike. The bandstand is behind them. Best thing about the west side of the balcony was being able to sing along with the bands. They were each very loud so I sounded VERY good singing along with each of them. I really rocked Whole Lotta Love & Heartbreaker by Led Zepplin!! Just sayin'...
Tawn and Mike
Finally in self defense and to rest our weary feet, we walked over to Pier 21 and had dinner at the Olympia Restaurant. No wine with dinner but the restaurant had many to choose from as you can see them all behind us! Dinner was very good - grilled salmon, stuffed shrimp and seared Ahi tuna - but the desserts left something to be desired. I have been EXTREMELY disappointed by all of the flan I have tasted since we settled into Galveston. I guess I'll have to stick with the beignets.
Dinner at Olympia
While we planned to go out for Super Bowl, we ended up staying at home. Tawn's Denver Broncos won the day. I could not root for Denver as they had beat my Steelers in the playoffs. I felt sorry for Carolina but such is life.
On Monday we went to visit Bishop's Palace on Broadway & 14th downtown. It is a beautiful mansion built in the 1870's by the Gresham family. In the early 1900's it was purchased by the Catholic diocese to become the Bishop's residence. The self guided tour took about an hour and a half. The historical society decided only to put back into the house what either belonged to the Bishop or to the Gresham family so most rooms are sparsely furnished, if at all. I can't even begin to describe the wood work, chandeliers, marble, etc. in this old mansion. The decorative work in the coving of the dining room ceiling was linoleum, which I couldn't believe as it looked like hand painted plaster and was very ornate. It is truly a beautiful building and there is much restoration on-going. Right now there is a $3 million grant to repair the roof and collections being made to preserve the sunroom, which is mostly constructed out of zinc. I was intrigued by the kitchen and bathrooms too. The Butler's Pantry had a gold fixture for hot water and a silver one for cold water. Oh, and the bathtub in Mrs. Gresham's bathroom had 3 taps - one for hot water, one for cold water & one for rain water. The rain water was for washing her hair.
The stairway in Bishop's Palace
There are many mansions on Galveston from the 1800's and many Victorians built after the great hurricane of 1900. I hope we have the time and gumption to get out and tour more of them before we leave.
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